Ruthie Davis

Ruthie Davis is an independent American female designer and entrepreneur known for her eponymous brand Ruthie Davis®.

Touted for her unapologetically fierce style that empowers women to feel confident and strong while not compromising comfort, her designs were endorsed and worn by fashion icons such as Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, and Ariana Grande.

Early Life and Education

Davis’s passion for fashion and strong will for independence trace back to her earliest days. At the age of three, she insisted on wearing a pair of red patent leather Mary Janes to bed[1].

Growing up with an athletic spirit in Connecticut, she excelled in skiing and tennis. During her teenage years at Loomis Chaffee School, she became the first girl to ever make the ski team at the high school[2]. When she attended the historically renowned Bowdoin College in Maine, she continued her passion for the athletics by captaining the tennis team while pursuing her creative and entrepreneurial interests. According to herself, she always thought of skiing as attending a “black tie event,” where she expressed her fashion statement through athletic outfits[3].

In 1984, she graduated from Bowdoin with a degree in English Literature and Visual Arts. To further develop her entrepreneurial vision, Davis went on to receive an MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship at Babson’s Graduate School of Business[4]. She has remained heavily engaged with both of her alma maters, sharing her story to encourage young entrepreneurs to pursue their visions[5][6].

Career

Early Work

After graduating from college, Davis worked as a sportswriter for the Hartford Courant and ESPN[1]. Meanwhile, she experimented with her own entrepreneurial venture in her spare time by running a hybrid fitness business that combined a workout studio and an apparel store[7].

Corporate Career

Conferred an MBA degree from Babson College, Davis transitioned into the fashion apparel industry by joining Reebok as the Associate Product Manager[8][3]. She became the director of the Reebok Classic division in just four years. There, she reimagined the sports brand as a fashion staple, adding colored bottoms and unconventional materials to the classic white sneakers[7][9].

After leaving Reebok, Davis served in multiple executive positions at major fashion brands[10]. As VP of Marketing and Design at UGG in the early 2000s, she championed a campaign to transform UGG into a fashion statement[1][11]. It was Davis’s work when UGG entered the fashion scene with their comfortable fleece-lined boots. UGGs were then “one of the most popular statement pieces,” with major celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton caught wearing them in paparazzi shots[12].

An offer to work at Tommy Hilfiger as the VP of Marketing and Design for Women’s Footwear brought Davis across the continent, from California to New York[7]. Inspired by the dazzling life at New York City, Davis determined that it was time for her to snatch “her boss’s job” at Tommy Hilfiger[13].

She launched her eponymous brand in 2006, which is the Ruthie Davis® brand we know today.

The Brand Today

Davis envisioned her brand to be an intersection of the athletic dynamism and the edgy, sensual silhouette that defined her persona. A typical Ruthie Davis shoe is “clean, minimal, functional, sleek, sexy,” a motif the brand continues to live by[13].

Featured in global retailer establishments including Neiman Marcus and Harvey Nichols and on top-tier magazines like Vogue and Elle, it only took a few years for the Ruthie Davis brand to gain international reputation. Her fierce style attracted A-list celebrities known for their powerful statements, such as Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, to order custom shoes for their red-carpet events[14][15]. She also released collections in collaboration with Disney and designer John Bartlett. Her collaboration with Disney was awarded Collaboration of the Year by the American Apparel and Footwear Association[16].

With phenomenal years under the belt, Davis’s entrepreneurial acumen propelled her to take the business into a drastically different direction[17]. Citing convoluted retailer relationships and changing business landscape, Davis shifted the brand to a direct-to-consumer ecommerce model in 2020 as COVID-19 interrupted international supply chains[18][19].

Today, the timeless Ruthie Davis® styles are exclusively available on ruthiedavis.com.

Outside The Brand

In addition to overseeing the operation of her company, Ruthie serves as a television fashion commentator[20].

Awards and Coverage

American Apparel and Footwear Association, Footwear Designer of the Year, 2014

American Apparel and Footwear Association, Collaboration of the Year, 2019

Council of Fashion Designers of America, Accredited Member, since 2014

Acquisitions International, Fashion Footwear Designer of the Year, 2016

FashInvest NYC, Fashpreneur™ Award, 2016

Goldman Sachs, 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, 2013

Footwear News, 20 Directional Design Stars, 2013 & 2014

References

  1. ^ a b c "Shoe Designer Ruthie Davis Comes Home To New Britain". tribunedigital-thecourant. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  2. ^ "Photos: Loomis Chaffee's Class of 2011 Told To "Do You"". Windsor, CT Patch. 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  3. ^ a b Kokkinoplitis, Nikos (2022-05-30). "Ruthie Davis — Life & Business Lessons from a Leading Fashion Entrepreneur". Medium. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  4. ^ "How She Got There: Ruthie Davis, Shoe Designer". 2011-11-10. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  5. ^ College, Babson. "Ruthie Davis MBA'93 | Entrepreneurs of All Kinds | Babson College". www.babson.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  6. ^ "Shoe Designer Ruthie Davis '84 Honored for New Disney Collaboration". News. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  7. ^ a b c Davis, Wael Alexander (2012-12-12). "Haute Interview: Shoe Designer Ruthie Davis". Haute Living. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  8. ^ "Ruthie Davis '84 to Deliver Commencement Address at Loomis Chaffee School | Bowdoin News". community.bowdoin.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  9. ^ Roberts, Paul G. MASTERS OF FASHION Vol 35 Heels Part 1. Fashion Industry Broadcast. ISBN 978-1-62590-667-0.
  10. ^ "Stepping out with Ruthie Davis". Raine Magazine. 2017-08-02. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  11. ^ Evolutionvtg (2011-10-21). "Evolution Revolution: Shoe STYLE: Ruthie Davis". Evolution Revolution. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  12. ^ Clune, Aoife (2022-03-23). "A Detailed Timeline Of The Popularity Of Ugg Boots". Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  13. ^ a b "Walk This Way, On Stiletto Heels". The Vineyard Gazette - Martha's Vineyard News. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  14. ^ "Ruthie Davis M'93 Among 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs". News & Announcements Blog. 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  15. ^ Gehlhar, Mary (2021-01-05). The Fashion Designer Survival Guide: Start and Run Your Own Fashion Business. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-5062-6560-5.
  16. ^ "Shoe Designer Ruthie Davis '84 Honored for New Disney Collaboration". News. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  17. ^ Zacharakis, Andrew; Corbett, Andrew C.; Bygrave, William D. (2019-12-05). Entrepreneurship. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-56322-8.
  18. ^ Development, PodBean. "Ruthie Davis Episode S01 EPS 298 | Empowerography". empowerography.podbean.com. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  19. ^ "Ruthie's Blog". Ruthie Davis®. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  20. ^ "Ruthie Davis About". ruthiedavis.com. Retrieved 20 June 2017.


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