Hi, I'm Erin. 👋🏻

I’m an experienced design leader specializing in Men’s and Women’s footwear. I bring a unique ability to merge tradition with innovation, crafting designs that exceed market expectations.

With global experience leading design teams at Wolverine and VF, I excel at translating brand identities into captivating, sales-driving products. My design philosophy blends comfort and style seamlessly, always keeping the consumer in mind.

I’m your go to for:
• Footwear Design
• Creative Direction
• Storytelling
• Strategy
• Trend Analysis
• Color & Materials
• Team Leadership
• Consumer Insights
• Product Development
• Cross-functional Collaboration
• Presentation & Communication

Some of my career highlights:
• Launched a private label in just 1 month.
• Designed a sneaker franchise that generated $550K in its first season.
• Boosted product margins by 3% in one year for a global brand.
• Elevated consumer sentiment from 30% to 95% in just 12 months.
• Completed the Harvard Leadership Essentials program in 2023.

I use strategic design to help footwear brands and entrepreneurs stand out and grow their bottom line.

Ready to create the next big shoe sensation? Let’s collaborate.

☕️ Book a coffee chat: https://lnkd.in/eBMicF29

📂 Submit your portfolio/catalog: https://lnkd.in/epb2QsG7

📅 Schedule a FREE 30-minute Discovery Call: https://www.reborndesignsct.com/discoverycall

WEBSITE: www.reborndesignsct.com
EMAIL: erin@reborndesigns.com

Erin Bornstein 👟

Design by committee kills innovation.

Early in my career, I worked on a shoe that had everything going for it.

Great materials, sleek design, and a clear vision. 

Then came the review meetings. 

Everyone had an opinion. 

“Make it safer.” 
“Tone it down.” 
“Let’s not take too many risks.”

By the time it hit production, the soul of the design was gone. 

It was fine. 

But no one loved it. 

No one remembered it.

Ferdinand Porsche once said:
"Committees lead to creations that have no soul, no clear identity."

He was right. 

Bold ideas don’t come from playing it safe. 

They come from trusting expertise, taking calculated risks, and having the courage to stand behind a vision.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁:
If you're leading a design (or any creative work), ask yourself: are you making it better, or just making it safer?

What are YOU doing to protect your creative vision?

-----------------------

Want more insights on design, creativity, and innovation? 

Sign up for my newsletter for tips you won’t find anywhere else: https://lnkd.in/e3CSwCwe

Chief Decision Maker & Footwear Design Director, Delivering holistic, market-ready footwear solutions through strategy, design, and development.

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When you get comfortable being uncomfortable, you become pretty unstoppable.

Here’s what sticking to the status quo is costing your footwear brand:

Missed innovation.

Most brands:

• Rely on familiar designs
• Avoid trying new materials or tech
• Stick to the same factories

The result?

They fall behind and miss out on what’s next.

Innovation happens when you push boundaries.

That’s where you discover:

• Cutting-edge designs
• New sourcing opportunities
• Unseen market potential

Your biggest competition?

The version of your brand that’s afraid to evolve.

Remember:

Discomfort drives innovation. 

Embrace it.

Here’s how you can push the limits and transform your footwear line - https://lnkd.in/eDZakJb5

Reshare ♻️ if you agree!

CEO & Footwear Design Director, Delivering holistic, market-ready footwear solutions through strategy, design, and development.

The next $1B footwear brand won’t come from a factory.

It’ll come from a designer’s laptop.

Maybe yours.

Why?

Because when AI levels the playing field in manufacturing…

Taste, timing, and storytelling become the true differentiators.

If you’ve ever designed a product people wanted before it even existed, you already know how to:

Obsess over unmet emotional needs

Translate culture into commerce

Build trust through silhouette, color, and material

And now?

You don’t have to wait for a sample room, a factory partner, or a dev team.

AI lets you go from idea to visual to validated concept in a week.

What this means:

Your render is now your line plan, your lookbook, your pitch deck

Design isn’t a service. It’s a startup skillset

The most valuable founders of the next decade will be product designers with taste and guts

If you’ve been waiting for permission to build your own brand…

This is it.

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At ReBorn Designs LLC, we help designers turn ideas into product-ready, pitch-ready collections.

If you're ready to start your own line, or want help building faster with AI, book a discovery call and let's build something https://lnkd.in/eDZakJb5

Manifest the Work. Watch the Wins Multiply.

2026 is coming in hot. 
The momentum feels unreal.

We partnered with incredible entrepreneurs last year.
Their brands launch this year.
Watch out for NZ and Liaht™.
Bold ideas.
Ready to move.

I’ll be hosting an AI panel at Stride 2026.
Featuring Sean Lane and Jake Rivas.
Pushing the conversation forward on what’s next.

ReBorn will debut our first SMU styles with Saucony for JD Sports Fashion and Foot Locker.

A major milestone for ReBorn Designs LLC Designs.

And my favorite project yet,
Helping curate the World Marathon Major styles for 2027.
A dream brief.
A global stage.
Create the vision.

Do the work.
Watch it unfold.

Stay tuned.
Follow our journey.

Remote work is great… until you’re designing shoes. Then you get on a plane.

Being on the ground in Portugal is a design strategy in itself. 

Hand-selecting materials, curating palettes, testing finishes, and making real-time decisions with our partners at Sofisar.

Every small detail that separates a “nice idea” from a product people actually fall in love with.

When you’re here, you feel the craftsmanship.

You see the nuance.

You catch things you never catch over email.

This is where the magic happens for ReBorn Designs LLC.

Huge thank you to our partners who help us bring product to life!

“Just do it yourself” is bad advice.

It sounds scrappy. Entrepreneurial. Efficient.

But it becomes a trap.

In early 2024, I had a steady job...until I didn’t.
Another brand acquisition. Another spreadsheet. Another layoff.

So I went back to freelance. Back to my roots.
But something had changed.

The market was dry. Work was scarce.
And the old solo hustle wasn’t cutting it.

That’s when I stopped playing small.

I started asking bigger questions:

-What if I don’t do this alone?
-Who do I know that’s brilliant but overlooked?
-What could we build together that none of us could build alone?

I stopped selling myself.
And started building a service.

A platform.
A team.
A new way of working. Built around what clients actually need, not what I can do solo.

It worked.

Our revenue multiplied 5x.

Here’s something to think about:

What if your breakthrough doesn’t come from doing more...

but from building with the right people?

Who are you bringing in to grow with you this year?

I break down exactly how I made the leap in this week’s newsletter:
👉 https://lnkd.in/eB2Ps5fq

My dream leather library 😍

Spending the week in Portugal making the magic happen at ReBorn Designs LLC.

Reviewing outsoles, lasts, leathers, linings, hardware, all the tiny details that turn ideas into real product.

There’s something electric about being hands-on again… pulling swatches, testing finishes, and seeing the craftsmanship up close. 

This is the part of the process that fills my tank.

Huge thank you to our partners who help us bring product to life. none of this happens without you SAMBA Footwear

Design is the smallest part of my job

Most days as a business owner,
I do everything except design.

Bookkeeper.
Salesperson.
Marketer.
Content creator.
Project manager.
Storyteller.
Account executive.
Hiring manager.

What am I missing?

------------------------

If you want experience fast,
real experience
own your own business.

You’ll learn more in one year than most do in ten.

Ever notice how PMs can't stop peeking in the rearview? 
 
Obsessed with not missing any past lessons. 
 
But us Designers? We're all about the windshield view. 
 
Imagining the paths that lie ahead. 
 
Let's shift focus. 
 
Stop fretting over who's looking where. 
 
It's time to turbocharge the vehicle, the strategy, and make it unstoppable.

Early in my career, I thought impact meant having a title. A team. A seat at the table.

But some of the most meaningful product wins in my career didn’t come from managing a team.

They came from 𝘯𝘰𝘵 being on one.

I was once brought in by a global brand who just needed “extra hands.” Their team was overwhelmed. Too many cooks in the kitchen, too much process, and way too many meetings

No politics. No org chart. Just clear priorities.

Within days, I was moving faster than the internal team could, and not because I was smarter.

Because I was free.

Free to focus.
Free to make real decisions.
Free to to work on my time, my way.

The result?

A sell-out collection, delivered on time, done without adding headcount.

That’s the power of bringing in someone who’s done this before and doesn’t need a ramp-up, an orientation, or a team meeting to get started.

At ReBorn Designs LLC, we don’t ask for a seat at the table.

We help 𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧 the table, and make room for better product.

Because sometimes the smartest decision is the smallest team.

Let’s get it done.

https://lnkd.in/eDZakJb5

Most footwear brands are erasing themselves.

They chase trends.
They copy competitors.
They dilute their DNA with every collection.

I’ve seen it everywhere.
Startups.
Global giants.

Same story.

The result is simple.

Retail floors filled with shoes that could belong to anyone.

Last week in Portugal reminded me why this happens.

Brands forget who they are.
Teams get distracted.
Trends get loud.

But great product comes from identity. Not noise.

Here are the three takeaways I’ve been applying on the ground:

1. Trend-chasing is a race to the bottom.
If you are reacting, you are already behind.

2. Your brand has DNA markers.
Protect them. Everything you choose should reinforce them. If it doesn’t fit, it’s noise.

3. Process beats panic.
Every time. I learned this early in my career. Strip it back to the brand. Build from there. That’s how products win.

If you want to stay relevant, define who you are. Design like you mean it. And stick to your DNA.

Portugal made this even clearer. 

The details matter. The choices matter. Your identity matters most.

Great product starts there.

Comfort is rarely the problem. 

Containment is. 

For years, my freelance work looked “successful” from the outside: 

• Busy calendar 
• Predictable revenue 
• Happy clients 

But growth had stopped. 

The shift that unlocked 5X revenue had nothing to do with better design, and everything to do with letting go of comfort.

I unpack the exact inflection point (and what changed next) in this week’s newsletter. If your year feels stable but stalled, start here.

The newsletter drops this morning. 
Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/e3CSwCwe

Most designers and entrepreneurs think intensity builds success. It doesn’t.  

Sustainability does.   

We love to romanticize the all-nighters, the launch adrenaline, the chaos before the pitch.  

But intensity without intention is just burnout dressed up.  

You can’t sprint through a marathon and expect to walk away whole.  

In footwear, I’ve seen the same cycle play out:  

Designers who overwork until they lose their creative edge.  

Entrepreneurs who chase every idea until none of them land.  

Moms who stretch themselves thin thinking that’s what hustle looks like.  

Here’s the truth:  

The real flex is focus.  

The power move is boundaries.  

The long game is clarity, knowing what to say yes to and building the muscle to say no.  

Resolutions don’t work if they’re rooted in guilt.  

But priorities?  

Those rewire your operating system.  

So this year, I’m not turning up the volume.  

I’m tuning in.  

What are you choosing to build slowly, intentionally, and bravely this year?

Want to grow faster as a designer?  

Visit your partners. Go to the factory.  

Not once a season.  

Not just for sign-off trips.  

Regularly.  

Travel isn’t a luxury.  

It’s how you sharpen your thinking.  

Because until you’ve stood on the floor, watched your sketches come to life, and asked a developer what’s *really* slowing that process down - you’re operating on assumptions.  

And assumptions don’t build great product.  

Design isn’t just about ideas.  

It’s about informed decisions.  

It’s about context.  

And context lives in conversation.  

With pattern engineers.  

With stitchers.  

With the people who make the work real.  

That’s where your design brain expands.  

That’s where creativity meets execution.  

That’s where better product lives.  

If you’re serious about growing - go to the ground.  

Get curious.  

Get uncomfortable.  

And keep coming back.

Am I wearing a hat in my profile pic? If not, I need a new one... I change it regularly to highlight a team member, member company, charity, local Chicago sports team or my country. Check out my posts to see which companies sent me their hat.  Send me your branded item and you can get in on the fun too.

Let’s connect!

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