Meet Joey Khamis

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joey Khamis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joey below.

Hi Joey, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Growing up I was always taught to work hard and put in quality effort in everything I do in general but If I were to pinpoint it to a moment, I’d say it was running track and field. I ran track and field and cross country in highschool, and its one of those sports where your work ethic in training directly shows in results each week at competitions. To be able to see results like that encouraged working hard even more.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

After several years of designing footwear in a corporate setting, I started my own brand called Khamis Studio. I started off mostly designing for other brands but now I also design and sell my own footwear. Through Khamis Studio I use innovative mediums to push the boundaries of the traditional design process. I currently have 2 models out called Ero and Hezi. They are both 3D printed footwear designed and modeled mostly in virtual reality. The Hezi launched this past summer and can be ordered on the Zellerfeld platform (zellerfeld.com). 3D printed technology allows the shoes to be printed to a more customized fit via foot scan through your phone after you order.

Through Khamis Studio I still also collaborate with and design footwear for other brands of any size and especially those looking to launch their own 3D printed footwear.

I will also be looking to launch the next evolution of the Hezi in the form of a slide early on in 2025.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The one quality that helped me get to where I am is confidence. If I didn’t move with confidence when I decided to go my own way I doubt this would have worked out and would have to go back to working for another company.

Learning how to 3D model footwear is by far the most impactful skill that I’ve picked up. This has helped me visualize my ideas much easier and allows myself to also be the footwear developer.

I studied Industrial Design in college at Purdue University and having knowledge of a great design process and design thinking was very impactful. This set up my foundation for everything else since then to be built on.

My advice to develop skills like these is to reflect on the work that you do and your process to find what sets you apart from everyone else. It may be a unique skill set from an unrelated hobby or a perspective you may only have. Use these in your process and highlight them when presenting your ideas as a designer. The confidence thing comes over a long time, at least for me. What I would say helped this was to just do the things that you don’t feel comfortable doing. Early on in your journey it can really help to share your ideas publicly or online but you never know who’s watching. If you think you have good ideas or cool art but you’re scared of the ides of putting it out there just do it anyway.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

In the past 12 months there has been a lot of growth in defining the direction I want to go with design and why I do what I do. For a while I’ve always had ideas or sketched shoes I’ve wanted to make but now everything feels more focused and intentional. The last 12 months I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where this is all headed and written down specific goals or even general goals that I want to accomplish. Once that foundation was set I was able to grow a lot with the hyper focus on that direction.

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Image Credits

Sam Rowan

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