Nicole and I first met when I was working at Snow Peak, a store in Soho. Her and her boyfriend Ryan would come in and chat with me and the staff. After a few visits we became friends and I would always look forward to catching up with them.

At the time Nicole and Ryan were both designers at Reebok. I was aware of Nicole’s endeavors outside of work and I remember asking her about it. She said that she was grinding hard at Reebok in Boston whole freelancing on the side. Fast forward to now Nicole has taken the dive and is completely freelance. She now has so many huge projects under her belt and it is just the beginning.

I met Nicole at her apartment in Brooklyn. After catching up for a bit she began to make a shoe from a Reebok windbreaker. Nicole graciously walked me through every step in her process, she said that she has gotten good at explaining because she has done so many workshops. Her studio was nicely organized and filled with beautiful pieces that she has made, some I had seen on her instagram and others were new to me.

I ended up staying at her place for quite some time and chatting. We talked about the ins and outs of freelance and both of our experiences dealing with being under payed then bossing up with our own work. Nicole also mentioned her passion for doing workshops for people that are hearing impaired. We covered the difficulties and pleasures of being in relationships especially with hard working significant others. Nicole and I have a lot of respect for each other’s work so we went back and forth talking about or visions and why we do what we do.

Being in your studio was so inspiring, thank you Nicole!