Rivian Chief Design Officer Jeff Hammoud Interview [Video]

Jeff Hammoud — chief design officer at Rivian and a longtime stalwart of automotive design who, before joining the company, crafted the visual identity of brands like Jeep — is more well-versed in creating visually stunning cars than practically anyone on the planet, but he wants to talk about sneakers.

“I have a lot of friends that started in sneaker design before switching fields to automotive, and we have a lot of footwear in our design studio that we use as inspiration for colors,” he says. Hammoud also notes that, apart from their aesthetic parallels (Michael Jordan‘s personal Ferrari 550M inspired for the Air Jordan 14 while adidas looked to the Audi TT while designing the Kobe 2, among many other examples), recent material innovations in footwear have influenced some of Rivian’s sustainability practices. “We have five different shoes in our office that explain how you can approach sustainability, from Allbird and adidas’ collabs to …