Biography
A graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Design and recipient of the IDSA Merit Award, Charles began his career as a product designer and evolved into executive leadership roles, shaping strategies and teams for renowned brands. At Adidas’ global headquarters in Germany, he helped reestablish the company’s industry leadership by translating biomechanics research into cutting-edge performance technologies for athletes. He later founded Sports Creative Group, a New York-based design consultancy, where his accomplishments included the Black Fives™ apparel brand and designs for Ralph Lauren RLX and Prince Tennis.
Charles has held leadership roles at Adidas North America, Crocs and Puma SE, where he served as Global Director of Innovation. At Puma, he led multidisciplinary teams to create performance-enhancing technologies and forged partnerships with industry leaders like Hewlett-Packard, BMW, MIT Design Lab and ESL Gaming. His work integrates design and innovation with a focus on sustainability, mobility and social impact.
In addition to his professional work, Charles is a sustaining jurist for international design awards such as IDEA, iF and Core77. Through his consulting business, DrivenByCharles, he advises organizations and startups across sports, healthcare, sustainability and social impact sectors. He has given keynote speeches on the subjects of humanistic design delivering “Advanced Technology and Humanistic Design” at the Artificial Intelligence and Design Lab International Symposium in Hong Kong, “Design For Humanistic Values” at the 2020 International Design Conference (IDC) and wearable technology at Wear It Innovation Summit Berlin. He is featured on the Agents of Innovation and Freie Wildbahn “Bizplay Meets Creatables” podcasts.
At the ETC, Charles leverages his extensive experience to champion humanistic design and shaping experiences that bridge the digital and the physical worlds including human robot interface and mobility.
Charles Johnson joined the ETC in 2023.
Areas of Expertise
Media Appearances
Future of Shoes | Charles Johnson | S8 E5
Future of XYZ Podcast online
2026-03-05
This week’s guest is Charles Johnson who has spent nearly four decades in the footwear business- developing products for Puma, Converse, adidas, and others. He is now an academic at Carnegie Mellon University and social entrepreneur working to deliver change at scale.
A Conversation with Charles Johnson, FIT Sport Design Awards Juror
FIT Sport Design Awards online
2024-06-11
In this interview, we delve into Charles’s career, his insights into design innovation, and his role as a jury member for the FIT Sport Design Awards.
Is Ai Good for Design?
2023-03-02
Is Ai Good for Design? I am not here to say the answer is no.
Sportswear designer inspired by new mobility
Futurride online
2021-11-09
One of those “outside” professionals inspired by new mobility is Charles Johnson, Founder of startup DrivenByCharles (DBC), whose most recent role was Global Director of Innovation at sportswear leader Puma Group in Herzogenaurach, Germany. The mission of his new enterprise is to advise on design, innovation, and strategy to help organizations by providing research and insight on product development, brand strategy, innovation road mapping, and story development.
See How an Ultimate Outsider Became a Design Visionary Inside Adidas, Puma and Beyond
Women in Sports Tech online
2021-02-09
While he had a taste of how he could solve problems in the real world of sports, Charles muses, “I was never intrigued by creating something that simply looks or feels good…I was intrigued by making something work…or work better.” The concept of making something work or work better, is distilled into Charles’ calling card, delivering simple solutions for complex problems.
Media
Social
Industry Expertise
Accomplishments
Career
A graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Design and recipient of the IDSA Merit Award, Charles began his career as a product designer and evolved into executive leadership roles, shaping strategies and teams for renowned brands.
Leadership
Charles has held leadership roles at Adidas North America, Crocs and Puma SE, where he served as Global Director of Innovation. At Puma, he led multidisciplinary teams to create performance-enhancing technologies and forged partnerships with industry leaders like Hewlett-Packard, BMW, MIT Design Lab and ESL Gaming. His work integrates design and innovation with a focus on sustainability, mobility and social impact.
Development
At Adidas’ global headquarters in Germany, he helped reestablish the company’s industry leadership by translating biomechanics research into cutting-edge performance technologies for athletes. He later founded Sports Creative Group, a New York-based design consultancy, where his accomplishments included the Black Fives™ apparel brand and designs for Ralph Lauren RLX and Prince Tennis.
Professional Service
In addition to his professional work, Charles is a sustaining jurist for international design awards such as IDEA, iF and Core77.
Education
Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design
BFA
Industrial Design
Languages
- German
- English
Event Appearances
Advanced Technology and Humanistic Design (Keynote)
Fashion x Ai Symposium Hong Kong
2023-05-11
Patents
Full List of Patents Available at
https://www.drivenbycharles.com/patents
Compressive garment having an outer layer
US11445774B2
2022-09-20
A garment includes a substantially seamless base layer made from a compressive material, an outer layer positioned outward of at least a portion of the compressive material, and seam tape coupling the outer layer to the base layer.
Sports garment for team sports
US20210030082A1
2020-10-15
The invention relates to sports garment (1) for team sports, especially for soccer, football, rugby, handball or basketball, comprising an upper part (2) which covers at least a part of the torso of the wearer and pants (3) which covers at least a part of the abdomen of the wearer, wherein the upper part (2) and the pants (3) are forming a one-piece part.
Article of Footwear
US20210052039A1
2020-08-20
An article of footwear includes a tubular knit upper and an outsole. Further, a thermoplastic polyurethane skin layer is disposed between the tubular knit upper and the outsole. The outsole comprises a plurality of regions intended to support and stabilize a foot of a user when the user sits in various sedentary positions.
Research Focus
ReNuShu
NuShu smart shoes provide real-time gait estimation and gentle haptic cues. Students designed a system that turns those signals into adjustable challenges aligned with clinical goals. Clinicians set targets, tune difficulty in seconds, and review clear session summaries. We combine game design, engineering, art, and user research to translate rehab goals into play.
Step Up
In collaboration with project sponsor World Shoe Fund, ETC master’s students created “Hygiene Hero Cup”,
A transformational game for 10 to 14 years old to gain proper hygiene practices and beliefs.
Kicks Lab
The KicksLab project was meant to help close the gap between poverty and prosperity. With footwear as the flywheel. students were challenged to create a tool to develop agency.
Honda 99P Lab
An exploration of autonomous vehicle incar entertainment for the family in 2040.
