A Note to My Younger Self

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Sam Spears, president of Ara North America, reflects on a rewarding career filled with travel, adventure, friends, family and a ton of great shoes.

DEAR SAM...You’ve just graduated from the University of Tulsa. You’ve served as host of the school’s TV show, president of your fraternity, held many offices in the Student Association and worked at Dillard’s, Harold’s Fine Apparel & Footwear and the Polo Shop throughout these four fantastic years. And you earned a BA in Marketing. Well done! But now what?

Well, I’m writing to tell you about what comes next, and you won’t believe it! It’s a wild and wonderful life ride. And the thread that ties it together? Shoes! Quite prophetic, since you’ve been saving your tennis shoes, even ones with holes in the soles. Those kicks are prized possessions. Mom disagrees, telling you to toss them whenever she comes across your sneaker stash. Kudos for holding firm, because your love of shoes pays off: You will go on to a rewarding career in the footwear industry.

The journey starts, unexpectedly, after moving to St. Louis for your first postcollege job with Junior Achievement, which recruits local business leaders to teach basics skills to students. After repeated calls to KangaROOS, the president, Elliott Schwartz, finally agrees to meet you. While convincing him to teach a class, you rake up the courage and ask him for (any) job. You’re hired as an Account Supervisor! Not long into your new gig, your marketing sketches are noticed and you’re asked to make some footwear sketches. Before you know it, you’re off to Busan, South Korea, to learn how to mass manufacture shoes and to design simple patterns to make shoemaking less complex. It’s an amazing education and experience. At age 22, you fall fast in love with the shoe biz—the product, processes, travel and people. Many of those early coworkers become lifelong industry friends.

When KangaROOS is sold the following year, you move on to Pony, in Rutherford, NJ, as Product Manager for cross-training, basketball and cleated footwear. Designing shoes for pro athletes is a dream job! You even go on a working holiday to Portugal with New York Giants Super Bowl Champion linebacker Carl Banks.

When Pony is acquired by Pentland Group in 1991, you’re asked to move to London and named Vice President Design and Development. Another amazing experience! You design athletic shoes while, on your days off, visit nearly every castle in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Your travel companion is your future wife, who you will marry in your favorite city (London) in 1992. She’s a wonderful woman from your hometown of Tulsa, OK, who you met at college. Going on 30 years of marriage, you still feel like you’re on your honeymoon. You’re a lucky man.

In 1995, not long after Pentland transfers you to Long Island, NY,

your son is born. That’s when you expand your design horizons into athletic apparel at Starter in New Haven, CT. The owner’s son is married to Paula Abdul at the time. Mega-stars from sports and music visit the office! What another fabulous experience. During these years you also welcome the birth of your daughter. Life is grand. In 1998, you say yes to a job at Ecco North America as Director of Branding. Less than a year later, you move to the company’s Denmark headquarters, where you continue in marketing. Because you have experience in product development, you’re tasked with developing and launching the Receptor performance collection, including the now legendary Yucatan sports sandal. (If you only had a nickel for every pair sold!) You’re asked to overhaul the Golf division and then to develop Ecco’s revolutionary BIOM project that allows the foot to move naturally within the shoes. In 2001, with your kids now of school age, you move back to England. During this time, you’re commuting weekly to Denmark but the travel is worth it. Your kids’ schools are like Hogwarts! They soak up the fabulous education, quickly growing smarter than their years. But you’re not done globetrotting. In January 2009, you move to Portland, OR, to become Director of Advanced Concepts for Keen. In late 2009, it’s on to Switzerland as Vice President Research, Product and Where it all began: Sam Spears hard at work at KangaROOS. Marketing for MBT Footwear. In 2013, you return home to Tulsa to become National Sales Manager for Ariat’s Lifestyle Division. Since 2016, you’ve served as President of Ara Shoes North America, still residing in Tulsa. Oh, the places you will live and the adventures you and your family will take! The amazing people you meet are the richest chapters in a truly wonderful life story. A life well-lived, of course, involves learning valuable lessons along the way. Here’s a quick checklist: Love does conquer all. Life is what you put into it. And if an Italian shoemaker says, “Un piccolo problema,” it’s code for a REALLY HUGE PROBLEM! A few more tips: When an opportunity is presented, say YES! Never ask anyone to do something that you wouldn’t. And, most importantly, you cannot do any of what you will do by yourself. The ability to make your ideas a reality depends on the input of so many talented people. Last but not least, always remember where you come from and who you really are: a kid from Tulsa, who, but for the grace of God, excellent parents and terrific older siblings, shouldn’t be this fortunate. Living abroad, working in an industry you adore, performing jobs that are only limited by your imagination, an amazing family…it is indeed a wonderful life.