Iowa State grad Colin Behr sketched what he imagined a shoe line should look like for the menswear label Todd Snyder.(Photo: Colin Behr/Special to the Register)

At an Iowa penn state football jersey State commencement ceremony last weekend at Hilton Coliseum, Colin Behr walked across the stage in a pair of red and black Air Jordans. They were the same shoes he wore when he graduated from Linn Mar High School, in Marion, and similar but slightly bigger to the pair of tiny Air Jordans his uncle gave him when Behr was just a baby, before he could even walk. So maybe it's fate that Nike has hired him to design shoes at its headquarters in Portland, Ore. He'll report to his dream job on June 8. "It still seems kind of surreal," he said over the phone Thursday, after spending a day on the Oregon coast. He's spent the week scouting places to live and meeting his soon to be coworkers. When Nike called awhile back to give him the job (after a competing offer from Adidas), he "hung up the phone and just sat there for a little bit to soak it up," he said. "I was ecstatic, really." But he shouldn't have been surprised. As an article on the Iowa State website puts it, Behr is a "a walking, talking poster boy for the Nike brand: Just do it . Nothing is over until you stop trying . Take charge . Write your own story . Find your greatness." While earning his new degree in both apparel and industrial design he designed three pairs of shoes for New Balance, put the finishing touches on a parka for Barneys New York, and co designed a football receiver's glove that will soon be manufactured by Shock Doctor for Cutter's. He also did a stint at the London College of Fashion, which is sort of the Harvard of shoe design. "You just have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone and ask questions of people who know more than you do," he said. "You just have to get out there and do it." Behr got out there, on the basketball court, not long after he outgrew his baby Air Jordans. His uncle took him to his first Chicago Bulls game when Behr was 5, and he was a standout in school and AAU, where played on the same team as Doug McDermott, who now plays for the Bulls. He carpooled to Linn Mar practices with Marcus Paige, who plays for the University of North Carolina. Behr wanted to play college ball, too, but injuries stymied his plans at the end of high school. He dislocated his kneecap five times and had two surgeries, which kept him off the court for weeks at a time. So at the suggestion of his dad, a graphic cheap authentic nba jerseys designer, Behr pulled out a sketchbook and started working on his artistic talents instead. Since middle school he'd drawn his favorite basketball players and their jerseys and their shoes. He discovered a sneaker blog and learned that Tinker Hatfield, the Nike designer behind the Air Jordan and Nike Air, had studied to be an architect. So Behr figured he'd try that, too. He enrolled in Iowa State's architecture program but soon switched to industrial design, adding a second major in apparel design after his sophomore year. He liked the technical challenges but the stylish stuff, too. During his summer program in London, he designed a collection of six shoes and learned the ins and outs of traditional shoemaking. The skills prepared him for that fall, when he interned at New Balance in Boston. He was on a small team there, which meant he got to design three shoes the company actually produced. One model rolled out in nine months half the usual production time and when it hit the shelves at Kohl's, back in Iowa, Behr's family snapped up five pairs. He signed a pair for his grandpa at Christmas, a few months wholesale jerseys paypal before his grandpa died. "It was a hiking shoe kind of bulky and maybe not your sexiest New Balance runner," he said. "But my mom wears hers, and my grandpa wore them all the time." Behr spotted a young woman on campus wearing one of his New Balance designs, but he kept quiet. He didn't use it as a pick up line. But who knows? "Maybe I'll get some chances to do that out here in Portland," he said, laughing at the notion. After his New Balance work, Behr wanted to round out his resume with a stint with Todd Snyder in New York. The name brand menswear designer, an Iowa State grad from Huxley, plucked Behr from the pool of applicants because he showed such promise. "We knew he wasn't an apparel desinger" he was more of a "sneaker head," Snyder said "but he was just so bright and eager. He's certainly one fo the best (interns) I've seen in the last 10 years." Snyder recently hired his third Iowa State grad to Dt5FW6a9x his full time team because, he said, "they work hard and they're reliable." "I tell students there are three things they need to successful: They need to work hard, they need to innovate, and they need to be nice," Snyder said. "And Colin does that. He has that intelligence, but he's also a really nice kid." The studio employs just a dozen some designers, so Behr got to do tasks big and small designing clothes, cleaning the office, loading trucks for the runway shows. The company doesn't produce much footwear, except for a line with Cole Haan, so Behr sketched out what he thought a future collection should look like. "No job was too small," Snyder said. "He just got things done." Or in Nike lingo: He just did it. Or he's just doing it. "I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. At first, I'll probably be just helping out," he said of his new job in Nike Sportswear's running division. http://zg129.wixblog.com/#/Article/How-to-Become-a-Dental-Hygienist-in-New-Jersey/75287
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