The Black Footwear Forum returned to its home this weekend, the Pensole Lewis College of Business & Design in Detroit, a four-day event held from Sept. 21-24 geared toward sharing information critical for success and advancing opportunity for those in the industry. And like last year, industry legends went home with Blacklight Awards celebrating their incredible accomplishments.
This year, there were two Blacklight Award honorees: Cheresse Thornhill-Goldson of S.E.E.D. at Adidas and Claima co-founder Bimma Williams. For Thornhill-Goldson, she won the Women’s Advocate Icon Award (presented by, Jazerai Allen-Lord, whom the award is named after), and Williams received the Entrepreneur Award (presented by retail mogul James Whitner, also whom the award is named after).
Below are speeches from the award winners that have been edited for clarity.
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Cheresse Thornhill-Goldson
Director of design education and growth/global creative direction, S.E.E.D. at Adidas
“I want to thank my family, my mom. I grew up with a single mom, like many of you. She used to wake up at 4 a.m. and take me to the bus stop so I can get to my design school, which was an hour away. Without I’m a mom, I wouldn’t be here. To my husband Leo Goldson, who is here in the room, you facilitate the Black love that we experience every day and I appreciate you and I thank you for the life that we live. To my mentors D’Wayne [Edwards], what would we do without you? D’Wayne gave me my first 10 footwear projects in the brand at Nike when I was just trying to learn. He helped me get my foot in the door and learn how to design in the way in which design should be executed. To my mentors, Kim [Shane], who wouldn’t be here with us but I know she’s watching. Ron [Wright], Wilson [Smith], E. Scott [Morris], Sabrina [Nelson], who is in here as well, you guys have supported me throughout my journey and I wouldn’t be here without you. My sisters in sole, Ashley is in here, Eliya, Precious, you all inspire me and I’m proud of the work that we’ve done and the lineage that we’re building in design coming from South Florida. So my [Adidas] S.E.E.D. fam, Jessica Smith, thank you for founding S.E.E.D., creating another opportunity for me to come back into this industry after I left. You inspire me. You know, you dreamed of a world where we can dare to dream and I’m really proud of the work that we’re doing. To our alumni and our students, thank you for trusting us and for showing up every day and doing the work that’s truly life changing. To all the women in the room, it’s our time. We got this. We are not in competition with each other, there is diversity in our diversity that we should be celebrating. This industry really needs us and we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We can’t wait until we help facilitate the win of a sister next to us and please be your sister’s keeper.”
Bimma Williams
Co-founder, Claima
“I’m not sure many of you know, but we actually kicked off Claima here at Black Footwear Forum four years ago, it was called African American Footwear Forum and we did it Portland [Ore.] in the Portland Art Museum. The most interesting thing to me about receiving this award right now, and I’m not sure if many people know this, is I actually wasn’t going to step on that stage to be the host of what we created. I am an introvert naturally, so coming out and being on a stage is quite an accomplishment for me because of the fact that I could do this so comfortably now is blowing my own mind. I had impostor syndrome. I didn’t see me in this role. I saw me putting the play together for someone else to be in his seat. What’s so interesting about that is you can’t run from what’s really meant for you. It’s so beautiful to be here four years later. I wanted to come last year but had a commitment and when Dr. D’Wayne Edwards called and said, ‘You’re coming this year?’ I said, ‘Of course, I was waiting for this call, I was waiting to see what the schedule was.’ I was like, ‘I can’t miss it another time.’ Shout out to him, shout out to [Sneaker Week PDX co-founder] Herb [Beauclere] who sitting here in the front row because it was those two together that convinced me to get up on that stage four years ago. The whole reason that I did that in the first place was because I’m from Louisiana and I always loved sneakers, I loved them since I was nine. My folks worked at chemical plant workers, and that meant they didn’t have a network of anyone that worked in this industry. The only thing my mother knew was folks that worked in retail for an hourly wage and there’s no disrespect to that, but she couldn’t see a way that she could get me out of her house doing that, so she wasn’t really forthcoming and pushing me down that path. It took a lot to get here, and I’ve been getting a lot of different questions from different creatives and creators and entrepreneurs, and there are nuances to all of those titles. Folks have been asking me, ‘How did I start Claima? How do we get here?’ And honestly, I don’t think that’s what you’re really asking me. I think what you’re asking me is, ‘How do you get over the fear?’ How do you move forward with taking the first step?’ For me, I’ll be honest, I was terrified. I was working at ‘my dream job,’ I was working at Nike, and I left during the middle of the pandemic. You’ve got to wonder what the hell convinced someone to leave a paying job in the middle of a pandemic? And the only thing that convinced you to do that is your purpose. Whenever you ask me, ‘Why did I do it?’ it’s because of y’all. When we think about us, we think about our community, don’t chase anything, don’t do it for trend, don’t do it because somebody else is doing it. Do it because it’s something that you believe you’re here to do and help the rest of your community. When I say claim a seat at any table of your choosing, that’s what I mean. Go do what’s in your heart.”
