COLE HAAN
Everyday Extraordinary
At Cole Haan, the short of the long — I was the go-to for anything social media or influencer marketing. When I came onboard in 2017, I was tasked with building our social media practice — crafting our strategy and integrating its processes within the larger marketing org. Of course, that was just the beginning. As the work started taking shape, and the world of content and community evolved, so would my role. During my time, I covered a lot of ground — I created our monthly lifestyle asset production pipeline, art directed and wrote hundreds of social posts, developed a community and influencer approach that celebrated the best of our fans, took our social strategy to new global heights, dabbled in site marketing for a bit, helped shape our collaborations and partnerships approaches, expanded my team a whole 100%, and even played the role of “stand-in parts model” from time to time. All of this, rooted in one key objective: to unlock and inspire Extraordinary moments in our customers’ everyday. And by doing this, we could help qualify and contextualize the great innovations that all Cole Haan products possess.
Below, you’ll find a few projects that I’m particularly proud of.
Community and Influencer Approach: #ColeHaanAllDay
The Cole Haan community comprises of motivated, successful individuals who worked for what they believe in. They lead multi-faceted lives, and need durable, versatile products that can keep up with their lives. Knowing this, our influencer approach couldn’t follow the typical “fashion-influencer” archetype that so many of our retail competitors were vying for (no shade to them). We instead sought a diverse set of professionals by day, influencers by night — doctors, lawyers, health professionals, entrepreneurs — people who mirrored our consumer, but still had the engaged followings and content chops that matched their drive. People who lived out this Cole Haan M.O. all day.
@chrisellelim, Entrepreneur / Influencer
@jackgorlin, Photographer
@bchanism, Style Influencer
@davecoast, Nutritionist
@iamcaez, Attorney
@pilot.drew, Pilot
@rianasingh_, Founder
@jadepurplebrown, Artist
@roamaroo, Travel Bloggers
@doctajayyy, Medical Resident
Creating Brand Moments: #ZEROGRANDDay
On July 8th, 2014, Cole Haan launched ZERØGRAND, the brand’s most beloved shoe, combining a classic brogue top with a highly engineered, flexible sole. Since then, this franchise has become wildly successful, selling millions of pairs across the globe, evolving into its 4th iteration (4.ZERØGRAND), and has expanded into lifestyle products and accessories. In 2019, ZERØGRAND celebrated its 5th birthday and what better way to mark its success and its community that loved it so much than to declare July 8th as #ZERØGRANDDay. I helped create and lead this integrated brand moment across social media, site, digital, email, PR, and international. It was a first-of-its-kind effort for Cole Haan, and it just made sense to rally our avid community around something that they have grown to love and share.
An Editorial Hub: The Above and Beyond Journal
In 2020, I helped launch the Above and Beyond Journal, Cole Haan’s editorial hub. The Journal covered a wide range of topics including entrepreneurship, health & wellness, art, travel, and philanthropy, and featured both original and co-created pieces from partners like Forbes, Hypebeast, The Wing, and Furthermore by Equinox. For this project, I played a leading role in building the content strategy and coordinating the build of this website.
“Look Ma — it’s my leg!”
Lastly while at Cole Haan, I explored the world of parts modeling. Hey, budgets were tight and I also happened to be sample size… why not, right? If you want to see more examples of my shoe-modeling work, just scroll back on the @ColeHaan Instagram from about 2017-2018. See if you can spot me 😜 I did however find my way onto a Cole Haan Outlet Window in April/May 2019 though!
