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How This Founder Is Kicking Up Innovation in the Sneaker Market Entrepreneur spoke with PENSOLE Footwear Academy founder D'Wayne Edwards about the World Sneaker Championship.

By Conrad Martin

Since the 1980s, sneaker culture has been on the rise. "Sneakerheads" have turned collecting from a spectator sport into a seriously booming billion-dollar industry. As an industry grows, customer needs evolve. Enter PENSOLE Footwear Academy, a design school with a curriculum solely (pun intended) dedicated to the art and business of footwear design.

Related: Nike's Self-Lacing 'Back to the Future' Sneaker Is Here and Is Cooler Than You Think

Entrepreneur had the opportunity to speak with Pensole founder D'Wayne Edwards to discuss the 2017 PENSOLE World Sneaker Championship. The competition is open to designers from around the world and relies on crowdsourced voting to determine the winner.

Image credit: Pensole

Congratulations to this year's winner, Maxwell Lund. Check out the Facebook Live interview above.

Conrad Martin

Entrepreneur Staff

Network Editor at Entrepreneur.com

Conrad Martin is the Network Editor at Entrepreneur.com. His areas of focus include native and editorial video, live events, and content distribution.

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