Theology of (my) Work

I heard a talk at Urbana called "Theology of Work" and it discussed God's plan for work and how we serve God in our work and how we can follow God just as radically as engineers as pastors.  Good talk - except - when asked, the speaker concluded that there was no place in Christendom, or anyway for Christians to justify using their talents for fashion design or, specific to my question, for footwear development.  He didn't realize it, because really it was a question he'd never thought about, but his whole talk previous to that had actually supported such work by Christians.  I want to use this space below to explain how I my work as a footwear developer can be in God's perfect will for my life.  I will talk very specific to my case, but many of the principles can be broadly applied.
THEOLOGY OF WORK:
- We were built to create value (this is what the speaker used to bash fashion - no value added)
- Work for the common good (this is where sustainability comes in)
- Work in community
- Relate to God through act of working
Those were the 4 main points from the talk and I didn't write verses for them because I didn't think it was that controversial at the time.  After the fall, the first point was expanded from simply creating value, to also restoring and fixing the broken.
WHAT SHOULD I DO?
When picking where I should work, there are 3 things to look at (which I had thought of months before on my own...):
- What does this world need to look more like heaven?
- What are my gifts and skills?
- What are my dreams and desires?
The common answer to those 3 questions is a good place for you to start looking, but definitely not the be all end all.
Now that we're through the background, here are my specific thoughts.
THEOLOGY OF FOOTWEAR DEVELOPMENT:
Working as a footwear developer definitely fits in with my skills and my passion.  The harder questions are, "how does this help people?" and, "does it need to help people?" and, "does it create value?"
God created us.  His creation was "good."  His creation was beautiful.  I won't go into this, but I think being beautiful is in and of itself already justification enough for something to exist and have value, even if that was all it was good for.  Captivating by John and Stasi Eldrege discusses this in depth.
Another thing I'd like to point out is that proper Christianity is not dualistic.  We sometimes operate under the assumption that the physical is bad and that the spiritual is good.  Not true.  God created a physical universe and it was good.  Just because an item seems purely material with no intrinsic, spiritual benefits says nothing to how good or bad the item is.
When God created this beautiful creation, he made animals in all sort of bright colors to attract mates.  For millennia, cultures around the world have recognized different visual cues or appearances as admirable.  Many of the aspect of our appearance that we control are simply ways to express outwardly, different things about how we are inwardly.  It is really amazing and cool that we are able to make these associations and effectively communicate simply with a new look.  Modern shoes are an excellent way to express things about yourself.  This is even easier now with brand image.  I can express things about what lifestyle I value simply by wearing PUMA red racing shoes in contrast to the newest Nike Jordans.  These things are all good.  Yes, they can all be distorted, and used for evil.  Just because something can be used for evil, does not make the thing bad.  Let's follow up on that.
One of my biggest concerns with footwear is the obsession people make it.  Materialism takes over us and we make idols from our footwear, especially expensive footwear.  Take a look at this music video from Macklemore that covers this topic.  Brilliantly done.  This is seriously wrong.  This world is a mess.  Footwear companies rise and stand on the sinful obsessions of the consumers.  This is an incomplete thought though.  Your obsession may be sinful, but you can enjoy footwear without sinning.  The company doesn't make that distinction though, that's up to you.  Not only can you enjoy the product without sinning; many use the product and need the product, and don't even think about or care about the product.  We all wear shoes.  Moving past those people though, the real problem is when  your obsessive desire pulls your finances, or your thoughts away from where God wants them to be.  From my personal experience, there are times when God says, "Ryan, go ahead.  That's a nice pair of shoes, and you'll appreciate them.  I know your heart is in the right place.  Go ahead and buy them."  There are also a lot of times when I'd like to get a pair and God says, "no Ryan, I'd rather you didn't invest in those.  I have other plans right now."  Submitting our material possessions to God is a good litmus test of his importance in our lives.  There have been times when I was ready to by an $80 pair of shoes and God stops me saying, "nope Ryan, not this time, but since you're so ready to part with that money, why don't you give it to support this missionary?"  I've been able to pull back and do what God said.  Every time this happens I know, that at least for that day, God has the number 1 place in my life.  As long as God has the first place in my life, I can work with shoes.  When those positions get reversed, I had best get as far away from shoes as possible.
SIDE NOTES:
- The footwear world is a small world that I can reach while many other Christians can't.
- Performance footwear helps people to stay active and take care of their bodies (which God values).
- Many footwear companies manufacture and sell their products globally, allowing me to make a global impact, hopefully for Christ.
- A "normal" job is an opportunity to make lots of money and give lots of money.  There's a lot of needs and I want to help the church meet those needs.  The question is: am I doing this job for God or for me?  Answer that honestly.
CONCLUSION:
This was a little scattered - accurately reflecting what it looked like in my head before it spilled out.  Working is good.  Shoes are good.  Beauty is good.  Quality is good.  Many of these things have been corrupted and make bad, but God can redeem all things.  Christians in every sector can make this happen through trust and obedience to God.  We simply cannot use a career as a copout to living a typical life.  We are still called by God.  Dependent on him.  Live his will, and his life, not mine.
That's all.

Boston

So I realize I abandoned you back in May, but it's not entirely my fault.  You see Germany doesn't really have summer, so I had to skip it  ;)   Well I suppose the bigger part of it was less and less access to internet and more and more to get done.  It did enjoy those last months in Germany.  When it came to a close I baked three cakes to split between 2 going away parties.  One party in German, with friends from Erlangen, and 1 party in English with people from work.  Soon enough I was home and my family was getting more hugs from me than they knew what to do with. 

So during the year I was working on a running shoe related project.  The running team is in Boston though, not Germany.  I had met a few people from the team but not the majority, and few of them knew what I was up to.  We arranged that after my internship finished up and I went home, that I could visit the Boston office for 2 days enjoy everything that goes with that.  I had never been to Boston before but have been wanting to visit for some time.  It's a beautiful place.

I landed Wednesday night and took the train into town and found my hotel, which was really a bed and breakfast called The College Club of Boston.  Delightful.  I believe is used to be a women's college.

After a recommendation from the gentleman at the front desk I met with Andrea, who used to study with me, at the Parish Restaurant.  I enjoyed a meal called Elephant Walking on Eggs "Sandwich from the Mountain".  Then we met Adrian and he drove us the harbor to explore.  He showed us this red line painted through the city called "the Freedom Trail" that leads you past many of the sights of Boston.  Getting pretty late though so we all headed our separate ways.  1 perk of Boston, I already know lots of people who live there.

Thursday morning I rose and enjoyed a good breakfast with no deli meats (a German peculiarity).  I then walked the 45 minutes through town to PUMA as an excuse to see more of Boston.  I got to work at 9, found out I was presenting at 10, and promptly was toured through the office to meet a million people (or meet their desks for those who weren't there) in quick succession.  The meeting started 15 minutes late because that is the PUMA way, and because designers were involved.  In the end, the seats were filled, and hardly even standing room left.  It was a great way to start off the day.  I spent the next two days meeting people, and seeing how things work in the Boston office.  I went for a run with two of the other developers at lunch just like in Germany.  One of them used to log 100 miles a week in his prime.

To conclude the trip I got to go to the preliminary round of the Red Bull 2012 Cliff Diving World Series Boston.  Pretty crazy stuff.  The Olympic high dive is 10m.  This was 27.

Then I flew home.

That's all.

oh and I got 2 new pairs of shoes in Boston  ;)

BE COMPETITIVE!!!

So a friend asked me a question that I thought was worth a blog entry.

“As a PUMA employee, are you nudged to compete/be active?”

Short answer is no.  Perhaps at some companies it would be more, but at PUMA we (well I should say ‘they’) are proud to be a lifestyle brand too.  That attracts many employees who have null interest in sports and the company is okay with that, and even encourages that.  At the same time though, there is still a good crowd of people who like sports a lot, and if you hang out with those people, that becomes a bigger focus in life.  People always warn that if you hang out with the wrong crowd you’ll end up on drugs and an alcoholic, but it runs other ways too.  If you hang out with the athletes, you’re a lot more likely to find yourself competing.  In my particular case, in addition to the people I hang out with, my research on running shoes has triggered a fascination with running and running shoes.  Running isn’t just breathing hard now, but rather a study of efficiency, strength, and durability.  That keeps it much more interesting, as do my running buddies of course.

Shopping Spree!

Saturday, I headed up a trip for IST (Internationale Studenten Treff) where we all went to PUMA and did some shopping using my discount (Karen shared hers too thankfully).  Even though we all live in Erlangen, just 6 miles from Herzo, most of the students had never been there so it was a fun trip.  I just took a few pictures as we were arriving.  It is funny to see in the one picture, a punch being given, and then the reaction in the next  =)

Formal Friday

So this was fun.  At PUMA it is casual Friday everyday, so 2 other interns and myself decided to mix things up and promote suit up formal Friday.  This was the first week, and we had an impressive turnout of about 15 or so people in with more promised for next week.  It was fun to see reactions.

Thursday felt like Friday

Just a regular Friday afternoon (except that it was actually only Thursday)

Impromptu photo shoot with the other interns.

Freddy sporting my sweet hat.

Me sporting Lisa's sweet hat (which Freddy pointed out looks like one of those toilet paper covers you see at your grandparents house)

Even the plough thought it was Friday.

And then on a side note, here is the "America" display at the mall.

A landscaping company doing some advertising.  They also have

an Asian garden amongst other displays.

And in other news, my bike is fixed!!  Less than 30€ and I have a sweet bike

Another day in the office.

We don't know anything about these people

A Moment of Excitement

So this was really cool.  I don’t have any other good adjectives right now so be content with that and let’s move into the crux of the issue.

After 3 full weeks I had begun to wonder about the technology involved in shoes that PUMA makes.  When you read footwear catalogues, particularly in soccer, a pastime I frequented much in my high school days, there are always these little blurbs next to each shoe, “made with power frame technology for more powerful shots!” etc. etc.  So after being here a bit I began wondering who is responsible for those tidbits of selling power.  I’ve seen most of the process and haven’t seen a whole lot of science.  It’s just kinda whateva looks right.  That actually works too.  Why?  because adidas and Nike research and make shoes and so we know what a good shoe looks like, so why actually research?  Well, to be ahead.  PUMA has always, in recent history, been ahead in style but behind in technology.  I hadn’t really noticed that before, but now looking back, I suppose I new it all along and as it became more apparent I decided to just enjoy the aesthetic design side of things, which has been going well I must say.  But anyways, that’s not the direction this story is going.  Let me introduce you to another intern who got here two months before me.  Mechanical engineer from Canada.  Let’s call her Kate for privacy’s sake.  Kate went through basically the same thing I did, except not having much design interest, and loving biomechanics, hunted down the two people that do technology, and said, “I want to make a shoe that is biomechanically advanced!”  They thought to themselves shortly, discussed with some important people and decided it wasn’t a bad idea after all!

While all that went down I was taking finals, going to weddings, packing, and all manor of things that needed to be done.  Now that I’m here and poking my head around I ran into this project, still in it’s infancy, and after getting a few more go-aheads from my department, will hopefully be involved in developing some really awesome stuff.  It’s kinda hard to explain without being too specific but here is why this is so cool.

For quite some time I’ve wanted to be the guy who was the link between the design and the engineering.  I arrive at PUMA, and it turns out that that is exactly what they are in desperate need of.  The technology and design people don’t really know anything about each other or how to integrate their work together into masterful shoes.  The work I expect to begin doing would basically include bridging that gap myself, along with Kate.  Now I’m hoping that the work we do, which is starting as just a sort of side project because we asked, would turn into something so valuable to the company that they decide to make this gap bridger thing a full time gig, and of course that they are so enthralled in my work that they beg me to take the spot.  This would be so terrific, and so awesome, that I suddenly find myself terrified.  I know that if this doesn’t happen that there are certainly other good alternatives, but I don’t know what they are right now so they might as well not exist as far as my excitement and terror are concerned.  This seems like a once in a lifetime chance to make something awesome happen that could have such a lasting impact on the next 50 odd years, and it’s suddenly upon me.  Time to make the most of it.  I don’t want to look back and regret how I blew a marvelous chance.  So here goes, say a prayer for me.  I’m diving in.

Hope that makes sense.

Yes.

That's all for now.

I need to think more about how this affects my life and what my priorities are, but what you just read is the immediate flood of thoughts responding to the issue.  More on this throughout the year.

Small Town, Big Aspirations

So I finally got pictures around where I work.  I needed to visit the bank and so I made a run out of it and took pics along the way.  These first pictures are down Main Street (Hauptstraße) in Herzo which is about a mile and a quarter from where I work.

The above building is the Alte Wache.  We had a PUMA social event there a few days ago.  It is an old house converted into a restaurant.  They have a handful of American burgers on their menu.  Not what I expected going in the door.  Let’s head over to PUMA now.  I hadn’t noticed until I went to take these pictures, but check out the manhole covers!

And the bathroom sinks!  That is PUMA design style right there.  Crisp, bold, classy, no drainage hole in the middle.  I almost feel like I’m washing my hands on a macbook.  Btw, the sinks are in a different room than the toilets, so it’s not entirely weird that I took that picture =P

 The picture above is the PUMA Vision side of the building where we show off our history and cool products inside.  The top level is the cafeteria which spills out onto the roof.  Below is the outlet which is on the right.  Note the solar panels on the roof and PUMA's parking garage just past it, looking out over Herzo.  Both pictures are taken from the window near my desk.

 Below is the parking garage again with some cool advertising.

 And the main entrance is in the middle next to the little PUMA cat.  I work on the top floor of the building on the right.

 And here is the other side of PUMA vision, which is one of the first things you see from the bus on your way into work.

 And this last one combines everything.  I like the place a lot, but then I like RIT's architecture as well so maybe my opinion is null and void.

Got to play soccer last night with a bunch of PUMA guys.  Such a great feeling.  I love soccer and I can't believe I've gone so long not playing it.  One of the things I'm dreading about my senior year at RIT is being too busy to play.  The people I've worked with here do a great job at working hard all day, sometimes long days, but also making sure they have fun and get in their vacation times too.  It can be challenging to work with important people on vacation all the time, but since it goes both ways, I think it's definitely worth it overall.


Lastly, I'm using a dell when working.  I need to get back to a macbook.  I took for granted that you can do things like change the language on a mac.  Not an option on my dell...  If I'm ever there long tern I'll be able to convince them to get me one.  All the designers have them, but the developers usually have dell, just because.  No particular reason.

Joy at PUMA

There has always been something that has struck me as brilliant about PUMA. In a
market dominated by adidas and Nike, PUMA has stayed alive. They do it by staying
ahead. The company was revived in the 90s when they invented the concept of “sports
lifestyle.” The idea of everyday clothing for athletes was PUMAʼs idea and followed
shortly after by giants adidas and Nike. adidas and Nike combine for 60% of the sports
market in comparison to PUMAʼs 6%. PUMA has to be different and ahead to stay
alive. So whatʼs the idea now? Joy.


Joy is one of my favorite things and itʼs a good feeling to work for a company in full
support of it. Sure sports are hard and involve blood, sweat, and tears, but to dwell on
that? Thatʼs just masochistic, we donʼt do sports for the
pain. Sure pain comes along some time and is necessary sometimes, but we do it for
the joy. The feeling of the win, the feeling of speed, the love of competition, the benefits
of a healthy lifestyle, the love of the game, thatʼs what itʼs about! That carries over
outside of sports too as a “sports lifestyle.” Enjoy every moment, love what you do,
laugh!


Take it how you will but we can all use joy in our lives. There are temporary joys
(PUMAʼs focus) and full long-term joy (that comes from Christ). I think healthy doses of
both are... healthy!


At the welcome day we had recently PUMA showed us some really awesome videos
driving this home, but unfortunately I canʼt post them to the internet, but I may show you
some time on my computer =)


Another area where PUMA is leading the way is sustainability. Hereʼs a video about
one of PUMAʼs newer innovations. I present to you, “The Clever Little Bag”:

The Work Experience (in a vague, not allowed to tell you anything secret sort of way)

Working at PUMA has been a really cool experience, or, well it’s shaping up to be one.  The first week and a half my boss was on vacation so it was really slow and I spent time reading stuff, surfing shoes on the internet and getting familiar with materials to kill time.  I did learn some important things, but mostly the tedious parts.  Let me explain what my department does and how I fit in in boring ways at first and then in the cool ways that I’m starting to get involved.  So some group at PUMA makes a shoe design and starts selling these awesome stylish PUMA shoes.  The a company that sells shoes in the states for example says, “Wow, those are great! but Americans prefer obnoxious colors so could we get that shoe in orange with a green stripe?”  My department is the one that says, “sure, let’s change the colors in the design description document, get the designers to update the design, and then we’ll get them to you.”  That’s pretty routine and pretty boring...  The fun part is when they request all new materials along with the colors.  Then we have all sorts of design challenges to sort through.  We get a prototype made and check it out to see what works and what doesn’t.  We suggest changes, run them by the customer, and go through the next round of samples until we’ve got a shoe that passes all our tests, looks awesome, and the customer likes.  That’s problem solving related to both structure and design and I think it is terrific.

I’m just starting to get involved in the fun problem solving side of things.  Additionally, I spent a lot of the day yesterday honing my adobe illustrator skills.  The designers were overloaded and so I got to do some of the design updating.  Rendering tweed fabric was a blast.

On an unrelated note, I went rock climbing today with some people from work.  The first few climbs were fun, the last was terrifying.  The rocks jutted out at the top which was where the rope was attached.  The last part was really difficult and I needed to rest so I sat back in the harness forgetting that because rope jutted out, that sent me swinging back 6 feet from the wall... well out of reach.  I was swinging from a rope 90 feet off the ground.  My only consolation was that if I fell it was instant death and wouldn't be a drawn out painful experience.  I hear that after a while you learn to trust the rope more.  It was a good rope and I made it safely to the ground.


By the way, this is why rock climbing is awesome, also on [ http://jwitwer.blogspot.com/ ]

Welcome to PUMA

So I reckon it’s about time to talk about PUMA.  First impressions, very classy, stylishly designed buildings.  Bold, but not obnoxious.  Lot’s of red, white, and dark grey.  Everything clean.  I can’t just take pictures everywhere for secrecy’s sake, but I’ll get some up over the next few days.  There are two main buildings in Herzo.  I’m in the one on the edge of town that is larger, and conveniently attached to the PUMA store and Factory outlet store which I just visited today finally.  I do have a discount, but I won’t have money till my paycheck comes at the end of the month so I’ll just have to wait.  Difficult I must say!

Second impressions, at my desk and explored the nearby rooms, it was overwhelming how many shoes were everywhere.  Boxes of shoes and prototypes.  Shelves labeled country after country after season after year after category of shoes at different stages in development.  I’m sure there are over $100,000 worth of shoes on my floor of the building when you consider that most of them are prototypes.  That basically just means only 3 pairs were made for testing etc, and since they aren’t at the stage of being mass produced yet, they cost a fair penny to make.

As I was walked around the office and introduced to people, it was amazing to see that the daily work of such a small group of people (relatively) could be recognized and known by so many millions.  I mean, I would say there are at least 1,000 pair of PUMA’s at the RIT campus alone, and I’ve met the people already who have designed over half of them as well as the however many million other pairs around the world.  The downside to all of this is, that to run such a big system so well, there is loads of bookkeeping and database organizing etc...  That’s what I’ve been learning this week.  There is a lot of dry, necessary, background understanding required before you can do anything interesting.  My boss is on vacation this week and his boss is sick, but when one of them gets back, I can expect to learn more about what will be expected of me over the next 12 months.  I don’t expect to really know anything until next week.

Here’s something cool.  I guess in Germany you’re supposed to work 39 hour weeks, but PUMA says, “no, let’s do 40, but we’ll save up those extra hours you’ve worked and give you extra time off at Christmas.”  That way, everyone has off from Christmas to New Years, without even using vacation time!  

the South Side - Erlangen style

Here's a look at my side of town.  I think it used to be a small city that got swallowed up by Erlangen.  These are on a walk I took from my house.

Construction on the church. excuse the lighting.

There was a guy in that car staring at me.

Typisch.

The river through town.  The line across it is the Herzogenauracher Damn.

We're on the upstream side.

I came back and saw this shoe on my landlords car.  Also the hideous chair in the back? 

Yes, it was in my room but I told him he could give it away =P

Did I mention that I work at PUMA now?  Those shoes are 5 years old.  Also turns out the standard sample size at PUMA is a US 9 for men's shoes, which means I can get lots, my size cheap before they are on the market.  Even other PUMA employees with bigger feet have to weight for production =)

I'll blog about PUMA soon.  For now I'm just getting comfortable.  Everything is fairly slow since my boss is on vacation this week and his boss is sick.

Bye,

Inspired

This article was what set me on the path to being an engineer at PUMA. Open picture in a new tab, then click to zoom in and read away!