RIT alumnus designs footwear and apparel for brand giants, from Adidas to Burberry

RIT industrial design MFA alumnus Randall Yarborough built his career as a footwear and apparel designer by working with the likes of Adidas/Yeezy, Burberry, SKYLRK (Justin Bieber's brand) and more.

As an undergraduate architecture student, Randall Yarborough thought big. As a graduate design student at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), he maintained a similar thought process — the stature of his projects just shrunk a little.

Yarborough ’13 MFA (industrial design), with architecture as his backbone, shifted his focus to design at RIT, with ambitions of becoming a sneaker and apparel designer.

“Footwear is housing for the foot. Product, footwear, industrial design — it is small-scale architecture,” Yarborough said.

Yarborough has established himself as a prominent designer of recognizable footwear and apparel, athletic training products and his own clothing line.

Notably, Yarborough designed several Yeezy shoes, the result of a fashion collaboration between Adidas and Ye (previously known as Kanye West).

Provided

Randall Yarborough attended RIT to translate his architecture background to design. The experience prepared him for high-level projects, like being the primary designer for this 1050 Hi-Res boot and other shoes on the Yeezy line. He has a patent for the design.

As a senior footwear designer at Adidas and later senior creative designer for Yeezy, Yarborough collaborated directly with Ye every day. He contributed to the design of several shoes on the footwear line, and served as the primary designer for the 1050 Hi-Res boot, NSLTD BT, BSKTBL Knit, and QNTM sneaker. He also worked on Ye’s apparel and architecture pursuits.

“Any day could be a new challenge or experience,” Yarborough said. “It was all focused on Yeezy, working with Ye and the team. Not a lot of people can say they designed a shoe and it came out for Yeezy.”

Building his brand, from Ye to Justin Bieber

After leaving Adidas in 2023, Yarborough built up his Los Angeles-based studio, RNDLL, LLC. He worked on footwear and apparel for the likes of, in addition to Yeezy, Burberry, ERL Clothing, and Justin Bieber’s streetwear brand, SKYLRK. His company’s name — broken down to “Randall” without the vowels — stands for Research and Development Lifestyle Lab.

For the last year, Yarborough has committed his time to Joyshed, his long-gestating brand inspired by his roots in Detroit, Mich., and Irmo, S.C.

Led by the line’s seminal item, heavyweight basketball shorts, Yarborough’s vision manifests as a mix of American lifestyle and performance apparel. In hues of vintage white, vintage gray and vintage black, the clothing is stamped with Yarborough’s love of architecture, the automotive industry, music, sports culture and Black American heritage.

“The idea is to create an American lifestyle, and I’m trying to do it from a storytelling standpoint where everything is something I’ve referenced or seen in my life,” Yarborough said. “That’s why I started with basketball shorts. Basketball is one of my first loves.”

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The Neptune Knit Sneaker was one of three shoe designs RIT alumnus Randall Yarborough was involved with for Burberry.

Yarborough likens the clothing’s heavy-duty quality to blue-collar brands like Michigan-based Carhartt, while the baggier fits prompt a style popularized in the 1990s.

With his clothing, Yarborough is motivated by a “layering system,” a cohesive, head-to-toe ensemble prepared for whatever the day has in store. All materials are also made in the U.S.

“This is how I dressed growing up: throw on a t-shirt, throw on my sweatpants over my mesh shorts just in case I’m going to play basketball that day, and throw your hoodie on,” Yarborough said. “I want people to feel the quality of the product and what can be done in America. The idea is to keep jobs here for people.”

On the theme of using fabrics as a storytelling canvas, Yarborough struck a licensing deal with the Negro Leagues. He worked with friend and fine artist Jacob Rochester to create clothing visuals celebrating the history of the professional baseball organizations that rostered Black, Asian, Caribbean and Latin American players during MLB’s segregation era. A portion of those sales benefits the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Blending architecture with an RIT design education

Before his career as an apparel and footwear designer, Yarborough planned on pursuing a master’s degree in architecture. His outlook changed when, as an undergraduate student, he won Nike’s Pensole student competition for a Jordan brand t-shirt he designed.

He was flown out to Nike’s Portland, Ore., headquarters to present his concept to footwear designers he’s still in touch with today. The group included competition founder D’Wayne Edwards, who is now president of a design-focused HBCU in Detroit, Pensole Lewis College.

The experience sold him on the impact he could make with design, a feeling that was affirmed in RIT’s industrial design MFA program and early in his career.

Yarborough’s first role out of RIT was as a product designer at SKLZ, where his athletic gear designs crossed many sports. The role sparked a succession of product designs that now have patents, from a collapsible soccer mannequin that simulates a defender to a device allowing baseball hitters to track their flight patterns.

“I needed to make the switch,” he said. “I love architecture, but the idea of being able to create products and footwear was very exciting.”