Although they’re rivals, some of the biggest names in footwear like Nike, Adidas and Under Armour all have something in common: they’ve worked with i-Generator, perhaps one of the most ubiquitous apparel design and engineering firms you’ve never heard of.
“I think the only brand we haven't worked with is New Balance, for some odd reason,” said Peter Rueegger, co-owner and partner of the Portland-based firm.
I-Generator acts as a go-between for brands and manufacturers, but also for startups or concepts and the big brands themselves. Rueegger said he and co-owner Michael Steszyn help make brands’ footwear concepts come to life and help startup founders find corporate homes for their ideas.
Rueegger joined i-Generator in 2005 to succeed its co-founder, Paul Gaudio, who now is the creative and innovation officer at the Portland-based sustainable apparel maker Unless Collective.
While the company at the time had scientists who understood biomechanics, Rueegger said they lacked the understanding of the customer and market, something he knew he could help with.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, you're gonna invent the greatest thing that no one's going to (care) about,’” said Rueegger. “What sets us apart is we're not just delivering a highfalutin idea, like, ‘Here, and you figure it out.’ We have a vested interest in going, ‘I'm gonna give you the golden sample, and now all you have to do is replicate it.’”
Since then, i-Generator’s worked with nearly every major footwear brand out there. They’ve also worked on projects as niche and complex as Unless’ 100% plant-based shoe and most recently, Caddix, an injury-reducing football cleat company backed by two former Baltimore Ravens players.
But Rueegger said his passion lies in solving simple athletic problems with beautiful design and purposeful mechanics.
“Right now, I am really focused on women’s soccer. … The technology that Caddix has lends itself so well (to women’s soccer), because look at ACL injuries in women's soccer, it's crazy,” said Rueegger. “I just consider myself lucky that I found something I actually really enjoy.”
Swiss-born Rueegger started his career in finance, but became a merchandiser for Adidas in Switzerland in his early 20s. Slowly he worked his way up, until one day he found himself in the same global marketing meeting as Rob Strasser and Peter Moore, the Nike-turned-Adidas designers of the 1990s.
“(Strasser and Moore) presented a big initiative to the board of Adidas, and everybody was pooh-poohing it. It was the birth of Originals. At the time Adidas tried to get away from anything that was old, they wanted to be like Nike,” said Rueegger. “And I was the only guy that was like ‘No, this is awesome,’ and that kind of made me stand out. And then Rob offered me a job here in Portland.”
Rueegger moved to Portland in 1993 to be a footwear product line manager for Adidas’ North America headquarters, and moved back to Switzerland in 2003 to lead Swiss brand Intersport’s global footwear division for a few years before coming back to Portland for i-Generator.
I-Generator’s office is in Portland’s Slabtown neighborhood, near several of the major corporate footwear hubs that have made their homes in the city’s Northwest corner like Allbirds, Arc’teryx and On. It employs only a handful of footwear designers and biomechanists, but its power, Rueegger said, is in the team’s small size, lack of ego and dedication to solutions.
I-Generator doesn’t need to be credited outwardly by the big brands to feel successful. Rueegger said he and Steszyn have built the company to see solving clients’ problems with vigor as successful.
It wasn’t enough for i-Generator to find a supplier and manufacturer to make Unless’ first shoe 99% plant-based and biodegradable. It had to be 100%, and Rueegger wasn’t backing down from that, he said.
Both of these facets of i-Generator have made for a culture in which clients more often than not come to them, Rueegger said. Staying relevant this way in an industry as saturated as footwear can be a challenge, but Rueegger said he balances it by remembering few ideas are original anymore, but their execution can be.
“So many times I thought people copied my ideas, but we're all thinking about the same stuff, so it all happens organically in different places too,” said Rueegger. “I think if you had asked me that question 10 years ago, I would have said ‘Yeah, we're really nervous that we’re going to run out of ideas.’ But it’s always something, there’s always something to improve upon.”
