About Ruthie Davis

Ruthie Davis offers more than fashion and footwear; she offers a lifestyle that embodies the brand DNA that has been carefully crafted over the years: to stand out and stand tall, to set trends yet stay timeless. As a Council of Fashion Designers of America member and an American Apparel & Footwear Association Designer of the Year, Davis designs footwear that is far from conventional. Every shoe is a piece of architectural art, all while staying true to the chic, modern, and sporty designs that women worldwide have fallen for. Residing in New York City and president of her eponymous brand, Davis has the advantage of being a designer with an MBA and a woman who designs to empower women.

After graduating from Loomis Chaffee cum laude, Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in English and visual arts from Bowdoin College. She went on to earn an MBA in entrepreneurship from Babson’s Olin Graduate School of Business, where she has been inducted into the Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. Davis honed her design and marketing skills by holding executive positions at Reebok, UGG Australia, and Tommy Hilfiger before launching Ruthie Davis® in 2006. Today, the Ruthie Davis® brand is sold primarily direct-to-consumer at ruthiedavis.com. In July 2019, she launched her first retail store as an in-store shop at NYC’s The Curated by Christian Siriano, and she plans to open her first freestanding Ruthie Davis® store in 2021.

A trailblazer in the realm of collaborations, Davis has recently partnered with Disney on the notable Disney x Ruthie Davis shoe collections in tandem with the Disney film releases for Aladdin, Frozen 2 and Mulan’s Live Action Collection in conjunction with the 2020 Disney’s Mulan Film release and also Cinderella for her 70th Anniversary. This popular Disney X Ruthie Davis collaboration was recently honored by the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) with the 2019 American Image Award for “Collaboration of the Year.”

She has also worked with Universal Illumination on a Ruthie Davis x Minions collection, Swarovski on a capsule collection, HSN on its Disney Beauty and the Beast event, Ruthie Davis X John Bartlett on a vegan capsule, and Designow on her first apparel collection. The designer’s cutting-edge vision has earned her a number of accolades, including the American Apparel & Footwear Association’s 2014 Designer of the Year award and 2019 Collaboration of the Year award, FashInvest’s 2016 Fashpreneur award, WGSN’s Global Fashion Collaboration of 2015 nominee and Babson’s 2015 “Entrepreneur Hall of Fame” award. Year after year, she has been named one of Footwear News’ 20 Directional Design Stars. In 2012 she was noted as one of Vogue Italia’s top Vogue Talents, and one of Goldman Sachs’s 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.

Davis ensures unparalleled quality and craftsmanship every step of the way. Her custom designs have grown to be the top choice of celebrities, ranging from A-listers like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Zendaya, Ariana Grande, Mary J Blige and Demi Lovato; top-tier supermodels, influencers, and actresses like Naomi Campbell, Halle Berry, Kendall Jenner, Laverne Cox, Madison Beer, and Billy Porter; and world-class athletes including Lindsey Vonn and recent Women’s World Cup soccer winner Alex Morgan.

In addition to overseeing the operation of her company, Davis serves as a television fashion expert with regular spots on Bravo, E!, Bloomberg, CNBC, Fox News, CBS News, Yahoo Finance, and NBC, among others. She is involved with various organizations, including being an elected member of the University of Delaware Arts and Science’s Fashion Advisory Board, the Loomis Chaffee Head’s Council, and the New Britain Museum of American Art’s Education Committee. She is a recurring guest lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and NYU Stern Business School. She taught a course on footwear design at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and is doing the same at the University of Delaware. She consistently dedicates time to mentoring emerging designers and entrepreneurs by speaking at colleges, business schools, and design schools, but her message is always the same, that anyone can “Find your passion, work hard, live your dreams.”