MOLLY ILLK
Product Designer
When it came to creating a women’s version of our popular Vicious work boot, it seemed only right to assign a woman to the task. That’s when the Danner product development team approached Molly Illk with the project. Now a full-time employee and the only female designer on the product design team, Molly was an intern with the company at the time. “I transferred from OSU to the Art Institute of Portland in 2014 for their Industrial Design program and immediately knew I made the right choice,” she says of her interest in using her creativity to blend aesthetics and function. “I fell in love with product creation.”
The Vicious is a tough boot built for the toughest jobs. It was important that the women’s version had the right fit tailored to female feet, along with a softer aesthetic — all while maintaining its integrity as a burly work boot. At the outset of the project, Molly was thrilled with the challenge but also nervous about the process. She says, “I think being so new and naive to the entire process, I was questioning my ability to really show that I could take a 2D drawing and provide the right information to be created into a tangible, functional object.” She immediately dove into research, exploring interesting textures and colors, and examining the men’s Vicious inside and out.
With the guidance and collaboration of the product design team, she came up with design options that featured softened lines compared to the sharper edges of the men’s version. Her intent was to create a “solid go-to work boot that was feminine enough, but not dressed in pink,” she says. And when it came to colorways, she adds, “I was highly inspired by being in the Pacific Northwest, with the tonal colors of nature and its subtle pops of soft colors like sky blue, forest green, tan and gray purple.”
After Molly’s three-month internship turned into six months, she eventually left with a few original designs under her belt. In addition to the Vicious, she designed the LaCrosse women’s Switchgrass boot, and she collaborated with the Portland Timbers to create a colorway for the limited-edition Mountain 600 Timbers boot.
Upon graduating from design school, she got her feet wet in the industry with a stint in the flyknit department at Nike. But, she says, “Danner held a place in my heart that I don’t think any other company could hold up to.” When a call came that Danner had an opening on the design team, she jumped at the chance to reenter a creative role with the company, and was officially hired in December, 2018. “I felt at home right away and wanted to dive in headfirst with anything thrown my way,” she remembers.
As for her first design, the Vicious boot was released in the fall of 2018 to positive feedback from women who were “excited to have a comfortable boot that was meant for multiple uses,” says Molly. “I have a pair and I first wore them to go mountain goat hunting in Alaska. I was surprised that there was hardly any break-in period — the fit was amazing [and] my feet stayed dry and comfortable.”
Next up for Molly? “Knit is such a fun material and the durability of it can be extremely tolerant,” she says, “It would be fun to test the boundaries of the material and incorporate Danner’s heritage with a more modern approach to footwear.” We look forward to more innovative creations to come from her, as well as the other talented members of our design team.