Photo: Billboard
Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are looking into aiding LA high schoolers in creating their blueprint to success through a new collaboration with Adidas and PENSOLE, as well as a broadened multi-faceted disciplinary curriculum for LA high schools.
The “Wood U” workshops, held by Adidas, PENSOLE in partnership with Iovine and Young Academy at USC, helped Inglewood students create sneakers inspired by ambition, power and love. The Iovine and Young Academy was founded in 2013 at the University of Southern California by the Beats co-founders dedicated to college students looking for integrated design, business, and technology degrees.
Dr. Edwards fostered the students from various “Wood U” design brackets to see for themselves what their shoes looked like – including black Superstar sneakers with green and red tongues developed by this year’s power cohort. It was displayed in LA Adidas stores on February 7th.
One student from the crowd said, “I felt very proud when I first saw the shoes.” While one stated, “When I first saw the shoes, I was impressed because I didn’t expect them to turn out as good as they were.”
“We’d put a core value up on the board, and a kid would associate a color with it. And the way he described it, you could kind of see it,” Grammy-nominated rapper and Inglewood local D Smoke told a media outlet recounting his observation with a student associating color with each attribute.
He continued, “So, if it’s like, let’s say, strength, he would be like, ‘I believe strength is purple.’ And if we’re talking about designing shoes or designing anything, how to utilize colors to make people feel a certain way – he’s so far ahead. I’m 36 years old, and I’m blown away by this kid.”
In the “Wood U” campaign video, the rapper, who teaches at Inglewood High School, his alma mater, named his first EP after it, says, “Imagine if creativity was actually taught. Because up until now, it hasn’t. The old-school mentality doesn’t fit today’s curriculum. Kids can’t explore creative careers today because the system needs to be reimagined.”
This September, Dre and Iovine will open Regional High School No. 1 with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
The new school is expected to be similar to Audubon Middle School. It will offer 120 spots for 9th and 10th graders in the 2022-2023 academic year. Regional High School No. 1 will follow under the Iovine and Young Academy’s rare, innovative approach to design education – via hands-on, real-world training, in addition, offering a cutting-edge college-prep curriculum.
