One on One With Sarah Sukumaran, Founder and CEO of Lilith NYC

Sarah Sukumaran is the founder and CEO of Lilith NYC, a luxury sneaker startup that launched in 2021. Here, she discusses her journey from director of product at Nike to starting her own brand, and how she utilized Two Ten’s WIFI grant program to level up her skills in design. In addition to a few introductory shoe design courses, Sarah will be attending a performance footwear workshop with Arsutoria in Oregon this May. 

What did your journey in footwear look like?  

I was born and raised in Queens, New York and was always a sneakerhead. My professional background is actually in analytics and product management. I worked at Nike as director of product on their member data science side between 2018 and 2020. While I was there, I saw an opportunity to focus on women and femmes beyond size inclusivity. I felt that storytelling could really be flipped on its head and move away from the hyper-masculine. So, I quit my job and started working on my brand, Lilith NYC, in 2020. We launched in 2021 with our initial silhouette, the Caudal Lure, and have scaled our product line and retail presence since then. 

How would you describe Lilith NYC? 

We bridge technical performance with luxury product. In the past, that has been something that women have always been asked to compromise on. And so that's really where our sweet spot lies and what we're focused on. 

What interested you about the WIFI grant?  

As someone who's on the ground and actually physically on the factory floor, I think it is important to have that technical expertise when I'm talking to my partners. Things can go wrong very quickly if you're not able to speak that language with the footwear team. I don't have a design background; my background is in analytics. My goal with the WIFI grant was to learn how to draw footwear and get that technical experience. 

What types of courses would you recommend for other founders in the footwear space?  

I would probably say marketing. I've always operated from an analytical point of view and am always trying to build my skillset around marketing and thinking about how to get in front of consumers. That landscape is always changing, whether it's paid media or the fact that brick-and-mortar sales are doing far better than e-commerce at the moment. We're constantly having to adapt to the next changes, so I think being able to take all those insights and implement them into an actual business is key. Any course that's able to support that, whether it's digital marketing or trend forecasting, is probably where I would focus, outside of footwear construction.