To anyone familiar with sneakers Tiffany Beers’ has been a constant influence on the culture. From a small-town girl passionate about sports and sneakers to the trailblazing innovator in footwear and consumer electronics, it’s a story defined by her curiosity, grit, and relentless drive. Growing up before the internet era, she drew inspiration from her older brothers, the electrifying performances of athletes like Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm, and the simple joy of building and creating. Her early fascination with a clunky DOS computer in the ’80s sparked a lifelong curiosity about how things work, setting the foundation for a career that would redefine performance and innovation. We sat down to discuss her work pioneering Nike’s Air Mag with its groundbreaking self-lacing technology to leading global teams at Logitech, Tiffany’s path blends technical expertise, bold risk-taking, and an unwavering commitment to creating products that shape our everyday lives. This is the story of how a love for sports, a knack for problem-solving, and a pair of Nikes fueled a career that continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Growing up, were there any early influences, people, moments, or experiences, that sparked your interest in how things work or pushed you toward engineering?
Wow, what a question. I have to say, my brothers. I have two older brothers, and they were always learning new things and bringing home new ideas from school. The internet wasn’t really around when I was growing up, so I’d say my brothers were a big influence. And then, of course, athletes. I’ve always loved the Olympics. I’ve always loved sports. So people like Michael Jordan. He was huge. Then there were iconic women in sports too, like Mia Hamm. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, she’s incredible.
I paid a lot of attention to sports. Even local sports heroes from my small town, whether they were stars of the football team, basketball team, or volleyball team, I was watching them, looking up to them. That’s where my early inspiration came from: sports, community, and chasing a sense of achievement. That eventually turned into an interest in technology, too. We didn’t have all the entertainment options that kids have today. So we made things. We played in the woods. We built stuff. That’s probably where my curiosity for tech and how things work really started.
Believe it or not, we got a computer in the ’80s. I have no idea why, my dad just got one. I remember using it in fifth or sixth grade with Dragon software to dictate school papers. It was one of those old DOS computers, barely running, but I was totally into it. That machine fascinated me and I learnt so much very early.I’d say all of that, sports, my brothers, the computer, really shaped where my inspiration came from and put me on this path.
You mentioned playing sports as a kid and recognising the performance impact of footwear early on. Do you remember a specific pair of sneakers that made you feel unstoppable?
So it’s funny, I played basketball. When I was in fifth grade, I had a pair of Nikes that were all black with blue Swooshes. I couldn’t tell you exactly what model they were, but I loved those shoes. I’d put them on and feel like my skills just went up, like any good pair of shoes does, right? That was my first big connection to the industry.
Then I was playing volleyball, starting in seventh or eighth grade and continuing through high school and college but I needed something different. I’m not super tall; I’m only about 5’4″. I played outside hitter, and I had some hops. I was a pretty good jumper and a powerful hitter, so even though I was small, I needed shoes that worked for my style of game.
That’s when I found these Nike Indestructs. They had a crazy amount of traction, like trail running shoes, and some decent cushioning too. I probably wore those shoes for volleyball for about five years. They were completely worn down when I retired them. I wish I had kept them… but I didn’t. They were history, super cool colourway too, with jewel-tone blue and burgundy.
Both of those sneakers were keystones for me. They really got me inspired and into sneakers. It kind of just became my thing growing up. I think being a smaller athlete made shoes matter more to me. I wanted shoes that were unique and actually made me perform better. The rest of the team had on the same white volleyball shoes, and there I was in my trail runners. That’s when it all really started. I then stuck with it.
How did your journey take you from growing up wearing Nikes to eventually working at what many consider the most prestigious footwear brand in history?
It was hard work! That’s how I pulled it off, but it was also about being in the right place at the right time and being willing to take chances. So, I ended up going to school for plastics engineering. I’m not really an A student, maybe an A-minus or B student. I went to school because one way or another, I had to work. There was no trust fund or anything like that to let me not work and it interested me. The idea of marrying into money wasn’t going to happen, I’m more of an independent person. So that wasn’t an option. I got this plastics engineering degree because I like to make things. It was engineering, it looked interesting, and it was relevant in the area. We had a lot of tool and die makers and injection molding companies nearby.
My older brother were in plastics engineering, he was a technician doing something similar. And my other brother was in tool and die. So it felt very familiar and common, and really interested me. After I got that degree, I thought I’d be working in an injection moulding facility, like making plastic bottles. Initially, I was designing rectangles and squares at Rubbermaid, plastic boxes you use to store food or trash or other stuff. At some point, I realised Rubbermaid had a lot of layoffs and challenges. I had moved through several groups, but I was still there. I was working on closets at the time, basically building those old-school Rubbermaid metal closets. I’d load them with hundreds of pounds until they broke. That was fun because you’d just rip them off the wall. Then I’d re-engineer them. But I was getting bored with it. I was young, and I felt like I could do whatever I wanted. I wasn’t attached to anything.
So I started looking at other jobs. I applied at Oakley and Burton snowboards was where I really wanted to go because you could bring your dog to work. I loved that idea when you’re 22 or 23. And Nike. I had also applied to another company, Injection Molding in North Carolina, and I got that job first and accepted it. Then a while later Nike called and wanted to interview me. The whole process took a long time, about eight months from first contact to actually getting the job. At one point, they said, “You got the job. When can you come out?” I was like, “Oh my gosh, when do you need me?” They said, “In two weeks.” I had already accepted the other job, so I called them and said, “Hey, I got a job offer from Nike.” They said, “Oh, take it! We would take it too. No worries.” I was so stressed about that conversation. I packed up my old Toyota 4Runner, took my dog, and drove from Ohio to Oregon. That was a long drive, about five days. Then I started straight with Nike IHM, working on Nike Airbags it all happened very quickly.
Nike’s gone through huge innovation over the years. How did your role change from the early days? Did your job evolve with the technology, or stay pretty the same?
Coming from a small town, working at Nike was a huge deal, I had a real honeymoon phase where everything felt incredible. My plastics engineering background from Penn State was highly relevant, so I could hit the ground running and make an impact right away. I had to learn about shoes, cushioning, and Air technology, but the core skills were already there.
After a year or two, I applied to the Innovation Kitchen, despite being told I was too junior. I got in, and that’s when I realised it wasn’t just the technology that changed, the culture within each team changed too. Each group had its own vibe, and that really shaped the experience.
In male-dominated spaces like engineering and product innovation, what tactics or mindset shifts helped you not only survive, but thrive?
So I can’t really tell you. I grew up with brothers. I have two older brothers, and actually most of my cousins were boys. I didn’t know any different than working with boys, playing sports with boys. I played T-ball, little league, and even senior league with all the boys. I played on the boys’ teams. So for me, walking into engineering was probably the first time I woke up to it a little bit, because there were six girls and 80-some boys. But I was used to it, so it wasn’t really a big deal. I was never in a situation, except on my sports teams, where I was surrounded by girls.
In sports, you’re focused on winning the game. So for me it was actually more comfortable. I knew how to communicate with men, how to talk and feel comfortable immediately with them, how to push them more so than with a group of women. So I would say it didn’t bother me. I felt like I was lucky, because my gender helped, my work ethic helped, and my degree helped. I happened to stack up this series of benefits for myself that I didn’t even realise I was doing at the time.
What was it like working with Kanye West on the Nike Yeezy line? Did you realise at the time it would become such a huge success? How was the energy in the room during development and launch?
The reason I got that role working with entertainers and athletes was that I didn’t really care. I wasn’t starstruck when I worked with these people. To me, my job was to develop a shoe. So whatever that designer wanted to create, my job was to figure out how to make it happen. I wasn’t the person asking for autographs or pictures. I just saw them as another person bringing a really interesting set of challenges. It’s interesting looking back now, but I really didn’t care who it was at the time.
Sometimes entertainers or athletes would come in, and the designers were in other meetings, so I’d be told, “Go entertain this person, give them a tour, show them around.” And I was like, “Okay, cool, let’s go.” I’d tell them about the Nike campus and whatever. A lot of the time, the athletes and entertainers looked at the designers like they were the famous ones, honoured to be in their presence, building a shoe with them. It was amazing to see. The famous people weren’t the stars in this dynamic, they just wanted to build a generational shoe.
That common love of shoes was our baseline. We all wanted to create something really cool. It felt normal and even fun to work together because we were teaching them about shoes, and they’d throw ideas at us that we hadn’t thought of before. Then we’d go build. I think I was lucky to work with them during this time when it was new. There’s a lot of imagination about what it’s like to work with famous people, but they’re just people too. They want cool shoes, and it’s passion over product.
We try to get them what they want. Some of the requests are a little tricky, that’s not going to work the way you want to wear it or the way you want to use it. You have all these considerations. But also, keep in mind, I’m only involved with the product. Once it gets to marketing and storytelling, I’m not involved. I’m just focused on getting the product made, getting it into production, and whatever needs to happen there. So there’s definitely more to the story beyond my part of working with some of these people.
You’re probably best known for the Nike Air Mag and its self-lacing technology. As someone in plastics engineering, what was it like developing a shoe with that kind of innovation? How did it feel working on something so iconic, and what were some of the biggest challenges?
Well, the entire process was a rollercoaster. You’re talking massive frustration and a ton of failure, figuring out how to build a mechanism that would go into the shoe to lace it. The idea of charging, batteries, and having complex tech inside was never really what we were aiming for, because it complicates things. If we could have done it passively, that was our goal. We looked at it, we tried again and again, but there were tons of attempts and tons of failures. That was hard, but there was a lot of learning too. Every time we failed, we learned how to do it better. It was an amazing experience.
That project was just one of many I was working on, not the only one. Over the course of that shoe’s development, which spanned about 11 years, I worked on hundreds of other shoes and projects. I was doing 40 to 50 other models a year, some prototypes that never made it to production. That one project was always moving forward, developing the technology, seeing where it was at, learning from it, and figuring out what we could do next. But there were several times when we had to pause and say, “The technology’s not ready, it’s not there yet, or we haven’t found it,” so we had to take a step back.
I absolutely loved that program. It was so much fun, I got to explore, learn new things, and bring new people into the fold. While I spearheaded it, there were teams upon teams collaborating behind the scenes. We brought in many designers to creatively tackle the challenges we faced. Literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people worked alongside me to bring that program to life.
Did you anticipate it being adopted more widely? How did it feel working on something inspired by Back to the Future, and what were some of the biggest challenges?
For me, the vision was always to make it something practical for shoes, something that people could actually use. Because there are people who don’t have the mobility to tie their shoes, right? It reminds me of the FlyEase technology they’ve come out with now. There are some similarities between the two, even if it’s not a direct descendant. You can definitely see a connected design language. Anytime you see these kinds of technologies, if you look up the patents, you can see the people involved and notice some of it is shared. There are a ton of learnings. During the whole process of building the Mag, we fed those learnings into other businesses and teams.
One of the great things about the culture at Nike was its focus on innovation. Sharing it, recognising it, and finding the right purpose for it. Some of the best ideas came out of different projects and eventually evolved into their own standalone technologies. So yes, I absolutely wanted it to reach the market and become a reality. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet just highlights the challenges. In many ways, it’s still too early. The technology isn’t quite at the point where it makes sense from a cost or scalability perspective. We might not hear about it for a few more years, but that doesn’t mean it’s not actively being developed behind the scenes.
And people who are innovators, are always playing with new things, tinkering, trying stuff out. That was part of the beauty of the culture there: having enough of those tinkerers all together. You get two of them riffing ideas, and then you have a place where you can actually go make it happen right now.
You’ve led multi-million-dollar projects and 100+ person teams. What’s your approach to leadership when innovating under pressure?
So it’s all about learning to manage risk and strategising. I would call myself a strategist now. I manage about a 200-person team of mechanical, materials, and sustainability engineers at Logitech, in consumer electronics. I’ve completely shifted over to consumer electronics now, and my teams are global. The dynamics are not unlike a basketball or volleyball team. You put the right people in the right room with a strategy and a plan, and they will build innovation and create amazing things. The question then becomes: can you scale it the way you want? Mass production means millions of units, that’s not a small thing.
Scaling, as you see in startups, becomes a real challenge. Lots of people can build innovation, and innovative products can be interesting. But the question is, can you scale it in a way that makes money? Nowadays, I focus on strategy, long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals. You have big risks, little risks, low-hanging fruit, and challenges that are less easy to grab. A combination of those approaches is what makes the difference and gets you enough innovation to create a new experience. The Mag taught us that. That shoe gave people a different experience with their shoes, something they dreamed about, and we were able to make it real. That’s the story: it’s about the experience, about putting your foot in the shoe.
Have you ever tried a Mag? Or do you remember the first time you tried an automatically laced sneaker, the first time it auto-laced? I remember sitting in our prototype room. We had a “Works” area a space people didn’t know about. One of my engineers, Andy, brought me the prototype and said, “You’ve got to try this on.” I tried it on, and it was the first time it auto-laced. Oh my, I still have a picture of it. It was the coolest moment ever. That’s the experience I want to continue bringing into products, even more so than I do today.
Is it becoming harder to create “wow” moments since society has adapted to big changes like computers? With innovations like self-lacing shoes already experienced, are people dreaming bigger, making it tougher to impress?
No but it’s interesting to think about? I think a lot of people haven’t actually experienced auto-lacing. They can imagine it, but feeling it is a little different from imagining it. So, I’m not worried, we’re still humans at the end of the day. Technology is definitely changing how we innovate and make things happen, but we’re humans who like experiences. That’s not changing. We still use pencils. We still walk barefoot. We still do very human things that will never change.
I still believe that finding a good experience that simplifies someone’s life, creates more comfort, or allows them to do something they couldn’t otherwise, that stuff will always win. You’ll still see those things every day in life, and you’ll want them and find them. I hope we’re not all just sitting in floating chairs like the movies. But if that happens, there will definitely be some people hidden out in the forests. There will always be people interested in cool experiences and simpler lives.
You’ve talked about “failing fast” as part of your path. Can you share a moment in your career where failure was essential to breakthrough, and what you learned from it?
My time at Tesla was short (just six months) but incredibly eye-opening. I knew within the first month that it wasn’t going to be a long-term fit, which was tough to come to terms with, especially since I had left Nike to take that role. At the time, it felt like a failure. You’re taught that short stints don’t look good on a resume. But looking back now, I realise how much I learned in that short period. I discovered how much I enjoy learning entirely new things, and that I’m capable of doing so. I ended up managing aspects of building construction, something I had never done before. It was all about adapting to new team dynamics, and despite the challenges, I grew a lot. So while it didn’t turn out how I expected, it gave me a deeper understanding of myself and how I work best.
After that, I started a YouTube channel, which I was really excited about. I reviewed shoes and explored what it meant to be both a creator and an influencer. I quickly realised I didn’t enjoy the influencer side, I liked being a creator. They’re definitely two different things. The channel was all about shoes, and I still think about doing more with it. But once brands started sending me products to review, it didn’t sit right. If I wouldn’t spend my own money on something, I didn’t feel honest reviewing it, and financially, that model just didn’t work for me.
The truth is, I fail all the time. Let’s be honest, I manage 200 people across global teams, and I still fail regularly. But one of the most important things you can do as a leader is own your failures. Whether it’s saying, “I didn’t handle that well,” or “I got upset and said the wrong thing,” you have to acknowledge it. There’s real freedom in owning your mistakes. And the same goes for failure in general, if you’re willing to learn from it, there’s power and growth in that process.
You moved from sneakers and footwear to Logitech, which is focused on hand ergonomics. How different is it working on different styles of products, especially in terms of comfort and design?
I think how I would describe it is: things that are on the body versus things that are used by the body. Shoes and headsets are on the body, while mice and basketballs are used by the body. To me, there’s a difference there. I wouldn’t say there was a ton of learning about comfort initially, because I worked in headsets. That felt very familiar, I knew how to describe and innovate around comfort. That’s why you see a lot of gaming headsets now incorporating sports mesh and materials directly from footwear. You see things like open-cell foam inside, materials coming directly from my footwear background. But also, the industry started to learn that other industries have some really cool materials we could use.
When you think about it, your fingers touch those keys every day, the keys of the keyboard and the mouse, much like your feet do when you run or walk. So there’s definitely a lot of learning there. But a lot of it was about the process and the design process. It takes longer, the products are more complicated, and more disciplines are involved. Just understanding how long something takes and how much more complex it is, that took a little while to learn, for sure. It’s fascinating. I look forward to getting back into footwear someday because I’m curious to see how learnings from consumer electronics can be reapplied back to footwear.
I got to do a little bit of that with Saysh, Alyson Felix brand, which was interesting. At the end of the day, it probably took two or three years to get a handle on how the process runs differently and how a company like Logitech works differently, especially their culture. But in many ways, it’s very similar to what I was doing before because it’s all about developing experiences.
Since you started, how have regulations, particularly around sustainability and environmental goals, affected your work? With plastics being redesigned to tackle issues like microplastics, how have you managed these shifts?
Yeah, there are definitely more regulations today, and there will continue to be more. But I have an engineering mindset, it’s just more problems to solve. There are more guide rails around what you’re doing. Plastics aren’t going anywhere, let’s be clear. Plastics are getting cleaner, with less carbon involved and more recycled content. All those processes are improving. Europe tends to be faster with regulations than other parts of the world. For example, the USB-C connector is now standardised everywhere, and I think everyone’s grateful for that. But from a product perspective, it means you have to have that connector, or you can’t sell your product. Companies have to switch over.
There are other regulations around batteries and safety to protect people and the environment. Lots of people are trying different things, and we just have to figure out which regulations impact our product sales. At the end of the day, it comes down to revenue. Without revenue, you’re not really around. If something will impact your revenue, you have to address it immediately. That shifts your priorities and focus. There’s a famous saying: “Give an artist unlimited time and unlimited budget, and they’ll never finish.” Constraints aren’t a bad thing for innovation, products, or consumers. It’s just that sometimes the speed at which you have to deliver can be tricky.
As someone deeply connected to performance and material science, what do you see as the next wave of innovation? Are there any developments you find especially exciting right now?
AI is changing everything, It’s changing entire processes. There are definitely some really interesting developments happening. We’re seeing more environmentally friendly materials, materials that innovate with the same properties of what some plastics do today but in a much greener way, using less carbon, less water, and fewer toxins. There’s tons of interesting stuff out there.
At the same time, consumer expectations around durability might need to shift. Depending on where you are, our weather systems and patterns are changing. That’s a big deal because it creates different requirements for products. There are small but important factors, like temperature, we always test products for the environments they’ll be shipped through. For example, shoes might sit in the trunk or back window of a car, and you have to consider how hot they’ll get. Those conditions are changing, which drives innovation in materials that can withstand different temperature swings and humidity changes. I can’t really talk too much about some of the stuff I’m seeing, but there are definitely some exciting developments out there.
Finally, you’ve started coaching and mentoring. What inspired you to take that path and help younger people or those struggling with their businesses?
I mean, I love it. At some point in my career, people started coming to me with problems, asking, “How can I go after this?” I really enjoyed being involved in helping. I’ve always been an athlete, so I’ve always appreciated coaching. I’ve coached volleyball and softball. Coaching people in their careers, and finally having enough experience to help them have a shorter, less rough journey, really got me on board.
If I’d had more mentors in the industries I chose to be in as a female, I think I would have moved faster and better than I did. So if I can help others move faster and better, I’m all about it. It feels really rewarding, and I learn a ton at the same time. I learn a lot from these people because coaching and mentoring is different from management. When you coach, you get the raw truth of what’s really happening because they want to fix it and change it.
Are there any recurring barriers you see come up time and time again?
Not an everyone problem, but the people who look for coaching definitely have similarities. I think you find a coach you relate to. One thing I wish I was better at, and something I see in a lot of people I coach, is that everyone is too hard on themselves. Expectations are sky-high, and the desire for perfection is impossible. It’s not until you give up on that perfection and focus on progress that things change. My mentors, managers, and friends have told me that for decades, but I finally understood it a couple of years ago.
So I’d say most people struggle with that, even I still do.
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self at the start of your career, what would it be?
Oh man, I would say: identify your values and go hard at them. Really commit. Because during some of my time at Nike, I think I lost sight of my values. I didn’t really understand what values were. I let people make me feel bad about things I shouldn’t have. I never should have had to apologise for my ambition and my drive. That’s something that made me different!
