Please excuse Jimmy Martin ’03 if he does not always make eye contact when you first meet him. He might be staring at your shoes. “I’m a footwear nerd,” he explains.

As product development manager at Boston-based global athletic giant New Balance, Martin leads teams that develop new and innovative basketball and skate footwear. His team creates products that are worn by New Balance athletes like Cooper Flagg, Tyrese Maxey, and Cameron Brink. He has also contributed to highly successful launches of New Balance classics like the 574, 850, 878, and new basketball models.

Grateful for Lasell’s impact on his life, Martin has given back in a variety of ways: coaching cross country and launching the outdoor track and field team, advising the School of Fashion on its curriculum, sharing his career experiences with students, and supporting the Lasell Fund. “Lasell opened up my world in so many ways,” he explains.

Martin was content to build and repair bikes in the local shop where he worked after high school. His mother, Shauna Zeleny, and aunt, Lisa Martin, intervened and convinced him a college education would lead to unimaginable opportunities.

Lasell offered a robust academic support program that appealed to Martin. He was diagnosed with dyslexia as a high school senior and later discovered he also had dysgraphia, a related disorder involving written expression. Lasell’s support team helped him develop strategies and tactics to overcome his learning challenges. “The tools I acquired at Lasell I still use today,” he reports.

Martin originally planned to study business and psychology at Lasell but switched to fashion merchandising as a sophomore. He joined the cross-country team and found it provided an outlet for his extra energy and improved his academic focus.

He started his career by parlaying an internship into a full-time job at the U.S. Navy Clothing and Textile Research Facility in Natick, where he worked on everything from insignias to chemical-protectant clothing. In 2014 he began a three-year stint at Timberland and joined New Balance as a product developer in 2017 before a rapid ascent to his current role.

You could say Martin has found his footing.

Photo by Todd Dionne