Making Shoes for Nike with One Arm with Richard Ramsay

“Fail forward.” Richard Ramsay’s life is governed by this rule – there are no failures, only wins and learnings. Born without a left arm, Richard and his family were unshaken by his disability – a recurring theme throughout our podcasts. His defiant spirit fought the mental entrapment set by coaches and even a first-grade bully. Using sports as an equalizer, the ‘one-armed kid’ dominated the basketball and football circuits in his adolescent years. 

A Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology at Arizona State University became the nexus between Richard and his dream job at NIKE. With 33 rejection letters from the company, he mapped out a path from one of NIKE’s factory stores to its corporate office in Oregon. Richard is now a product developer and innovator for the company, making shoes more accessible to differently-abled persons. A husband and father of two, Richard believes that “enough is never enough.”