A COLLEGE DROPOUT from Cork who says he has the reading and writing skills of a 10-year-old is the man sports retail giants PUMA have entrusted to design the graphics on football boots for the world’s biggest sportstars.
It’s an amazing story and one even the man in question, 22-year-old Con O’Brien, can’t get his head around.
This week marks one year working in the company’s headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, for O’Brien and his anniversary there dovetails nicely with the release of PUMA’s latest boots, the eveSPEED and evePOWER.
“It’s indescribable, its nuts, I’ve been here since October but it doesn’t feel like it,” says the Glounthaune man about what is very evidently a dream job.
“The headquarters is here in Nuremeberg and I knew nothing of the place before I got the job!
“The F1 race track was all I knew but that isn’t even here.”
If someone so young with no college qualification is the man in charge of graphics at PUMA is a fascinating story, how he got to this point is even more so.
“The whole thing was very strange. I got into a four-year graphic design course in Cork but halfway through it I was having doubts.
“It was slow-paced, the projects were all over the place and there was a negative attitude so after two years I decided I had enough and I dropped out.
“I went into a hip hop studio in Cork called Flava Floors (Art Studio) and the guy there, Adam O’Connor, took me under his wing and taught me everything he knows.”
O’Brien’s daily jobs were basic enough and much of his time was spent painting murals in places like gyms. But the ambition in him always shone through and he was applying for jobs “just for the craic”.
“I was going on holiday last summer with two buddies but I was applying away for jobs – and getting no replies!
“Then this job with PUMA came up and they wanted someone with a graffiti background.
“I was in Barcelona when they called me and they said ‘we saw your portfolio, we’d like to do an interview.
I was like ‘f*** it I’m not ready for this’ as I was there in my shorts but I managed to get a suit jacket and shirt.
“It was a very dodgy connection for the interview and though it went well, I told nobody because I wasn’t sure if anything would come of it.”
He couldn’t have been more wrong.
“They called back and said they wanted another interview with me in Germany so I called home and said ‘there’s a possibility I’m off to get a job in Germany’.
“PUMA flew me out as soon as possible for the face-to-face interview and a week later I got the job and I was on the next flight out.
“I just couldn’t get my head around it, how is this possible, I thought?”
O’Brien reckoned he’d be observing others, learning the ropes during his six-month probation.
PUMA had other ideas.
“I thought there must be a catch, maybe I’m only in a big team and maybe someday I’ll get my design on a packet of something but I’m actually the only graphics designer in here.
“I had to do everything — the camo on the boots, everything went though me, the shin guards, the jerseys, the boots, I was under six months’ probation but the time went by in six weeks.”
There were late nights and early mornings but last weekend he saw his work come to fruition when a host of the world’s top footballers were seen wearing the exact kit O’Brien designed.
“How it works is the players wear them (boots) first, which was last weekend and then they’re available online and in stores.
“One of the boys told me they saw them in Mahon Point today. That was an amazing moment.
“It’s a better feeling for me to have them on sale in shops in Cork than seeing someone like Aguero wear them!”
Ah yes, the names. Cazorla, Balotelli, Buffon, Aguero, the list goes on and on and on and on. Not that we get bored of listening.
He’s had one-on-one meetings with Thierry Henry about boots where they’ve thrashed out the virtues of laces and no laces.
“Henry was incredible. It was an open discussion about a lot of things but we discussed a lot of general stuff, such as his handball against us.
“He’s now training the Arsenal U21s and is a brand ambassador for us so we showed him some old boots and asked him what stood out for him when he wore them and discussed what should we be doing more or less of.
“He’s very in-depth, how he thinks about boots is insane. The guy could talk for a millennium about them, but he’s good craic, he was always messing and having a laugh.”
O’Brien doesn’t think he’ll be home any time soon as his title, ‘graphics and materials for team sport footwear’ could take him anywhere.
“I’ve been very lucky with this but my parents deserve so much credit. I remember saying it to them that I was dropping out of college, they never once asked why, just always supported me.
“I’m very dyslexic and I had kind of thrown my hat at education a bit because what can I get out of school?
I have the reading and writing skills as a 10-year-old and that made school hell.
“I’ll barely get a college place, I thought, so when I dropped out (of college) I was painting murals in gyms. A bit different to what I’m doing now but I can never thank the people who put me on this path enough.
“Adam O’Connor at Flava Floors was incredible, monumental. He’s a graffiti writer and taught me in one year what they’ll teach college students in six years. He gave me access to my own studio and he never asked for a thing in return. Claire Hattie, as well, she’s another artist and they’ve been instrumental.
“The staff at Hewitt College as well, they helped me through school and built it around me. I can’t have been easy to deal with but they were amazing.”