George Sully

Sully was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and attended Notre Dame High School.[4]

Sully started his career as an artist and music producer, then as a DJ. He was inspired to become a fashion designer from Sean Combs's transition from musician to fashion.[5] He created Limb Apparel which featured urban streetwear and moved to Toronto in his 20s to pursue a fashion career.[4]

Sully launched Sully Wong, with Henry Wong. The two founders divided the labour with Sully focused on the graphics and marketing of the products.[6] In 2013, Sully Wong premiered a line of desert boot runners with designer Karim Rashid at the Magic Trade Show in Las Vegas.[7] Sully stated that this collaboration exposed their designs to a celebrities and an international audience.[4] One of these designs was inducted into the Bata Shoe Museum's permanent collection.[7] Sully Wong partnered with student mentees at Central Toronto Academy in 2016 to create The Wolf Sneaker as part of the "6ixess" clothing line.[8][9] The Winter Kicks shoe, another piece in the collection that Sully co-designed with students, was inducted into the Bata Shoe Museum in 2019.[10]

In 2018, Sully launched House of Hayla with Hayla Amini featuring monochromatic stiletto shoes inspired by Pantone Colour Institute hues. The heels are vegan and approved by PETA.[1] Sully also founded Shoenado, a boutique design agency specializing in private label footwear marketing, design and production. Shoeonado created the costume boots for the Starfleet uniform in Star Trek: Discovery.[1]

In 2020, Sully launched Sully & Son Company and collaborated with LG Electronics Canada to create the TECHPAC backpack.[11]

In 2021, TD Bank launched its annual TD Thanks campaign, recognizing and rewarding George Sully with personalized thank you gifts in support of his community initiative efforts in creating Black Designers of Canada.[12] Later in the year, George Sully starred in CRAVE Network Documentary style feature called Creative Soles, where he and his colleagues were given the task to create a custom sneaker for television host Tyrone Edwards.[13]

In 2020, Sully launched the online platform Black Designers of Canada to promote diversity in the fashion industry and promote black artists in Canada.[14][15] The website collected content via self and peer nominations on social media and through its website.[1] In 2021, he launched The Black Designers of Canada Award of Excellence to recognize Black designers and their achievements.[16][17]

• Official website