When Oved Valadez says he “took the mic,” he means it literally and metaphorically. The 42-year-old Executive Creative Director and founding partner of INDUSTRY, a Portland-based creative consultancy, didn’t wait for permission to reshape branding across sports, fashion, and entertainment. He built a platform so bold, so disruptive, that the industry couldn’t look away. Raised in Los Altos, Jalisco, Mexico, and immigrated to the U.S. at age 13, Valadez speaks of identity as something lived, not marketed. “I am, through and through, an inmigrante,” he told CREMA in an in-depth interview. And while his resume includes work with Nike, Converse, HP, and Timberland, it’s his philosophy—”create like an immigrant”—that gives his projects their edge.
1Valadez doesn’t consider “create like an immigrant” a slogan. It’s a state of being. “It’s the embrace of risk, the embrace of change, the embrace that nothing is constant,” he explained. For him, that mindset makes it easier to push boundaries, stay agile, and resist stagnation. This lens has shaped everything from his earliest days as a product developer to his current work disrupting major brand campaigns. “The concept of feeling static in the world of creativity is one that you have to remember to break,” he said.
According to Valadez, breaking into the industry didn’t happen because he checked a diversity box. It happened because he refused to be ignored. “No one’s gonna make room for you at the table. You have to take it,” he said. “I always joke that I took the mic. The mic was never given to me.” Valadez is blunt about his intentions: “I don’t want to be hired for being Latino. I want to be hired for the best ideas. I want to be the best voice, not the best Latino voice.”
2Asked about the first project where he “took the mic,” Valadez points to the Nike Mag campaign in 2016—a limited release of the self-lacing shoes from Back to the Future. Instead of auctioning the sneakers as a luxury item, INDUSTRY transformed the launch into a $5 raffle that democratized access. It was also one of the first to integrate a city-to-city tour where fans could try the shoes on.
“Even if you don’t win, let’s spark imagination,” he said. “Let’s create a draw. Let’s democratize the experience.” That campaign ultimately influenced how Nike developed its SNKRS draw system. But Valadez doesn’t dwell on metrics. “To me, it’s never about the campaign. It’s about creating new behaviors.”
When INDUSTRY took on the Leagues Cup rebrand—a joint tournament between Liga MX and Major League Soccer—Valadez didn’t want to sell soccer. He wanted to sell culture. “It’s not about U.S. versus Mexico,” he said. “It’s about how we experience the same things across borders, cities, and teams.” The campaign featured real people, real stories, and layered textures rooted in Chicano and crossover culture. One photo showed fashion designer Georgina Tino walking a pack of Cholo dogs while wearing a dress she made herself. Another featured legendary goalkeeper, Jorge Campos, wearing a custom wild-pattern jersey designed in collaboration. “We used the power of oral tradition and reshaped it,” Valadez said. “The truth is in there.”
3Authenticity drives every decision Valadez makes. “Sometimes people approach us with ideas where I’m like, well, that product shouldn’t exist,” he said. In those cases, he pushes back. Representation alone doesn’t convince him either. “It comes down to: does this thing that I’m doing have purpose? Is there a true value, a true exchange that’s happening?”
When it comes to Gen Z, especially Latino Gen Z, Valadez urges brands to ditch the blanket strategies. “If I go to Latinos in Chicago versus New York versus Miami, it’s very different,” he said. Instead of casting a wide net, he suggests starting grassroots: “Think about an onion. You don’t start with the outside. Start with the core. Then build your way out.” He cited Converse as a brand that gets it. Their DNA has always been about independence, and today’s youth are searching for individuality. “If Converse were like, ‘We’re just going to talk about sustainability,’ that’s not authentic to them.”
Valadez doesn’t shy away from calling out the “white gaze” in branding. “They make us look like a caricature of a whole culture and centuries of history,” he said. His solution? Break the tropes. “The last thing I want to do is box people in. I want to inspire and show a new version they haven’t seen.”
4Most recently, INDUSTRY has been working with Nike to bring street soccer culture to the U.S., flipping the traditional model of pay-to-play suburban soccer on its head. “In Mexico, it’s in the streets, it’s urban, it’s culture,” Valadez explained. “We’re bringing that here. While other brands are out in the stadiums, we’re persuading Nike to go to the soul.”
For years, Valadez operated in stealth mode. INDUSTRY had no website. He avoided public credit. But a mentor challenged him: “It’s not about you. It’s about the next generation.” Now, he shares three pieces of advice: “One, embrace grit. Two, adapt to where the world is going. Three, be madly in love with what you do.” “Whether I’m on a street corner doing it or at a table with the biggest CEOs in the world, I’m living the best life,” he said. That’s what it means to create like an immigrant.
