Early work Davis worked as a sportswriter for the
Hartford Courant and
ESPN. In 1989, she started her first independent entrepreneurial venture in Vermont, a hybrid fitness business that combined a workout studio and a sports gear store.
Corporate career Davis transitioned into the footwear industry by joining
Reebok as an Associate Product Manager. She became director of the Reebok Classic division in four years. There, she reimagined the sports brand as a fashion staple, adding colored bottoms and unconventional materials to the classic white sneakers. After leaving
Reebok, Davis served in multiple executive positions at major fashion brands. As VP of Marketing and Design at
UGG Australia in the early 2000s, she championed a campaign to transform the public's vision of UGG boots. It was Davis's work that helped UGG enter the fashion scene with their fleece-lined boots known for functionality. UGGs were then “one of the most popular statement pieces,” with major celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton caught wearing them in paparazzi shots. An offer to work at
Tommy Hilfiger as the VP of Marketing and Design for Women's Footwear brought Davis from California to New York.
The brand A typical Ruthie Davis shoe has been described as “clean, minimal, functional, sleek, sexy.” Featured in global retailer establishments including
Neiman Marcus and
Harvey Nichols and on top-tier magazines like
Vogue and
Elle, within a few years the Ruthie Davis brand gained an international reputation. A-list celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Beyoncé ordered custom shoes for their red-carpet events. It was Ruthie Davis’s SS19 collection that Lady Gaga wore to the
A Star Is Born premiere. The Ruthie Davis brand is recognized for its many collaborations. One of its most notable is the Disney x Ruthie Davis collection, which debuted on January 15, 2017. The first collection was inspired by
Snow White in celebration of the Disney franchise’s 80th anniversary. This collection included eight styles, including sneakers, booties, and stiletto sandals. In the following years, she reimagined a series of Disney princess franchises in the collection, from
Cinderella to
Frozen to
Mulan. This long-standing collaboration eventually involved all eleven Disney princesses. In 2019 at the American Image Awards, she and Disney were awarded Collaboration of the Year by the
American Apparel & Footwear Association. In 2015, Davis was recognized for her collaboration with designer and animal activist John Bartlett on a vegan shoe line, for which they were nominated for the
WGSN Global Fashion Collaboration Award. Davis pulled out of her retailer relationships to shift her brand to a direct-to-consumer e-commerce model in 2020. Focusing on social media engagement, the brand has a following of 400k on
Instagram and 150k on
Facebook.
Outside the brand Davis has served as a fashion expert on mainstream TV and podcast channels, such as Bravo, E!, Bloomberg, CNBC, Fox News, and Yahoo Finance. She has also been involved in education. She has taught several courses at the
Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and the
University of Delaware. She serves on the University of Delaware’s Fashion Advisory Board, the Loomis Chaffee Head Council, the
New Britain Museum of American Art's Education Committee, and the Scholarship Program Selection Committee of the
Council of Fashion Designers of America. == Awards and coverage ==