Sumida Designs Company Profile

Jeff Sumida, Owner & CEO
Jeff Sumida is the visionary behind the company.  Jeff Sumida was born and raised in Monterey, California. He has studied art at Mission College, Cabrillo College, Hakone Gardens and in Tokyo and Fashion Design at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA. Besides his Art and Design education, Jeff has a B.A. in Economics from San Diego State and an M.B.A. degree in Finance from the University of Santa Clara. He studied law at UC Hastings College of the Law, Uppsala University Sweden and Oxford University, England.

Jeff worked for several years in Corporate Finance for Ford Aerospace, Amdahl, E-Mu Systems and Lutris Technologies. He spent five years in Product Finance bringing new products to market in Product Development.

Wendell Sakiestewa, Designer
Our chief fashion designer is Wendell Sakiestewa. He is a 1993 graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles. Since Wendell started out designing for Scott Hill, the upscale clothing boutique in Beverly Hills, he has become a "Designer to the Stars". Wendell designed musician Smokey Robinson’s line of clothing called Born Star. Through that, he made a new connection that landed Wendell a high-profile project with rap superstar Snoop Doggy Dog who was launching his own line of urban apparel called Motivate.

When Madonna’s guitarist Monty Pittman contacted FIDM to create costumes for the premier of the movie Snatch starring Benicio Del Toro and Brad Pitt, FIDM recommended Wendell. Snatch was written and directed by Madonna’s husband, Guy Ritchie. So Wendell has a strong fashion presence in both the movie and music industries.

Wendell is of Hopi American Indian descent. He is blending his art and culture into Jeff’s Japanese art and cultural to create SUMIDA. His company is called Hopi Wen*Saks and is based in the L.A. Fashion District.

Read Wendell's biography and view his resume.

Daryl Wise, Public Relations
Daryl Wise brings more than 20 years of public relations and special event experience in the computer software and hardware, music and sports industries. He presently runs a small PR and event company.

Prior to "going solo", Wise was Manager of Media and Artists Relations at Fractal Design, a computer graphics and visual computing software company that later merged and became MetaCreations Corporation. He was responsible for a large portion of public relations programs, working with leading graphics periodicals and national and international computer software journalists. He was also responsible for maintaining artist and community relations, as well staging special events and press conferences.

Wise has worked for a number of companies as an independent contractor with companies including: Macworld Expos, Seybold Seminars, Rogers and Cowan PR, Shandwick Convergence PR, Markzware, Bill Graham Presents, MTV, O'Neill Inc., Cresscare Senior Health, UPSHOT Inc., The Sea Otter Classic, The City of Watsonville, Laguna Seca Raceway, LatinReps, Meals on Wheels of Santa Cruz County and the Catalyst Nightclub.

Wise holds a degree in Public Relations from San Jose State University with a minor in Business.

Sue A. Krenek, Legal Counsel
Sue A. Krenek is a member of Howard Rice's Business Department, as well as the firm's Intellectual Property, E-Commerce and Employment Litigation and Counseling Practice Groups. Her practice focuses on intellectual property counseling and transactions, as well as the general representation of emerging growth companies. Ms. Krenek represents clients in connection with licensing, trademark enforcement, venture financing and transactions relating to Internet and online law, media law and employment law. Ms. Krenek has also litigated trademark, copyright and trade secrets disputes, defamation and other First Amendment litigation, business tort claims, employment discrimination suits and employer-employee contractual disputes. She has practiced in state and federal court and in inter partes proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

Please see our line sheets, or feel free to contact us for more information.