From Molecules to Markets: Yuly Fuentes on Reimagining Footwear, Systems, and What Comes Next

Yuly Fuentes doesn’t think in straight lines — she thinks in systems. 

Her unconventional journey spans continents, disciplines, and industries, beginning in a small city in Chile and moving through biochemistry, neuroscience, and economics before landing at MIT and, unexpectedly, in the global footwear industry. 

What connects it all isn’t a single career path, but a relentless curiosity and a belief that knowledge only matters if it serves people. Today, that mindset is driving Yuly’s work to rethink one of the most complex products in the world — not by changing a single piece, but by redesigning the system around it.

The Tailspin:

Yuly Fuentes describes herself simply — and consistently.

“I've been a nerd my entire career, my entire life since I was born,” she jokes. “Always curious.” 

That curiosity began in Chile, in a small city in the south called Conception, and was shaped by a childhood defined by both protection and constraint.

“When I was born, I was born in a dictatorship structure,” she explains, describing a reality where freedom was limited. “At midnight, you had to go inside the house, nobody can be in the street because the military power is out there.”

But inside the home, Yuly’s family provided her a sense of safety and love. 

“My parents protected me from that, and it was a fantasy that you would just go and play at home and nothing will happen to you.” 

Despite those physical constraints, Yuly allowed her creative mind to run free, and she discovered her first love was science.

“I studied biochemistry. So with that, I know a lot about the synchrony of materials with the planet,” she says.

That pursuit brought her to the United States, without language, but with purpose.

“When I came to the United States, I spoke zero English,” she shares. “But science has a pretty universal language. So if I was going to do an experiment, I knew what I wanted to do and I could explain it in the beginning with science or paint it.”

What she lacked in vocabulary, she made up for in instinct. “It also gave me the opportunity to learn a second language, which is intuition,” she explains. “I don't need to speak to feel the energy of a person or situation…and you really need to read the context.”

From the study of molecules to human behavior, Yuly’s path was never linear, but it was always connected. And the next step would take her to MIT where she began asking a different kind of question.

“So what?”

The Work:

It wasn’t enough to understand science, Yuly wanted to follow its impact.

“When you train as a scientist, you really know molecules, the world, how it works,” she claims. “But you don't really know how to pay the bills.”

Yuly says the missing piece to her picture was economics, so after completing her PhD in biomedical science, she became one of the first postdoctoral fellows in the School of Economics at MIT. 

Her postdoc — T.I.E. — focused on putting three puzzle pieces together: “Technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship,” she explains. That was the winning formula.

“Adoption of technology was the big question,” she says. But to test her theory, Yuly needed to choose an industry that wasn’t perceived as being technological.

That’s how the neuroscientist found herself in the most unlikely of spaces: fashion and footwear. 

“I knew nothing about shoes,” she shares. “I still know nothing about shoes.”

But with the help of a fashion designer friend, she began “a competition to put together fashion designers with scientists from the lab and see if together they could create something new and if it will be adopted.”

What started as a global experiment with 61 teams participating in 47 different cities around the world quickly revealed the power of seemingly unrelated collaborations. 

“You really need to work in intersections to create a new technology or a new invention.”

That insight became the foundation for her work in the footwear industry, where she began connecting science, sustainability, and systems thinking to one of the most complex consumer products on the planet.

“The distance is real,” Yuly says, remaining clear-eyed about the challenge of sustainability and circularity in footwear. But she also sees possibility — if the problem is reframed.

“I think we need to position this industry as a leader and as a model, but it cannot be solved only with the footwear people.”

The answer, in her view, isn’t just better materials or better design — it’s better systems, better economics, and better collaboration.

“There is an economical model that needs to be true in order for you to be sustainable,” she explains. “When you build it as an economical model, you're really building it to build society, to build communities, to build economical models that don't exist today.”

That belief led to the creation of the Footwear Collective, where competitors share data, align around problems, and begin building something entirely new.

“We act like the bank of information.”

Trust, not competition, becomes the foundation. 

“If we really want to create the economical model, we first need to create markets.”

The Tailwind:

For Yuly, the future isn’t about a single breakthrough — it’s about layered change. 

“It has to start with people,” she says. “There’s no better opportunity for change when society feels that they need a change. And I think it's our responsibility to paint that change as equitable as possible, as exciting as possible, and as accountable as possible.”

The system doesn’t change on its own. People do.

“The organizations are not going to do the change.”

And the opportunities are everywhere — in the smallest moments. “In the moment that a person touches a shoe and the person leaves the shoe behind. All those are moments that are an opportunity.”

Yuly sees the future unfolding in stages — trust, partnerships, and ultimately, new markets.

“Step one was trust and demonstration,” she explains. “Step two: strong partnerships. And in year three, the consolidation of the market creations.”

What excites her most isn’t just sustainability — it’s possibility.

“Technology could create jobs and job creation is the part that creates the economy.”

From data collectors to new circular roles, the system isn’t just being fixed — it’s being rebuilt. And at the center of it all is something more personal than systems or strategy.

When asked what she hopes to remember 20 years from now, her answer isn’t about impact metrics or industry change.

“I've been pleasantly surprised by receiving so much love with this work and I don't take it for granted and the love and giving back.”

From molecules to markets, Yuly’s story is a powerful reminder that the biggest problems don’t need better parts — they need better systems.

To hear more about Yuly Fuentes’ journey, the creation of the Footwear Collective, and her vision for the future of systems, sustainability, and human-centered innovation, listen to or watch the full episode of re:Purpose with Buddy Teaster.