Soile Aho

Shoes / Accessories

With over 18 years of experience in shoe and accessory design, primarily at H&M, I’ve specialised in creating products and collections that merge aesthetics with functionality. Most lately I have been designing accessories for H&M Kids.

My strengths lie in customer-centric design and the ability to identify key trends, resulting in products that drive strong sales performance. I have been leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver commercially successful collections aligned with brand identity.

My experience in the commercial fashion industry has shaped my eye for colours, details, aesthetics, and brand-focused storytelling.

A backpack for Back to School -campaign, complementing and elevating the Kids clothing collection.

“As Soile’s former Product Manager, I would like to highlight that throughout our collaboration, her design and development of our products not only enhanced the brand’s image and quality, but also drove significant revenue growth.

Soile’s intuition and sense of what customers want - and her talent for making it happen - made a real difference. She brought new ideas, a keen eye for detail and a real understanding of what would work in production.

Together, we developed collections that were not only strong sellers but also proud moments in our careers. ”
— Jenny Johannsdottir / Product Manager H&M Kids Sneakers & Function Shoes

I have worked with many licensed products, including; Minecraft, Pokémon, Lego, Disney, Hello Kitty, Squishmallows, Bluey, Barbie, Sega, Marvel and others.

As a Sneaker Designer at H&M Kids, I also designed footwear prints. This rainbow sneaker became a top seller in the kids’ shoes category for several seasons. Building on its success, I introduced refreshed variations and seasonal updates to keep the style feeling new.

Eva Cremers x H&M Kids sneaker design. Loved working in this co-lab with Evas’ colourful, fun characters!

Skate inspired sneakers for the early teen -customer.

Small patent bag for summer 2025.

“Soile was a fantastic mentor, supporting me as soon as I arrived at H&M for my first footwear design role. Sharing her in depth knowledge of footwear design and encouraging me to grow my skills in illustrator, trend research as well as showing confidence in my abilities to make design choices independently.

Soile was always available to guide me whenever I needed assistance, despite her extremely busy schedule. Always approachable and positive, I was very happy working alongside such a talented, hard working designer who really knows her stuff. Soile has a fantastic work ethic and the ability to adapt to situations without compromise on quality of work.”
— Benjamin Evans / Jr. Shoe Designer H&M Kids Sneakers & Function Shoes

Cut out -boot for H&M Divided -customer, was featured in Elle magazine.

This lace-up boot that I designed became a top-selling style in H&M Divided, performing strongly across multiple seasons.

H&M x Coachella -campaign. As a Concept Designer, I was responsible for the accessories selection to different campaigns and activities for H&M Divided.

Editorial featuring H&M Divided cut out -sandals.

It’s always exciting to see a happy customer! <3 We received positive customer feedback and strong demand for this style, which sold out quickly in stores.

Marble printed boots for H&M Divided.

Fun sunnies for the H&M Divided girl.

In this personal project, I designed a modular nylon crossbody bag inspired by an urban outdoor lifestyle, developing the concept from trend research and sketching through to technical drawings and final design. I used Illustrator to create tech packs to develop detailed technical instructions, incorporating any relevant reference images of materials and details to ensure clarity and ease of understanding in the production.