Brand Partnership Manager

Koobz • San Buenaventura (Ventura), CA

3h

About The Position

Koobz is a seed-stage footwear company of about 15 people that 3D prints monolithic, made-to-order shoes in foamed TPU at its factory in Ventura, California. Its customers include streetwear and lifestyle brands, creators, and designers. The Brand Partnerships Manager owns the front of the sales funnel, finding and qualifying brands and creators, leading initial conversations, and moving leads toward a term sheet. This is a hands-on role and the first point of contact for many customers.

The manager reports to the Chief Commercial Officer and works alongside the VP of Product and Commercialization, who takes qualified deals through development and launch. The role involves prospecting, responding to inbound inquiries, qualifying leads, quoting standard pricing, maintaining HubSpot, representing Koobz at events, and sharing market feedback with the product and design team.

Requirements

• Three to six years of experience at a streetwear or sneaker brand, collab agency, boutique, or culture media company, in a role such as collab coordinator, brand partnerships, wholesale or production coordinator, or buyer.
• Knowledge of the streetwear and sneaker community, including its events, product drops, and founders.
• Strong organization and follow-through, with the ability to maintain a clean sales pipeline independently.
• Ability to explain Koobz’s made-to-order, no-minimum, no-mold business model and its implications for a brand’s margins and risk.
• Ability to lead initial calls, ask questions that reveal whether a brand is serious, and decline opportunities without damaging relationships.
• Strong, fast writing skills for direct messages, emails, and CRM notes.
• Interest in joining an early-stage company building a new kind of business.

Nice To Haves

• Footwear or apparel production exposure, including tech packs, sampling, sizing, and factory communication.
• Experience with HubSpot or a comparable CRM, including sequences and reporting.
• A record of closed collaboration, licensing, or wholesale deals that can be discussed.
• Spanish or another language common among the brands and creators Koobz works with.

Responsibilities

• Build and work target lists of streetwear, sneaker, and lifestyle brands and creators through Instagram, email, and events.
• Respond to every Innovation Brief and website inquiry within two business days using standard templates and pricing lanes; route strategic or unusual inquiries to the Chief Commercial Officer.
• Run initial calls, assess fit against the customer profile and manufacturing constraints, and move leads through the E1 to E3 qualification stages.
• Decide which leads to pass on and communicate those decisions clearly.
• Quote standard pricing, prepare call briefs, maintain follow-up schedules, and hand qualified deals to the VP of Product and Commercialization with complete records.
• Maintain accurate HubSpot records, including logging every lead, updating stages, and dating next steps.
• Represent Koobz at ComplexCon, Stride, pop-ups, and drops, and turn conversations into logged leads.
• Share market feedback with the product and design team, including what brands request, what they resist, and where competitors are succeeding.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed