Footwear Merchandiser I, Lifestyle

Brooks Running • Seattle, WA

18h • $70,007 - $105,063 • Onsite

About The Position

The Footwear Merchandising Manager I, Lifestyle is a key product person focused on Brooks footwear success which translates to revenue and margin. You work closely with demand planning, sales, brand marketing, color trend, insights, and development to create relevant consumer, channel and market assortments. Your main responsibility is to operate and define the footwear product for the best product line outcome delivering the right product at the right time at the right place and at the right price. You are the “eyes and ears” of the competition as it pertains to the lifestyle market, streetwear, fashion, the consumer and the retailer. In this role you will conduct competitive analysis of Brooks footwear vs. our competition to provide feedback, insights and recommendations to further advance our products and processes. This position requires 15% travel.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business or a related field required.
• Minimum 3 years’ prior experience in working with lifestyle product (wholesale or retail) and at least 1 year of working for a footwear brand in related field.
• Working knowledge of the footwear product merchandising process, retail environment, and consumer buying habits.
• Ability to identify and discern strong collaboration opportunities.
• A history and passion for understanding consumer trends in fashion and beyond.
• General knowledge and understanding of the Lifestyle market and how our key competitors show up in this space. This covers what other brands are doing across all channels, retailers etc. How they segment and merchandise their lines, how they price across this segmentation, how they service the different wholesale channels, how they remain ahead of trend and/or work with the right people etc.
• Relationships with key individuals in the lifestyle space (retailer owners, buyers, media, influencers etc.) and the ability to nurture those relationships as we build this function.
• The ability to gather and understand information from different sources. This position requires someone who keeps up with current trends and can use input from various places to help support decisions.
• Experience supporting or launching products and activations.
• Experience in product creation within the lifestyle space. Design or Development is not required but experience and a deep understanding of the product creation process is a must.
• Strong business orientation and analytical skills in managing SKU efficiency, product mix, and profitability
• Demonstrated ability to conceive/create new thinking and ideas pertaining to the consumer and the product line
• Strong ability to work professionally and efficiently within the team and across departments and connect different functions.
• Excellent oral and written communications skills – skilled presenter with great communication ability.
• Ability to influence, persuade and negotiate to achieve progress toward goals.
• Results-oriented person with the ability to balance numerous tasks and utilize all available resources.

Nice To Haves

• Passion for footwear and/or sneaker enthusiast a plus.

Responsibilities

• Assess and deliver consumer readiness and relevant assortments each season to ensure market readiness and competitive advantage.
• Merchandise the footwear line to maximize regional business, customer, and consumer opportunities.
• Create effective and creative solutions for key lifestyle retailers to maximize Brooks business.
• Act as “eyes and ears” for lifestyle footwear (business, market, customer, channel, runner) and provide feedback to the footwear team.
• Assist in the competitive analysis of Brooks products vs. our competitors on fit/feel/color/trend/price/value. Present findings to product creation teams and recommend opportunities where we can focus efforts to improve products.
• Analyze brand performance, brand competitiveness, product trends and make recommendations based on your research and analysis.
• Validate seasonal regional article counts, price points, and color flow.
• Own seasonal data inputs including colorways, prices, and intro dates for Flex PLM, ensuring accuracy of information and updating changes throughout the season.
• Create and support product prelines with key accounts to obtain feedback on design, materials, color, and price.
• As product representative for the footwear line, provide consumer and market insights to the color team to support creating the right color choices during the creation process. Collaborate with the color teams to create the seasonal assortments.
• Analyze go-in margin vs Brooks targets to determine if we are above/below cost and communicate and report to stakeholders if margin doesn’t meet the target.
• Analyze, interpret and synthesize data to make the best possible decisions for Brooks business and revenue as it relates to merchandising the footwear line.
• Participate in meetings with sales to share product stories, features, benefits, and inform, influence and negotiate to gain buy-in on product decisions and the reasoning behind the decisions.
• Act as a resource for PR, Sales and Marketing for product presentations and videos.
• Manage designated seasonal projects to drive Brooks business/brand/products.
• Embraces and lives Brooks values!

Benefits

• Including medical, dental, vision, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance, HSA and employer contribution, FSA, family & fertility assistance, 401K Savings Plan and match, employee assistance program, and transportation assistance.
• Brooks offers generous time off, including five weeks of paid time off, eleven paid holidays, and paid sick and parental leave.
• In addition to base pay, Brooks employees may also be offered an annual bonus based on company performance.
• Including product discounts, employee recognition, fitness discounts, volunteer and donation benefits.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level