Vice President, Footwear Product Strategy

Brooks Running • Seattle, WA

130d • $243,000 - $343,000

About The Position

The Vice President, Footwear Product Strategy is a highly strategic role responsible for leading and integrating the direction and workstreams of our Footwear Product Line Management, Product Marketing, Footwear Merchandising, and Strategic Footwear Advisor teams. Reporting directly to the SVP, Footwear and Apparel, this position is instrumental in defining and executing a holistic product vision that drives innovation, market relevance, and business growth across all footwear categories. This individual possesses a deep understanding of consumer insights, market dynamics, and the product creation lifecycle, with a proven ability to translate strategic vision into actionable plans and tangible results. As a strong, collaborative, visionary leader, this role is capable of inspiring and guiding diverse teams, fostering cross-functional alignment, and championing a runner-first approach in all product decisions. The VP of Footwear Product Strategy is responsible for synthesizing the strategies and execution of these key departments to create a cohesive and impactful unified product strategy for Brooks. This role ensures that product direction, storytelling, market readiness, and strategic initiatives are seamlessly integrated and optimized to deliver the best running footwear on the planet to our consumers.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, or a related field; master’s degree in business administration preferred.
• Minimum of 15+ years of progressive experience in product management, merchandising, and/or product marketing within the athletic or outdoor industries.
• Minimum of 10+ years of experience leading and developing high-performance teams, with proven ability to lead functions not in your direct area of expertise.
• Demonstrated experience in strategic planning and execution with measurable outcomes.
• Deep understanding of consumer behavior, market trends, and retail dynamics.
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to influence and persuade stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to assess product readiness and make data-driven recommendations.
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively with senior leadership and cross-functional teams, building strong relationships.
• Keen attention to detail in planning, organization, and execution, while maintaining a holistic view.
• Demonstrated innovation and initiative, consistently seeking to improve products and processes.
• A passion for the running enthusiast and active lifestyle, with an ability to empathize with the runner.
• Ability to anticipate how decisions affect customers, partners, products, or other departments' operations and morale ('connecting the dots').

Responsibilities

• Develop and champion a comprehensive, long-term product strategy (3-10 years) for footwear that aligns with the overall brand strategy and business goals, incorporating consumer needs, market trends, and competitive landscape analysis.
• Act as a key strategic partner to the SVP, Footwear and Apparel, providing expert counsel, insightful analysis, and proactive recommendations on product direction and market opportunities.
• Deliver overarching thought leadership and strategic direction to leadership in Footwear Product Line Management, Product Marketing, Footwear Merchandising, and the Strategic Footwear Advisor, ensuring their individual team strategies unify into a cohesive product vision.
• Drive strategic decision-making by integrating consumer and retailer insights, market intelligence, and product assessment feedback across all relevant departments.
• Facilitate effective communication and collaboration between Product Line Management, Merchandising, and Product Marketing at key moments by clearly establishing expectations for transparency, timely feedback, and shared accountability to ensure the most impactful line decisions and strategies are made.
• Anticipate factors that could influence strategies and Brooks' market position, proactively guiding the teams to adapt, innovate and when necessary, pivot course in response to new opportunities or emerging challenges.
• Lead the development of compelling presentations to communicate strategic growth and product plans and provide actionable recommendations to senior leadership.
• Oversee the global footwear strategies and frameworks that create actionable product, technology, and benefit placeholders for product teams to build with sharp focus, deep intention, and clear distinction.
• Lead the PLM function to be master conductors of product creation, elevating the impact of experts across R&D, Design, Research, Color, and Materials to deliver products that 'Over-Promise, and Over-Deliver' for the consumer.
• Guide the creation of product, technology, and benefit roadmaps, ensuring they are filled with game-changing innovation that elevates the running experience and delivers technically excellent, consumer-right products.
• Partner with the Director, Footwear Product Line Management to ensure product lines hit value expectations, while delivering against revenue and margin targets.
• Facilitate the collaboration and ensure consensus between the Director, Footwear Product Line Management and Sr. Director, Merchandising to draft the 5-year product roadmap to deliver against the enterprise growth targets.
• Overall accountability for ensuring the optimal curation of the seasonal product mix and go-to-market strategy to deliver the right product to the right region, at the right time.
• Oversee the global seasonal footwear market readiness assessment and directional recommendations, empowering creation teams with key insights to maximize product impact.
• Guide the Sr. Director, Merchandising, to develop strong product and consumer connected regional merchandising teams that effectively anticipate the wants and needs of their local consumers and build confidence in their regional partners to execute to the product strategy.
• Oversee the expansion of the footwear product assortment into new executions that delight new and existing consumers on and off the run around the world through an integrated merchandising strategy that leverages our core performance equity.
• Oversee the addition of the Merchandising Planning Function into the Merchandising team to create a fully operational Footwear Merchandise Financial Plan to optimize product sales and profits across categories and channels.
• Ensure accountability of the Merchandising function to shepherd each season from kick-off to market while maximizing business impact and product productivity.
• Ensure communication is distributed timely and transparently to appropriate stakeholders across Global Footwear Merchandising.
• Oversee the product storytelling vision, strategy, and execution, ensuring a frictionless connection between products and consumer wants and needs.
• Guide the development of all consumer product positioning and messaging for brand product categories, differentiating Brooks in the market as a brand that creates clarity and empowerment for the consumer when selecting their perfect running shoe.
• Collaborate with the Director, Product Marketing to define the market research approach and integrate findings into product marketing and go-to-market strategies.
• Oversee the development of in the wild testing mechanisms and processes that bring our product marketing teams closer to the consumer, feeling their friction, and illuminating new communication frameworks that solve their unmet needs.
• Ensure that product vision is properly supported by messaging to the consumer, working closely with marketing partners.
• Embed Product Marketing into all levels of product creation to enhance clarity and impact in how we communicate product technology opportunities to internal teams and end-consumers.
• Leverage insights from the Principal Strategic Footwear Advisor regarding consumer behavior and retailer dynamics to inform impactful strategies.
• Partner with the Strategic Footwear Advisor to optimize line strategies, curate compelling assortments, and develop impactful product marketing narratives.
• Utilize expert market intuition to identify emerging trends, competitive shifts, and new growth opportunities within the footwear market.
• Integrate consumer and retailer context and trends into the development of overall business strategies.
• Oversee the use of regional retailer consortiums to identify unmet needs, test new concepts, gauge communication challenges and opportunities, and ultimately curate impactful seasonal tools to empower and enable retailer partners to tell our stories to consumers.
• Ensure market insights are delivered quickly and in a visceral way to our product teams to create a closer connection to consumers we are building for.
• Foster seamless communication and collaboration between Product, Sales, and Marketing teams to leverage compelling storytelling and effectively communicate product value, vision, and go-to-market strategies.
• Champion and act as a key sponsor for enterprise cross-functional initiatives, representing product strategy to influence stakeholders and drive team POV throughout the approval process.
• Lead and develop a high-performing product strategy team, promoting a collaborative and inclusive environment.
• Demonstrate strong people leadership skills, providing career development planning, coaching, and training.

Benefits

• 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.
• Generous time off including three to five weeks of paid time off, eleven paid holidays, paid sick and parental leave.
• Annual bonus based on company performance.
• Product discounts, employee recognition, fitness discounts, volunteer and donation benefits.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees