Job Description

WE ARE LOOKING FOR A MERCHANDISING MANAGER, FOOTWEAR TO: 

• As a member of the Footwear & Gear team, the Merchandising Manager leads the overall Footwear merchandising strategy for their Sport/Category in North America (US & Canada).  This role works with the Footwear & Gear VP in North America, as well as the global merchandising and product teams in France to develop and implement meaningful assortments and merchandising plans by consumer and channel. This person also works closely with Sales & Marketing teams in North America on go to market strategies, tools, and activation on a seasonal basis.

YOU WILL REPORT DIRECTLY TO THE VP OF FOOTWEAR & GEAR NORTH AMERICA.

MAIN ACTIVITIES:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty and responsibility satisfactorily:

• Develops and deploys seasonal, annual and long-term product strategy and merchandising plans for Footwear in North America.
• Creates market relevant consumer driven assortments by sport, shopper profile and channel.
• Identifies gaps and opportunities in global merchandising plans and provides feedback/input to global product team to find relevant solutions for the N. America market.
• Manages category forecasts, pricing, margin, inventory and channel mix in collaboration with the VP to achieve profitability targets on a seasonal/annual basis.
• Conducts regular market landscape assessments including competitor benchmarking, channel assessment and brand positioning for their category.
• Analyzes sell-in and sell-thru data and identifies insights to define industry and consumer trends for implementation into category merchandising plans.
• Owns the omnichannel market demand planning forecasting for the category.
• Works with both global supply chain and regional demand planning teams to ensure product flow and inventory meets business objectives.
• Collaborates with the global merchandising team to achieve brand objectives for the category.
• Partners with shopper marketing team to enhance the consumer experience in the marketplace.  
• Works with Finance, Customer Experience, and Credit teams on an ongoing basis.
• Collaborates with sales team to identify new market opportunities, provide consumer relevant selling tools and deliver seasonal merchandising package.
• Owns presentation of Category strategy and seasonal plans at key account meetings, sales launches, introduction of new technologies, etc.
• Acts as the product expert for the category with internal and external stakeholders (executes product training and education).

Qualifications

• NEEDED WORK EXPERIENCE: 5+ years of related experience in merchandising, product or category management. Prior experience in the outdoor industry, with focus on Footwear preferred.

• EDUCATION: Bachelor's Degree

• FOREIGN LANGUAGE(S): English

• SPECIFIC SKILLS: 

  • Merchandising Expertise
  • Passion for fashion
  • Ability to develop effective processes and procedures
  • Attention to detail
  • Ability to identify and predict trends
  • Strong business acumen and understanding of finance
  • Planning, organizing and preparation
  • Strong presentation skills
  • Analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Communication Skills
  • Effective interpersonal skills; ability to work in a multi-stakeholder, international matrix environment
  • Ability to influence

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

This role will have no supervisory responsibilities. 

PHYSICAL DEMANDS & WORKING ENVIRONMENT

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear.  The employee is frequently required to sit, stand and walk. The employee must occasionally kneel, stoop, crouch, twist and lift to 30 pounds, with or without accommodations.

Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Additional Information

Permanent Contract, Full Time

Job based in Ogden, UT