Lead Buyer (Kids Footwear and Core)

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR
For Client Brand merchants, everything begins and ends with the consumer! The Merchandising team understands consumer needs and market opportunities to craft a relevant product mix for each marketplace. They blend art with science to bring the Client Brand vision to life in all retail environments. The Merchandising team has the unrivaled ability to see beyond trends and identify new market opportunities, delivering the right product, at the right price, in the right place, at the right time.
Born in basketball and expanded to streetwear culture, Client Brand is set up by Fields of Play (Streetwear & Sport); this role is responsible for adapting & curating consumer right assortments with end in mind, defining how the product comes to life to serve the consumer in our Owned Store channels by using historical data, analytics and real-time market feedback to advise the future (coming seasons) while winning today (in-season read & react/selling & serving)!
This candidate should possess solid retail acumen and analytical skills, an understanding of retail environments including both brick and mortar and digital commerce, while bringing a consumerist perspective to the team and business. They are comfortable leading with and through peers and driving end to end strategies with ownership of their respective business unit.

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON
You will own bringing the Client Kids Footwear seasonal assortments to life in Direct Channels, primarily focused on Digital. You will understand related aspects of the business, strategy, and marketplace in making your plans, including coordinating between genders, brands (Client & Client) and how individual products or collections impact each other. You will collaborate cross functionally to ensure assortment plans meet consumer demand and strategies execute.
You will hone consumer-centric assortment plans across multiple seasons with an understanding of Client Direct s position in the market & competitive landscape to blend fact-based and intuitive inputs. You will participate in seasonal buy reviews and in-season trading to influence actions to optimize growth with your critical partners. This includes assortment building and submits working with systems entry, allocation and planning.

WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH
We work closely with fellow merchants, buyers, and cross-functional teams within Client Direct; in particular Digital and Stores Buying, Consumer Merchandising, Planning, Allocation, Visual Merchandising and Brand Marketing. We also work with finance, operations and the insights/analytics teams; relying on business reporting which includes quantitative and qualitative metrics on sales, inventory and consumer behaviors.
You will report to the Client North America Direct Merchandising Director.
WHAT YOU BRING

• Requires Bachelor s degree in Merchandising, Business, Marketing, or combination of relevant education or product-related roles or 5 years additional experience and training in footwear or apparel merchandising, product creation, retail or multi-brand or digital environment
• Footwear, Apparel, Equipment or relevant consumer product merchandising experience
• Understanding of common retail and/or digital profit-based metrics such as sell-through, margin, AUR, UPT and others
• Ability to contribute to and drive strategic thinking into action
• Proficiency in building consumer and data informed merchandising strategies and assortments
• Comfortable speaking and presenting in large forums
• Ability to critically analyze business trends and macro consumer trends to drive immediate action
• Project management experience