David Richenstein: Assistant Category Manager, Basketball in Portland, OR

Handle the day-to-day merchandising operations of adidas basketball apparel in North America. Involves managing segmentation, pricing, and building out a range for basketball apparel including over 200 SKU's across men's and women's. This role requires utilizing seasonal stories, color connectivity, and footwear connectivity to create a cohesive story season over season. Also responsible for understanding material construction and building out merchboards for all sales teams in our market.

In this role, I initially worked with Rumpl's brand marketing team and personally managed a variety of product towards marketing campaigns, most notably the launch of their NFL licensed assortment. I worked closely with cross-functional teams including design, product, marketing, and sales to allow seamless delivery of key product launches. I also managed all sample orders to key partners across the world. The internship led to a more permanent role with the customer experience team, and that lasted until I started my next role at adidas.

In the summer of 2021, I worked with Danner's lifestyle product line management team and conducted an apparel research project. After analyzing and segmenting the market through a variety of different tactics, a strategy was implemented and presented to a broader team at the end of the opportunity. I learned how to receive consumer insights, segment the market, and ultimately think like a product line manager.

I worked part-time with HydraPak's engineers and product managers in order to develop a wear test plan involving twenty individuals for two separate products. Learned how to improve products through consumer insights and gained experience on the early stages of development.