Megan Vande Walle: Designer & Product Development Manager in Portland, Oregon

-Drove creation of high quality designs to meet the needs of outdoor consumers, resulting in company growth and profits. -Brought functional creative visions to life that served the consumer through the full process of design, development and execution. -Designed holistic collections as well as individual soft good products around function, price, theme and consumer. -Based on design briefs, designed and developed functional soft goods and wearable accessories in outdoor categories. -Conducted and presented seasonal trend and marketplace analysis for each category. -Utilized PLM software as an effective tool to create tech packs, store BOMs, initiate and document the sample making process.

-Designed and developed functional soft goods, turning 2-dimensional concepts into 3-dimensional final products. -Conducted trend research, sketched initial designs, developed colorways, selected materials, created tech packs and initiated samples. -Illustrated and created original prints and graphics for various textiles and product applications. -Designed co-branded and private label products that maintained all parties' brand identities. -Presented trend and market research, designs and samples to the Sales, Brand and Marketing teams that aided in digital content creation. -Communicated and collaborated with overseas vendors in regards to prototype direction, provided feedback and status updates. -International travel to strengthen vendor relationships via physical hand-offs and progress checkpoints.

-Conducted design research and demonstrated ability to design and create socks that were grounded in brand identity. -Designed functional socks with performance, technology and function in mind for the end consumer. -Worked closely with knitters with exposure to domestic factory setting, sample making and mass production processes. -Developed and pitched new colorways for existing styles to the Product Development team.

-Technical experience where I created tech packs, wrote fit comments and led fit sessions on the Juniors Technical Design Team. -Collaborated with vendors and cross-functional team members to execute the fit process from initial to approved sample. -Measured, prepped and examined garments for Minimum Construction Standards prior to fit sessions. -Utilized Optitex 3D to examine patterns and made pattern corrections when necessary.