Ryan Wood: Merchandising Manager - Men's Fashion Lifestyle in Oakland, CA

• Oversee $150M in annual volume for both Wholesale and DTC channels (Mens lifestyle apparel and logowear). • Own marketplace insights for mens lifestyle; developing strategies to gain market share and build brand relevancy. • Architect seasonal briefs to product/design teams; developing key merchandising stories, segmentation/rollout strategies, and product lifecycle. • Manage the company-wide quick turn logowear program; developing new processes to streamline and amplify in-season opportunity. • Conceptualize and brief SMU capsules for premier lifestyle accounts, effectively balancing forward-thinking design with brand DNA. Through a strong product development background, able to both anticipate and develop creative solutions to manufacturing limitations, price, lead times, margin, etc.

• Manage a $50M annual business for both Retail and Direct channels. • Experienced in partnering with vertical design/production, national brands, and 3rd party market development. • Create both seasonal and multi-year strategies for optimizing speed & flexibility within the design calendar. • Excel in design/product development with 3rd party private label vendors, licensees, and global brand SMUs. • Strong foresight for trends, with ability to re-appropriate relevant ideas that feel both familiar yet unexpected. Able to effectively balance volume vs. small ideas. • Delivered an $8M (+35%) top line volume increase and a +50% GM$ increase in jackets & outerwear from 2013-2018. • Built new allocation segments for cold weather outerwear; resulting in a +500% GM$ increase over 4 years. • Expanded product tiers across the entire department, resulting in a +30% AUS increase from 2013-2018. • Lead and grow a team of four (one associate buyer, one assistant buyer, two buying operation coordinators).