Color and Materials Footwear Designer

OVERVIEW

This role will be rooted within our Product design team, with strong interdisciplinary collaboration with the Design, Innovation, Materials, and Product Management teams. Here you will be be building, creating, and curating a footwear materials library from a creative and strategic perspective, ensuring our collection aligns with future business needs. This brand-new position is crucial for close collaboration with our footwear designer & accessories director.

Your sharp eye for trends, cutting-edge technologies, and color design brings a unique and new perspective to the development of our collection. You bring an understanding of the needs and executions our footwear business requires from a fashion and technical point of view. With a comprehensive understanding of the fashion and technical requirements of our footwear business, you easily translate these insights into your designs using carefully curated materials and color applications to create high-performing products. We need a strong technical team player that will evolve in a very fast-paced environment. Your expertise in sourcing and integrating new footwear materials collections will be invaluable in collaborating with our inline apparel materials team to build out the collection.

RESPONSIBILITIES  

• Focusing on our Entire Footwear collection, you easily collaborate with different teams and maintain a great overview of the projects you are leading.
• Work closely with the lead for Color and the senior footwear designer to curate the color collection, sometimes working very closely with the co-founder of the brand.
• Keeping an eye for the unusual, design, trends and new material technologies that will inspire your daily work that you are able to transcribe into great ideas.
• Proactively hunt for trends regarding the latest colors, materials, finishes, and innovative technologies in the industry.
• Collaborate very closely with the footwear & accessories team, defining signature executions that will visually connect our apparel and footwear collections.
• Gather insights from cross-functional teams to support the implementation of selected materials.
• Build out a materials library and collection for Alo footwear, create new collections and developments with our PD partners to get ahead. Create new vegan and sustainable options for footwear.
• Supporting on technical solutions within each product family by understanding the material DNA of each product and complex techniques of shoe making.
• In collaboration with our R&D material specialists, making sure that only materials which are both functional & vegan/sustainable  are selected for projects you lead.
• Owning projects from concept through final delivery by collaborating very closely with our development team and footwear designer, creating and handing over clear CADs & briefs for production.
• Increase our industry knowledge by collecting information from trade shows, retail stores, market visits, and partnering with our internal teams on consumer insights.

REQUIREMENTS

• You hold a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Textile Design or Industrial/Product Design.
• You bring 8+ years of working experience in the Sporting Goods/Apparel/Fashion industry, specializing in Color & Textile Design.
• You demonstrate a proven track record of understanding the Global and North American markets, derived from direct engagement with consumers and communities.
• You bring a wealth of experience from both larger and smaller brands, enabling adept navigation within a growing and fast-paced company like Alo.
• You showcase a robust portfolio showcasing expertise in engineered materials, trims, innovative dyeing techniques, and color applications across lifestyle and performance products.
• You bring a strong track record and knowledge of working with key retailers within the fashion performance & street footwear landscape
• You possess strong organizational skills, adept at managing complex projects within overlapping timelines and seasons and projects with footwear and accessories.
• You have an entrepreneurial attitude, ambition, and willingness to take on challenges
• You are a strong communicator with proven experience presenting projects to a wider team of decision makers and adapt messaging to suit varied audiences.
• You align with Alo's ethos of kindness, positivity, and enthusiasm in all endeavors.
• You have excellent 2D software skills in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign. Experience in rendering programs are a plus. Fluency in English, both written and spoken, is required, with proficiency in other languages being a plus.

The base salary range for this position is $100,000-$120,000 per year which represents the current range for the base salary for this exempt position. Please note that actual salaries will vary based on factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. As such, on occasion and when applicable, there is the possibility that the final, agreed-upon base salary may be outside of the upper end of the range. Please also note the range listed is just one component of the company’s total rewards package for exempt employees. Other rewards may include performance bonuses, long term incentives, a PTO policy, and many other progressive benefits.

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