Director, Color & Trend Footwear Design

Your Job:

As the Director, Color & Trend Footwear Design, you will own the aesthetic direction for Brooks Running footwear across color, graphics, materials, finishes, and trend. You will shape the emotional experience of our products, connecting performance function with a clear aesthetic vision that helps Brooks create product runners love.

You will create and manage the long-term direction for seasonal palettes and the CRAFTED BEAUTY design language, using trend insight, design research, runner data, and digital creation tools to guide fresh, market-relevant color and material applications across the footwear line.

You will lead Color & Trend Design across inline, innovation, and lifestyle footwear, while also influencing head-to-toe initiatives and Product Virtualization. You will inspire, coach, and guide design leaders, build critical thinking and problem-solving skills across the team, and help the group navigate ambiguity, risk, and change with clarity.

As a member of the extended Seasonal Creation Leader group, you will bring the aesthetic vision to life throughout product creation. You will partner across Design, Merchandising, Development, Product Marketing, and external teams to establish and communicate the CRAFTED BEAUTY seasonal design language and support Brooks’ goal of being the most loved brand for runners worldwide.

Your Responsibilities:

LEADERSHIP

• Upgrade through direction, education, and coaching in footwear but also across the organization the aesthetic competitiveness of our products
• Co-create our creative foundation CRAFTED BEAUTY - PERFORMANCE EXPRESSIONS with the Director, Footwear Innovation.
• Represent the design team on the Seasonal Creation Leader team (SCLs) to create cross functional alignment across key decisions that impact the inline strategy across Horizon 1 (1-3 yrs) and inform innovation strategy Horizon 2 (5-10 yrs) with an applied color strategy.
• Manage, lead and direct the Brooks Running Footwear Color & Trend Team.
• Lead the teams through our product review gates ensuring adherence to seasonal and long-term calendars.
• Mentor and influence managers and stakeholders on developing and applying both a critical thinking and process improvement lens on decisions.
• Oversee the inline color palette and color CAD creation process.
• Oversee the footwear pre-development of the:

• Color palette creation

• Graphic palette creation

• Material palette creation

• Finish palette creation

DESIGN

• Direct and lead the color, graphic, material and finish design reviews,
• Create visions extending the seasonal stories into new areas and new topics connecting general trends and macro aesthetics trends to our product portfolio.
• Innovate identity principles to maximize perceived value to drive superior competitiveness.
• Direct the seasonal updates of our CRAFTED BEAUTY with your team.
• Provide strategic direction, leadership, mentorship and inspiration to a diverse team of designers.
• Guide and deliver product design presentations; both physical and digital including exploratory process to reach final solution and color CADs and Material Maps.
• Remain up-to-date and knowledgeable in your craft to ensure you are continuously aware of information needed to design a consumer and brand relevant product.
• Direct the team leads of color and material to integrate 3D CAD.
• Attend trade fairs, cultural events, and sporting events to ensure runner insights for design inspiration.
• Attend store visits, market visits, and team travel as necessary for design inspiration.
• Synthesize results into presentation that drive or aesthetic conversation across the enterprise.
• Incorporate a global point of view, accounting for regional differences for various markets.

CROSS TEAM COLLABORATION

• Influence Merchandising to create strong product stories across both Apparel and Footwear.
• Provide strong direction to Footwear Development through integrating design to express performance by influencing development process & cost management from a design perspective.
• Partner with the Marketing and Product Marketing Teams in creating and communicating the inspiration and storytelling.
• Present new color and material directions to product teams and senior management on a seasonal basis.

Qualifications:

• 4-year college or university degree in product, graphics, apparel or footwear design, equivalent combination of education and/or experience may be substituted for degree. International education is a plus - plus.
• 14+ years of experience creating color/material/textile programs and future vision of consumer goods - ideally sports industry.
• Extensive experience creating aesthetics and stories for international markets of consumer goods.
• Ability to scale and balance aesthetics to include all three major markets NA/EMEA/APLA.
• 7+ year’s managerial experience, managing direct reports and developing talent.
• Thorough knowledge of art and design with clear understanding of visual design or any design related environment.
• Proven experience creating and leading the execution of vision and strategy.
• Experience managing external resources.
• Ability to understand design conceptually across product categories.
• Ability to understand design concepts and think conceptually.
• Ability to create designs that meet category needs and commercial opportunities.
• Ability to operate in a fast pace, ever changing work environment.
• Ability to manage a team of professionals to inspire and motivate them to produce their best work.
• Ability to build and foster relationships in a team environment. This position requires employee to engage with many stakeholders, as well as manage various information and relationships.
• Ability and desire to push themselves, others, and the brand forward.
• Ability to influence and collaborate with key business partners.
• Keen attention to detail in planning, organization, and execution of tasks (self and through others), while still seeing the big picture and understanding how all the pieces fit together and affect one another.
• Demonstration of innovation and initiative - always looking at improving our products and processes while also displaying a willingness to dive into the details and help wherever necessary.
• Passionate participation in Brooks’ sports activities a plus, overridden by the ability to understand and empathize with the runner to develop loyal, engaging relationships with our customers and the Brooks community.
• Mastery with Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop
• Competent using Apple Mac Operating system
• Proficiency with MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint etc.)
• 3D not required, but a plus
• Embraces and lives the Brooks values!
• Travel 10% (Domestically/Internationally)