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Product Development and Merchandising, Outdoor-Swim-Technical Products

Engineering & Production

I can offer a combined 20+ years of sales and product experience starting in Core Retailer buying and management, and then moving into product development and management. At Surfside Sports, I was initially hired as a floor sales person. My passion and enthusiasm coupled with my ability to problem solve was recognized by the business owner and I was promoted to buyer and manager after 2 years. Over time, I took on the responsibility of hiring employees and visual merchandising. I was consistently one of the top salespersons at Surfside Sports. At Quiksilver, my employer saw potential and passion in me, and hired me on as an assistant merchandiser/developer without any previous experience in those roles. Within 4 months, I was promoted to Product Line Manager, handling the responsibilities of a merchandiser and developer for the Quiksilver snow softgoods assortment. In a fast-paced, self-starter environment, I learned and properly executed the development, merchandising, and presentation of a technical softgoods product line. My experience at L*Space, Nitro Circus, and FutureStitch have helped to evolve my organizational skills and I’ve been able to create and implement processes. Working at small companies such as these has shaped me into a someone who wears a few different hats and adapts to meet the needs of the department.  At Billabong, I was hired on with no previous experience in wetsuit development. Within a year, I learned the ins and outs of wetsuit material, construction, fit, and function while implementing multiple organizational tools to streamline the development process. I’m a chaser, self starter and solutions oriented. 

- Work in close partnership with Management, Merchandising, Design, and vendors to achieve maximum efficiency in calendar adherence, margin, quality, and delivery dates. 
- Daily liaison between top Management, Merchandising, Design, Tech, Production, Sourcing, and Vendors
- PLM and BOM maintenance
- Oversee fit process; ensuring fit is appropriate and consistent with design intent while overseeing Tech workload/timelines and fits maintained
- Establish strategic partnerships with suppliers and other industry experts to develop new products or improve existing products and identify future innovation. 
- Daily communication with vendors, managing development timelines, negotiating costs, WIP reports, and delivery dates. 
- Responsible for sourcing and recommending new vendors and/or making vendor changes according to best vendor capabilities along with Production/Sourcing teams.  
- Order FLA/SMS lines, confirm costing and timing with vendors. 
- Review all submits and protos with Merchandising and Design, and maintain samples, lab dips, strike off 
- Work with Production team on allocation of bulk orders through consideration of available capacity, capability, workmanship and costing and following up with vendor bulk timelines, ensuring on time delivery. 
- Manage and Develop SMU's: responsible for T&A, margin, approving fits/submits along with design team and ensuring sales inquiries are brand right.  
- Maintain seasonal buy re-cap for main line, SMU, Collabs and Injection, keeping top management abreast of total $ wholesale bookings and margin roll up.  
- Ensure team has samples for photo shoots and organize sample racks as needed. 
- Research the market for trends/color/competitor pricing to stay ahead of the competition, keeping each Brand style/design unique.
- Facilitate communication between cross functional teams so seasonal design intent is consistent and cohesive across brand
- Collaborate with production and demand planning to place seasonal buys

Director of Product Development - Roxy & Dakine Snow Outerwear

• Create and Manage GTM calendars for set of customers and drive on-time execution through project management.
• Utilize project management software to communicate and coordinate all dates and gates with customers and cross-functional team members.
• Directly manage the development for a set of customers, to include onboarding, day to day communication and project management to drive timely and accurate execution.
• Ensure product meets brand standards for quality, performance, and innovation and partner with the factory to anticipate and prevent any issues.
• Initiate and lead the development of an innovation process, consistently evaluating and enhancing its effectiveness.
• Proactively communicate with design, sales, production and customers on all respective projects and product developments.
• Advocate of process and process evolution as needed to support growth of brand and teams.
• Manage costing and sampling communication and tracking process.
• Maintain a strong understanding of factory product offering and ability.
• Manage the preparation timeline, materials and provide support on presentation building for offsite sessions and innovation brainstorming sessions.
• Manage internal NPI calendars and product roadmaps. Schedule seasonal milestones, create weekly agendas, continually following up with design/development teams to ensure on time tracking.
• Lead and coordinate projects and associated developments while defining deliverables, milestones, and next steps; ensuring follow up on all key initiatives.

Product Development Ops and Innovation Manager

• Develop wetsuits and wetsuit accessories each season while meeting scheduled deliveries of photoshoot samples, sales samples, and production. 
• Work with our fit tech and factory to ensure proper fitting and construction. 
• Source new materials, technologies, vendors in order to meet pre-determined margin goals.  
• Created and implemented multiple organizational tools to manage tracking, costing, and line architecture. 
• Manage tech pack handovers and update sketches and tech packs along the development process.
• Input and manage all data and costing in the PLMA system.
• Build and maintain global and regional costing line plans to ensure target margins are met
• Proactively communicate with cross-functional partners in order to ensure our GTM strategy is accomplished.
• Worked with global partners to optimize regional offering while meeting SKU count targets
• Gained an understanding of regional trends and markets and created products to maximize business opportunities 
• Manage communication of all assortment changes and updates to international team
• Partner with Planning to execute seasonal buys, ensuring global product and financial goals are met

Senior Global Product Developer- Wetsuits and Wetsuit Accessories

• Established and managed multiple development and merchandising calendars with the licensees
• Worked with various artists to gather artwork assets while following established timelines
• Created segmented offerings for the product to live successfully among different channels of distribution while keeping on brand
• Managed multiple product assortments with various licensees
• Distributed proper assets to licensed partners based on product brief and direction
• Developed diverse product collections while meeting contractual guidelines
• Assisted with market analysis and the creation of on-trend, brand & market-right product.
• Built mood and color based on season and collection

Consumer Products Merchandiser and Developer

• Created swim, apparel, and accessories tech packs and fit/evaluated prototypes.
• Managed development calendar, tracker, comments, and costing line plan while partnering closely with design and merchandising to achieve product goals and margins.
• Responsible for the data integrity of all critical style information and technical properties.
• Monitored time/action calendars to hit target calendar dates including proto, photoshoot, SMS, and PPS through bulk.
• Maintained accuracy of tech packs that met the product’s goals for function, fit and commercial viability.

Product Developer- Swim, Apparel, and Accessories

• Participated in key account meetings, trade shows, and market travel.
• Created product briefs based on trend analysis and marketplace evaluation.
• Effectively analyzed performance results and market trends to help project and plan future merchandising initiatives.
• Proposed and briefed seasonal assortment plan breadth, depth, price point, target cost, SKU/sales allocation for each category and concept.
• Merchandised and presented cohesive collections of technologies and aesthetics combined with trend and storytelling.
• Built annual line plans and successfully executed merchandising strategies to achieve financial targets.
• Communicated with all cross-functional partners (sales, design, marketing, and development) to deliver product objectives.
• Upheld brand price positioning and managed the pricing strategy for the category.
• Developed 200+ SKU’s of technical apparel and accessories for a collection per season while meeting target margins and scheduled deliveries of photoshoot samples, SMS, and production.
• Collaborated and communicated with cross-functional teams to deliver product objectives while meeting calendar timelines.
• Effectively analyzed and applied materials and technologies based on cost, physical characteristics, and function appropriate per style.
• Fit and evaluated samples to ensure proper design application and fit.
• Managed tech pack handovers and updated sketches along the development process.
• Created and managed the BOM, trim validation sheets, lab dip approval sheets, and strike offs.
• Sourced technical fabrics to meet specific purposes and functions.

Product Line Manager, Quiksilver and DC Snow Softgoods

• Managed a team of people on a daily basis where our goals were to meet the needs of the store as well as the customers. 
• Bought women's snow softgoods and hardgoods product based on trend forecasting and product knowledge.
• Hired, managed, and trained employees on daily tasks.
• Planned, organized, and executed promotional events for the store.
• Resolved customer concerns and improved customer service.
• Created visual displays that enhance product appeal throughout store.

General Manager/Buyer- Snow/Merchandiser

Contributed a regional article for Southern California snowboarding. 

Editor of the women's column for 2008-2009 season.

Contributing Editor

Contributed to a regional blog for Snowboarder mag. Would make biweekly posts on their website regarding snowboarding in Southern California.

Regional Blogger

Julieann Manfredi is a Product Development and Merchandising, Outdoor-Swim-Technical Products at The Levy Group in San Clemente, California.

Julieann Manfredi

Julieann Manfredi

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