Leah Niswonger

Spearheaded creative direction, design, and development for women’s headwear, accessories, and home-wares producer; responsible for overseeing 6 brands consisting of over 1000 SKU’s, managed internal creative team, and guided sourcing and buying strategies. Grew annual revenue from $3M to $11M, expanded company from 1 to 6 brands, and increased SKU’s 4x during tenure. Established new branding and messaging standards, updated internal mission, vision, goals, and values, and worked with leadership to create new marketing strategies. Led development and implementation of new product design operations, focused new standards around attractive design, ascetics, and customer preferences. Managed creative team consisting of Production, Design, and Merchandising Specialists, led development and implementation of over 800 new products and designs annually, and trained on proper design, vendor relations, and project management best practices. Maintained up to date knowledge of fashion and market trends, competitor offerings, and customer preferences, developed comprehensive reporting, and presented seasonal design and trend analysis to cross-functional teams. Developed retail partnerships with over 2,000 boutiques, gift shops, and resorts, analyze buying patterns, regularly reviewed KPI’s, including sales, returns, and discount levels, and forecasted future trends and sales levels to plan new designs and product buys months in advance. Spearheaded vendor relationships, partnered with stakeholders to negotiate terms and conditions for new items, developed new relationships at various industry trade shows and internal meetings, manage communication via phone and email, and work closely to identify and resolve issues with products and sales.