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Director of Merchandising

Top Management

<p>Consumer focused Global Merchandising Leader with two decades of experience at top
Apparel, Accessories &amp; Footwear brands. Strong acumen for driving change and enhancing processes for peak efficiency. An empathetic and collaborative leader, instrumental in building style credibility, elevating product, and amplifying storytelling for measurable results.</p>


●  Develop and build consumer centric product strategies to identify and capitalize on opportunities to fuel short to long term growth for $400M+ Global Men's Lifestyle Apparel business, consisting of ~1200 skus/year (72% of total Apparel business) with double digit growth planned for 2025.
●  Partner with VP of Product & Marketing on Lifestyle Apparel & Footwear category strategy reset, alignment & activation (launched Aug. 2023), defining where to play & how to win.
●  Collaborate with Regional Merchandising teams on refresh and execution of product segmentation, pricing architectures, product lifecycle frameworks & directed assortments across Omni and Wholesale Channels, taking regional nuances into account.
●  Evolve Go To Market process and milestones utilizing consumer insights; partner with Footwear & Marketing teams on story creation and brand roadmap to drive cohesion & priorities across the brand. Plan & forecast revenue tied to Marketed stories.
●  Focus on sku rationalization and productivity to meet financial targets while building margin responsible product. Reduced total Men's sku count by -15% for 2024, editing to amplify, resulting in planned +15% sku efficiency revenue.
●  Lead Lifestyle Merchandising team and manage transition into newly established Consumer Category teams (Feb. 2023) while fostering tools & resources needed to support development.

DIRECTOR OF MERCHANDISING, GLOBAL MENS LIFESTYLE APPAREL

Led the strategic direction of Global Apparel & Accessories speed to market initiatives across all genders, while identifying incremental revenue opportunities and supporting key brand initiatives, accounting for 25%+ of Global Apparel/Accessories Business.
●  Managed product creation of "Head to Toe" quick strike collaborations by building relationships with external partners, such as Barbie, Disney, Stranger Things, Tierra Whack, Palace, Anderson .Paak, BAPE, Noongoons, Santa Cruz Skateboards, & US Open of Surfing, generating high brand heat & sell through. Exclusive Palace & BAPE collections
sold out within minutes; Stranger Things was top grossing Vans collaboration for 2022 between Customs site & Inline product offering.
●  Oversaw Product team on concepts & creative for new Apparel Customs platform on Vans.com (May '22 launch), resulting in over 3k tees sold in the first 90 days.
●  Drove digital test & learn speed initiatives with 2-6 month concept-to-launch timeframes, including ComfyCush Fleece Global launch, which generated multiple re-orders. Initiated quick turn Omni-led graphic toolkits to close Covid related revenue gaps, resulting in over 600k tees produced and $9M in additional revenue in the first year.
●  Demonstrated agile leadership during Covid, pivoting the SMU Team focus to Global trend Open Make Up (OMU) capsules, repurposed liability to meet consumer needs & relaunched a quick turn tee program. Managed Apparel "Foot the Bill" program, producing limited edition tees on a weekly basis to assist over 80 local and community driven small
businesses.

DIRECTOR OF MERCHANDISING, SMU & OMU APPAREL & ACCESSORIES

•	Managed Global product assortment for Men’s Cut & Sew Tops, MTE Outerwear & T-Shirts. Responsible for business & strategy development of high volume Must-Win categories including Tees, Woven Shirts, Fleece & Jackets, accounting for 60% of business.
•	Created seasonal product briefs considering regional needs, consumer trends, sku count data, and historical performance analysis to positively impact the business. 
•	Led key strategies around franchise building and management, while partnering closely with Design, Product Development & Marketing teams on patented technology, innovation and storytelling on the Versa Fleece, Drill Chore Coat & Off The Wall Tee Franchises; all have had 5+ year product lifecycles. 
•	Presented vision to cross functional teams at seasonal line reviews and GTM meetings, while creating necessary sell-in materials.
•	Collaborated with Design & Product Development teams on product execution while adhering to key milestones on the development calendar and meeting financial targets. 
•	Partnered with Footwear & Marketing teams on seasonal “Head to Toe” initiatives and Lifestyle collaborations, such as Disney, Harry Potter, Marvel, Star Wars, & Nintendo. 


Senior Global Apparel Merchandiser

•	Managed all Men’s Sportswear & Accessories categories for Skateboarding & Motocross brands from license inception, while partnering with Design and Brand Founders (Steve Berra, Berrics & Donnie Emler, FMF) on creating and establishing brand visions.
•	Created seasonal Design/Development calendar and line plans; set merchandising strategies and led key initiatives on establishing the foundation in Apparel & Accessories categories. 
•	Oversaw financial growth targets and participated in seasonal buy planning meetings. 
•	Collaborated with Marketing & Sales teams on product education, catalog and photo shoots. 
•	Partnered with Sourcing & Production teams on development, vendor matrix.
•	Participated in monthly Brand Management Meetings with CEO to share feedback and discuss brand goals. 


Senior Merchandiser, The Berrics & FMF

•	Managed Men’s Cut & Sew Tops, Rob Dyrdek Signature & Elevated Lifestyle categories on a Global basis, consisting of 200+ skus/season. 
•	Developed line plans and pricing strategies to meet regional specific requirements.
•	Interfaced with Design & Production teams to ensure calendar dates were met. 
•	Facilitated new fabric and trim development on a seasonal basis. 
•	Participated in seasonal photo shoots and catalog production. 


•	Managed $250M Female Fleece business with 3 direct reports. Increased IMU by 13% in 2006 for category. Promoted twice during tenure. 

Merchandiser

•	Oversaw Men’s & Junior’s Apparel for largest Key Account, PacSun, a $30M wholesale business with triple-digit growth in 2008. Managed exclusive product and assortment, account prelines, timing & action calendars, sample requests and margins.

SMU Merchandiser

Assistant Merchandiser for Young Contemporary Knits business. 

Assistant Merchandiser

Shannon Natker is a Director of Merchandising at VANS in Costa Mesa, California.

Shannon Natker — Director of Merchandising at VANS

Shannon Natker

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Education history

University of Wisconsin