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The Product Manager/PRVT LABEL position works directly with the CEO, clients, vendors and partners to design, develop, produce and deliver products in relation to our PRVT LABEL program. This role requires someone that can design, has immense technical knowledge in terms of garment construction and fit, and who has experience in production as well as complete timeline/production lifecycle understanding.
This person must be a mix of creative and technical and be able to work with commercial outcomes in mind.
The PRVT LABEL program focuses on brands that are small to midsize who need top to bottom management in the back of house. Think of us as a fractional design director often managing everything from their merchandise offerings to their delivery. We often re-construct their product development materials from scratch, create and maintain their IP, asset libraries and product standards. We are often the “face of the brand” when it comes to supply chain management and often spearhead initiatives to shore up marketing, merchandising, sourcing, costing, customer service and production issues working with in conjunction our partners and their current supply chain. Freelancers are always welcome to apply.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
•Work directly with the CEO and other stakeholders on merchandising strategies and high-level planning ensuring program success including build out and maintain of client supply chain/ previous and new IP /budgets /seasonal offerings/etc.
•With CEO – help to create brand & design presentations with contract designers. Research and present merchandise offerings as needed and overall seek to understand each brand via SWOT analysis and create scale/growth strategy accordingly.
•Ensure profitability of each client/program by delivering on-time/good quality merchandise that meets pricing levels for every delivery. Work with CEO/accounting and production partners to solve issues in profitability.
•Daily communication with overseas/domestic vendor partners for development & production submits/approvals and maintain all needed documentation via WIP reports /email /phone /WhatsApp /WeChat /etc.
•Interface with clients as needed for approvals/sample requests/ deliveries/etc. Manage tracking and client expectations accordingly and ensure best quality product is delivered as communicated.
•Work with partners and internal teams to understand costing as pertains to design, on sourcing initiatives, and help to create predictable estimates to clients in terms of costing, timing, etc.
•Work with internal and external production teams to ensure accurate product on time approvals, deliveries that meet standards- Flag any production issues and help to manage from design/development point of view that always takes commercial needs of the client into account.
•Build and maintain fit, fabric, trim, and art/asset libraries as needed and per client.
•Ensure licensing and artwork approvals are meeting all needed requirements with client and legal teams.
•Initiate product brief with clients and sourcing requests with external partners as needed.
•Assist in tagging, shipping, packing, tracking and managing trim/artwork/garment samples as needed.
•Work with stakeholders to request/manage Materials, Sourcing samples, Fit samples, SMS samples, PP samples and TOP samples. Manage Materials like strike offs, trim samples, lab dips, etc- ensuring accuracy throughout the production process.
•Create and hold to program fit and quality standards ensuring clients have consistent ordering experience as much as possible. Maintain fit and grading charts, create and maintain size charts. Create sketch, photo shop and tech pack templates and artwork templates to use from presentationproduction.
•Start tech pack for every product and maintain throughout course of production with all other documentation in client folders.
KEY QUALIFICATIONS:
•Bachelor’s Degree or similar in Apparel Design /Product Development and 7+ years industry experience.
•Must have expertise level of basic technology like email /word/excel/google drive and have built/managed tech packs outside of PLM in previous jobs.
•Must have expertise level in AI/PSD- understanding of pantone color matching system and other industry code systems like YKK/etc.
•Must have high level understanding of materials and sourcing and quality control.
•Must be able to CAD from scratch and create high level presentation materials.
•Must have previous design and technical design experience, expert level garment construction and understanding of how to build and manage tech packs with offshore and domestic suppliers.
•Must have an eye for fashion/color and experience researching trends/ applying fashion forward eye to technical work.
•Must have 7+ years previous experience and understanding of product development standard practices working with offshore suppliers and know how to manage clients/vendors for all product development /production approvals.
•Must have experience managing design team/contractors be able to work cross functionally with production team/partners.
•Must be extremely organized and detail oriented- but also must be extremely creative and interested in fashion/product.
•Ability to speak Spanish/Chinese is a plus.
