Category Director - US Sports & Specialty Sports

ABOUT THE JOB

As the Category Director for US and Specialist Sports at adidas, you will play a pivotal role in managing a comprehensive go-to-market strategy that aims to enhance adidass presence and performance in the North American marketplace, particularly focusing on athletes, teams, and retailers. This position requires a collaborative approach, working closely with various stakeholders including commercial teams, brand partners, Sports Marketing, and Global Creation teams. Your primary objective will be to deliver strategic business imperatives, implement key brand priorities, and drive growth for adidas as a leading sports brand. In this role, you will be responsible for creating, communicating, and implementing a strategy for seasonal sell-ins. You will ensure that the product range is aligned with market needs and that it meets the financial targets set for US Sports and Specialist Sports. This includes evaluating margin adjustments and increasing On-Time Availability across the business channels. You will actively participate in business discussions with partners and accounts, building productive relationships based on trust and accountability. Your responsibilities will also include developing an annual Go-To-Market strategy with key initiatives that align with North America's operational capabilities. You will consolidate inputs from various categories and commercial channels to identify marketplace trends and business opportunities, providing valuable insights to Global and Local Business Unit counterparts. Additionally, you will develop channel-specific initiatives to leverage key sporting moments and ensure that the product range is executed with excellence, optimized for growth opportunities across different sub-businesses. You will be accountable for analyzing in-market performance and interpreting sales data to inform future season planning. Your leadership will model adidas values, fostering a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion while driving employee engagement and continuous development within your team. This role requires a strong consumer focus on all sport consumers Youth to Pro, advanced marketing knowledge, and the ability to balance brand and commercial priorities effectively.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop category initiatives to meet key commercial goals for both US Sports and Specialist Sports with a focus on driving Football, Dugout (Baseball and Softball), Tennis, Volleyball, swimming, rugby, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, and more.
• Drive energy through US Sports to win in the home market
• Win across the 5 stages of sports Rec, Club, High School, NCAA and Professional
• Deliver the North America GTM strategy against global priorities; lead category management team to bring the strategy to life and win the Top Recruit
• Work with product creation teams to create and launch innovative US Sports products, ensuring they meet the needs of the market and align with adidass brand vision.
• Align with Global on product range build and assortment strategy
• Own go to market planning excellence in compliance with targets for forecasting, pricing, profitability, range size, range flow, range adoption, APR etc. including system, catalogue and master data maintenance
• Build assortment plans that provide clear product direction and information to the global product team and supporting departments
• Collaborate in preparing communication concepts for the category
• Build market/retailer network to maintain trend and product awareness
• Present ranges internally and externally (to key retailers)
• Continually monitor and analyze product range and sales results to determine products that maximize profitability/productivity
• Perform category insights and analytics including market/consumer/competitor insights and sales analysis and leverage for planning
• Collaborate with supply chain to ensure end-to-end deliverables of product OTIF
• Manage the process with effective communication and action steps to achieve margin, profitability, and acceptable inventory levels
• Drive & develop a 3-5-year category plan based on overall adidas BU process in collaboration with Global BU
• Ensure organizational efficiency through motivation, training, and development of direct reports

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Commercial partners including retailers, Canada, and DTC
• Category and Marketplace Merchandising
• Global Business Partners
• Sports Marketing
• Brand Communications
• Finance
• Brand Operations (GTM, Sample, & Merch Ops)
• Demand Planning and relevant SCM partners

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

• Extensive knowledge of the US Sports industry: Deep understanding of professional leagues, clubs, and athletes, as well as the competitive landscape
• Advanced cross-functional Merchandising and Marketing knowledge and Market experience in sport focused on Sporting Goods, Grassroots, and DTC.
• Strong presentation/communication, negotiation and influencing skills, especially with senior stakeholders within a global matrix organization.
• Consumer-focused with deep product and range understanding and the ability to balance Brand and Commercial priorities to build channel- and consumer-specific activation plans that meet KPI targets
• Advanced user of MS Office suite of products
• Experience in both market and above market organization preferred
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong presentation, planning, and analytical skills
• A thorough understanding of consumer markets
• Passion for sports
• Ability to intake multiple sources of information/briefs and confidence and acumen to act decisively and with speed
• Advanced analytical skills, be solution driven and result oriented, strong business orientation
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment
• Lead and manage a diverse team
• Ability to travel domestic and international up to 30% of time

REQUISITE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE / MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• College degree, preferably in marketing/business /textile/fashion
• Minimum of 7 years Product Marketing experience with FTW or comparable background
• Experience in managing and developing direct reports
• Strong, proven leadership skills
• Experience in marketing, trade, or sales is helpful
• Fluent in English
• PC skills (MS Office programs)
• adidas celebrates diversity, supports inclusiveness and encourages individual expression in our workplace. We do not tolerate the harassment or discrimination toward any of our applicants or employees. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.
• adidas offers robust and progressive medical, including HSA (Health Savings Account) with employer funding or FSA (Flexible Spending Account) options, dental, vision, prescription drug coverage, adoption, with surrogate and fertility support, short and long-term disability, and basic life and AD&D insurance, which can be supplemented with employee-paid coverage. Employees are able to enroll in adidas' 401k plan and Stock Purchase Plan with employer match. Full-time employees are eligible for education assistance and generous Leave policies including 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Employees are eligible to earn an annual bonus based on both company and personal performance. Employees accrue prorated flexible time off in the amount .4388 hours per day that increases with years of service, twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year and Service Time Off during milestone years.
• At adidas we offer a Hybrid work policy which requires attendance in the office Monday through Thursday, with the flexibility to work remotely on Friday each week. For work requiring a high degree of collaboration or an in-person presentation, in-office attendance is required even on Friday. The working location of this position is Portland, Oregon.
• Though our teammates hail from all corners of the world, our working language is English.