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Senior Footwear Designer and Developer
Footwear Operation Solutions
United Kingdom
Jun 2018 - Present (2 years 9 months)
The main duty within my role is to take the design and creative lead on various projects for our portfolio of customers ranging from running to outdoor, as well as casual and sport fashion projects for our premium brand customers.
From initial shop/online research, as well as sketching out quick ideas/concepts and creating briefs for our team of designers to generate even more polished CADs and specs based on the customers' requests, generally sum up my average day.
There is alot of liaising with the customer to ensure that their brief is answered correctly and efficiently, while delivering the visuals or samples for the key dates of the pre-arranged critical path.
I also have a very strong role in the development side of the Karrimor running as we aim to elevate and revamp that category for our main customer Sportsdirect. This endeavour as well as the premium fashion projects, takes me to the Far East several times a year to ensure that critical development and pre-production samples are made to the customer's expectations.
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Senior Footwear Designer/Developer & Material Sourcing Manager
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jan 2017 - May 2018 (1 year 4 months)
Senior designer charged with researching the current and relevant footwear trends and commercially integrating them into the seasonal ladies and kids collections within a pre-planned timeframe. After initial SKUs are realized into prototypes, proportional, colour and necessary material changes are implemented to make each style form a part of the range story.
Source new and relevant materials from regional suppliers to catalogue and implement within seasonal ranges and MTO sub-projects.
Design / develop several cemented and injected unit projects per season providing tech packs with sequenced revisions up to final outsole approval.
Amend necessary paper patterns for revisions of initial prototypes.
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Footwear Development Manager and Senior Designer
Sanming Shi, China
Sep 2014 - Aug 2016 (1 year 11 months)
Source, cost and catalogue materials from Guangzhou, Fujian and Wenzhou material markets for use across the various in-house ranges and licenses.
Moved to China in 2014 to undertake the role of Footwear Development Manager. Tasked with delivering regular feedback, plus reports and ensuring that all samples meet spec requirements and cost targets.
Liaised with several sole unit manufacturers on both cemented and injected unit projects providing tech packs with sequenced revisions up to final sample approval.
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Senior Footwear Designer and Developer
Mercury Sports Footwear LTD
Chelmsford, United Kingdom
May 2004 - Jul 2014 (10 years 2 months)
Researched and analysed current consumer style and trends, translating this information into work relevant to the parent company / target customer in the form of samples, trend boards and other necessary visual aid.
Co-ordinated with the Marks & Spencer kids buying team from 2013 to 2015 to design and develop a large portion of their kid’s sports footwear offering. Presented initial CADS and concepts to the buying team which followed their critical path, and then worked diligently with Far East factories to follow the M&S audit guidelines and deliver all final samples in a timely manner.
Designed, developed and co-ordinated with the Pineapple Dance marketing team from 2009 – 2012, with focus on older and younger girls footwear which aligned with their seasonal clothing options.
Designed in-house P.O.S. and catalogue layouts for Ruby Shoo, Pineapple Footwear and Mercury Sports from 2011 to 2014.
Designed and developed footwear for the official England football license from 2005 – 2009, including in-house graphical work for all relevant packaging and swing tickets.
Frequent travel to the Far East working alongside the relevant factories pushing to meet critical deadlines and enable more efficient sampling. Reviewed and evaluated confirmation samples to ensure correct and timely execution by factories.
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Footwear Designer
Woking, United Kingdom
Nov 2002 - Apr 2004 (1 year 5 months)
Researched relevant consumer style / trends via fashion sites and trade shows then fed the relevant information into the design and development of the entire Ascot sports range samples across all genders.
Tasked with critical path management and constant liaising with our China office to meet critical deadlines. Frequent Far East travel to further accelerate the sampling rate and efficiency with our factories / trading agencies.
Worked closely in conjunction with the sales team to provide our High Street retailers with several extra sample projects to add to their own in-store ranges.
Contributed to the design and creative direction of the 2003 relaunch of the men’s Bamboo A footwear range.
