Designer – Apparel

Active Brands AS; Oslo; On-site; NOK 700,000 - 1,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Active Brands AS is a fast-growing house of premium sports apparel and equipment brands, aiming to inspire an active outdoor lifestyle for professionals and everyday athletes. The designer and product developer will own designs from concept to production, balancing creative exploration with detailed, manufacturable execution.

Reporting to the Head of Design, you’ll work with a cross-functional team across multiple seasons, prioritizing deadlines and delivering strong, market-ready products that

Qualifications

• Proven track record in commercial apparel design.
• Hands-on experience with manufacturers and suppliers.
• Ability to switch between creative exploration and structured execution.
• Strong ownership of products from concept to saleable sample.
• Comfort making decisions aligned with the brief.
• Strategic thinking about product decisions and customer impact.
• Documented training in garment construction.
• Ability to critique construction and fit efficiently.
• In-depth knowledge of materials, especially technical fabrics.
• Familiarity with welding and bonding construction methods.
• Commitment to keeping software skills current, including AI tools.

Responsibilities

• Deliver commercial apparel design and collections balancing brand, performance and cost.
• Drive design from concept to production-ready sample end-to-end.
• Collaborate with manufacturers, communicating specs and refining fit and detail.
• Select appropriate materials and construction methods per product use.
• Collaborate with cross-functional peers as designs progress.
• Deliver compelling storytelling presentations with precise material execution.

Skills

Apparel design

Manufacturing liaison

Creative to production

Ownership & accountability

Decision-making in briefs

Strategic product thinking

Garment construction training

Construction & fitting critique

Material selection (technical fabrics)

Welding & bonding construction

Software literacy (AI/tools)

Tools

CAD software

AI tools

Job description

About Active Brands

Active Brands is a fast-growing house of premium sports apparel and equipment brands, on a mission to inspire an active outdoor lifestyle for professional and everyday athletes. Our portfolio includes Kari Traa, Sweet Protection, Dæhlie, Johaug, Hygge, Bula and Åsnes. In addition, we produce apparel on demand for our customers. In this role you will help shape commercially strong, technically excellent apparel across our brand portfolio.

The Role

As Designer and product developer, you will create apparel that performs in the field and sells on the shelf. You will own designs from first concept through to salesman sample, working in close, direct dialogue with our manufacturers or sourcing office to bring them to life. You will move fluidly between open creative exploration and the structured, detail-driven work that turns an idea into a finished, manufacturable product. You will be part of a broader team of creative and technical colleagues, reporting to a Head of Design. We value true team players who lift the workload together and stay personally accountable for the products assigned to them. With multiple seasons running concurrently, you will balance a strategic, high-level view with hands-on attention to detail, prioritizing tasks based on each season's deadlines.

What You'll Do

Deliver creative, innovative and commercial product design and apparel collections that balance brand identity, performance and cost.

Drive design from concept to production ready sample, owning the process end to end, while ensuring functional performance and usability of the final product

Work directly with manufacturers - communicating specs, resolving construction questions and refining fit and detail.

Select and apply the right materials and construction methods for each product's intended use.

Collaborate and keep cross-functional peers oriented and aligned as designs progress through development.

Deliver strong storytelling presentations, with skilled execution of presentation material

What You Bring

A proven track record of commercial apparel design.

Direct, hands-on experience working and communicating with manufacturers.

The ability to shift comfortably between creative, open-ended work and structured, list-driven execution.

Strong ownership and accountability - you can drive a process from A to Z while keeping everyone informed.

Comfortable making product decisions in line with the brief.

A strong grasp of the commercial sporting goods business we operate in, with the ability to think strategically about product decisions and tasks - prioritizing what has real impact for the customer.

Documented training in garment construction.

The ability to comment efficiently and clearly on construction and fitting issues.

In-depth knowledge and expertise in material selection, especially technical fabrics and performance membranes

Familiarity with welding and bonding construction methods.

A commitment to keeping your daily software skills sharp - staying on top of updates to the tools you use and experimenting with AI where it helps.

Location & Travel

This role is based at our Oslo office, where much of the team works together day to day. We find the best products come from quick conversations, shared sketches and hands-on collaboration, so regular time in the office with the team is an important part of the role. The role also involves travel, including factory visits totaling approximately 10-15 days per year, and you should be comfortable travelling at short notice when needed.

Why Join Us

You’ll join a premium, design-led house of brands with a genuine passion for the outdoors and an international footprint. Here your designs reach athletes across some of Scandinavia's most loved sports brands - and you'll have the ownership to see them through from sketch to shelf. Sustainability is built into how we work: as a platform, we stay ahead of upcoming ESG regulation and take a systematic, cross-brand approach to tracking and embedding ESG across our products - so the choices you make as a designer are backed by a company that treats responsibility as a standard, not an afterthought.