Director, Color & Trend Footwear Design

Brooks Running; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 186,192 - 297,928; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Product discounts

Fitness discounts

Volunteer benefits

Job summary

Brooks Running in Seattle seeks a Director, Color & Trend Footwear Design to lead the aesthetic direction across footwear. This includes management of seasonal palettes and integration of market trends while ensuring design excellence.

You will guide design leaders, influence product strategy, and uphold company values. Requires extensive experience in color and material design, with strong leadership and collaboration skills.

A competitive salary and extensive benefits package, including PTO and wellness initiatives, are offered.

Qualifications

• 14+ years of experience creating color/material/textile programs.
• 7+ years of managerial experience managing direct reports.
• Ability to scale aesthetics for international markets.

Responsibilities

• Upgrade aesthetic competitiveness and coach teams.
• Direct color and material design reviews.
• Ensure adherence to seasonal calendars.

Skills

Leadership

Color theory

Material design

Adobe Illustrator

Collaboration

Visual design

Education

4-year college or university degree in design

Tools

Adobe PhotoShop

3D CAD software

Job description

Overview

Who We Are At Brooks, we believe movement is the key to feeling more alive. That’s why we’re driven to create gear and experiences that take people to the place that makes them feel more alive — whether it’s a headspace, a feeling, or a finish line. Everyone who works at Brooks is propelled by a company culture that sparks excitement, fuels collaboration, inspires creativity, and ignites innovation. Our brand values help bond us together and drive our success.

Our values:

• Runner First — We act in the best interest of the runner
• Word is Bond — We do what we say we’ll do
• Champion Heart — We give our all in everything we do
• There is no “I” in Run — We stay generous with our humanity
• Keep Moving — We find ways to move every day, because joy is kinetic

We welcome everyone from every walk of life looking to inspire others through the power of movement – because we’re all moving towards something.

Your Job

As the Director, Color & Trend Footwear Design, you will own the aesthetic direction for Brooks Running footwear across color, graphics, materials, finishes, and trend. You will shape the emotional experience of our products, connecting performance function with a clear aesthetic vision that helps Brooks create product runners love.

You will create and manage the long-term direction for seasonal palettes and the CRAFTED BEAUTY design language, using trend insight, design research, runner data, and digital creation tools to guide fresh, market-relevant color and material applications across the footwear line.

You will lead Color & Trend Design across inline, innovation, and lifestyle footwear, while also influencing head-to-toe initiatives and Product Virtualization. You will inspire, coach, and guide design leaders, build critical thinking and problem-solving skills across the team, and help the group navigate ambiguity, risk, and change with clarity.

As a member of the extended Seasonal Creation Leader group, you will bring the aesthetic vision to life throughout product creation. You will partner across Design, Merchandising, Development, Product Marketing, and external teams to establish and communicate the CRAFTED BEAUTY seasonal design language and support Brooks’ goal of being the most loved brand for runners worldwide.

Your Responsibilities

• LEADERSHIP: Upgrade through direction, education, and coaching in footwear but also across the organization the aesthetic competitiveness of our products
• Co-create our creative foundation CRAFTED BEAUTY – PERFORMANCE EXPRESSIONS with the Director, Footwear Innovation
• Represent the design team on the Seasonal Creation Leader team (SCLs) to create cross functional alignment across key decisions that impact the inline strategy across Horizon 1 (1-3 yrs) and inform innovation strategy Horizon 2 (5-10 yrs) with an applied color strategy
• Manage, lead and direct the Brooks Running Footwear Color & Trend Team
• Lead the teams through our product review gates ensuring adherence to seasonal and long-term calendars
• Mentor and influence managers and stakeholders on developing and applying both a critical thinking and process improvement lens on decisions
• Oversee the inline color palette and color CAD creation process
• Oversee the footwear pre-development of the color palette creation, graphic palette creation, material palette creation, and finish palette creation
• Participate and play a key role on the footwear steering committee and footwear calibration process
• Demonstrate strong people leadership skills rooted in Connect (our leadership development program) principles
• Promote Brooks’ Core Cultural Values: be responsible for team culture and keep a pulse on morale
• Create an organizational design to align with business strategy and conditions
• Provide career-development planning, coaching, training and support to foster a culture of learning, curiosity and innovation
• Model leadership behavior across the organization
• Drive performance management using Brooks performance tools
• Initiate recognition and rewards and celebrate wins

• DESIGN: Direct and lead the color, graphic, material and finish design reviews
• Create visions extending the seasonal stories into new areas and topics connecting trends to the product portfolio
• Innovate identity principles to maximize perceived value and competitiveness
• Direct the seasonal updates of our CRAFTED BEAUTY with your team
• Provide strategic direction, leadership, mentorship and inspiration to a diverse team of designers
• Guide and deliver product design presentations; including exploratory process to reach final solution and color CADs and Material Maps
• Stay up-to-date on craft to design consumer-relevant products
• Direct the team leads of color and material to integrate 3D CAD
• Attend trade fairs, cultural and sporting events for runner insights
• Attend store visits and market travels as necessary for design inspiration
• Synthesize results into presentations that drive aesthetic conversations across the enterprise
• Incorporate a global point of view, accounting for regional differences for various markets

• CROSS TEAM COLLABORATION: Influence Merchandising to create strong product stories across Apparel and Footwear
• Provide direction to Footwear Development through integrating design to express performance and influence development process & cost management from a design perspective
• Partner with Marketing and Product Marketing Teams in creating and communicating the inspiration and storytelling
• Present new color and material directions to product teams and senior management on a seasonal basis

Qualifications

• 4-year college or university degree in product, graphics, apparel or footwear design; equivalent experience may be substituted. International education is a plus
• 14+ years of experience creating color/material/textile programs and future vision of consumer goods – ideally sports industry
• Extensive experience creating aesthetics and stories for international markets of consumer goods
• Ability to scale and balance aesthetics for NA/EMEA/APLA markets
• 7+ years of managerial experience, managing direct reports and developing talent
• Thorough knowledge of art and design with clear understanding of visual design
• Proven experience creating and leading the execution of vision and strategy
• Experience managing external resources
• Ability to understand design concepts across product categories
• Ability to operate in a fast-paced, evolving work environment
• Ability to build and foster relationships in a team environment with multiple stakeholders
• Ability to push themselves, others, and the brand forward
• Ability to influence and collaborate with key business partners
• Keen attention to detail in planning, organization, and execution
• Demonstration of innovation and initiative
• Passionate participation in Brooks’ sports activities is a plus
• Mastery with Adobe Illustrator/PhotoShop
• Proficient with Apple Mac OS
• Proficiency with MS Office Suite
• 3D knowledge is a plus
• Willingness to travel up to 10% domestically/internationally

Compensation

The pay range for this position, based out of the Brooks Seattle HQ, is 186,192 - 297,928 per year. Base pay offered will vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Other

Brooks is proud to offer a robust benefits package to our employees and their families. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance, HSA with employer contribution, FSA, family & fertility assistance, 401K Savings Plan and match, employee assistance program, and transportation assistance. Paid Time Off includes five weeks of PTO, eleven holidays, paid sick and parental leave. Bonus may be offered based on company performance. Perks include product discounts, employee recognition, fitness discounts, and volunteer benefits. Location: You will spend 4 days per week in our Seattle offices.

At Brooks, we celebrate diversity & equity. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment and encourage people of all backgrounds to apply. Brooks is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, pregnancy, or any other basis protected by law.