Buyer, Footwear and Leather Goods

At the crossroads of fashion and sport, Lacoste creates and liberates movement. Both universal and timeless, the brand transcends cultures and generations, elevating the crocodile as a rally sign.

An iconic French brand present in nearly 100 countries, Lacoste stand out for its unique know-how in each of its areas of expertise, from garment factory to omnichannel distribution.

At Lacoste, elegance goes beyond style. This elegance guides all of its actions and its social and environmental commitments.

Working at Lacoste is belonging to a community of 8,500 employees on the move to build the future. Committed to making equal opportunities a reality and to revealing potential, the company brings together talents from all walks of life, embracing their differences.

Lacoste is one of the inspiring brands driven by passionate people within the MF Brands Group, alongside Aigle, Gant and Tecnifibre (https://mf-brands.com/).

This position is responsible for leading the buying and merchandising function for Lacoste product for the Footwear and Leather Goods department for first choice retail and Ecomm. This individual will partner with the Director of Buying and Merchandising, to identify market trends and set the buy strategy. In conjunction with this, they will be working with the wholesale team to ensure their product needs are being met. The Buyer will be responsible for developing and driving appropriate assortments for our Lacoste Boutiques and Ecommerce, ensuring brand goals and objectives are met through historical analysis, trends, and the specific needs of our Boutique and Ecommerce customers.

Essential Job Responsibilities:

• In partnership with the Director of Buying and Merchandising, set buying strategy for our full price retail Boutiques and Ecommerce channels to realize brand goals and objectives.
• All retail buying accountability for the categories of Footwear and Leather Good’s business for Boutique and Ecommerce.
• All product accountability for the categories of Footwear and Leather Goods for the wholesale channel.
• Work in close partnership with planning, visual merchandising, and retail team to manage in-season business performance, as well as coordinate in advance for each seasonal delivery.
• Focus on future of business by identifying market trends, assortment opportunities, and understanding the Lacoste customer.
• Partner with the planning team regarding buying strategy and ensuring financial viability and excellence in execution.
• Complete the buy during market; product selection and assortment, while managing the sku and merchandise plan and meeting financial objectives.
• Manage the system creation and pricing control for all channels for NORCAM (US/Canada/Mexico).
• Strategize key items, promotions and mark downs with pricing manager and commercial leads.
• Partner with Merchandising teams in France regarding the construction of the seasonal line, addressing business needs defined by historical sales, productivity analysis, and the understanding of market trends that apply to the dna of the brand.
• Liaise with supply chain, as well as planning and allocation to ensure availability and the timely delivery of merchandise.
• Communicate with visual team to optimize product investments on store sales floor.
• Partner with team to run analysis and prepare selling hindsight’s on weekly, monthly, quarterly, seasonal basis in order to help identify opportunities in the assortment.
• Collaborate with store team to refine knowledge of customer needs.

Requirements/Qualifications:

• Proven success buying and managing assortments for a retail organization, and ideally, experience working with a European corporate office.
• Strong analytical and retail math skills.
• Strong communications, time management and presentation skills.
• A critical thinker who drives solutions.
• Exhibits strong leadership skills with ability to motivate a team and create a sense of urgency
• Flexible team player, ability to work collaboratively across all departments.
• 2+ years’ experience in a Buying role. Vertical store or E-commerce experience is a plus.

Core Values and Traits:

Play as One Team:

• Showing respect towards everyone
• Commitment for the team’s work and decisions

Play with Elegance:

• Striving for excellence
• Treating others with fair play and humility

Play by Daring:

• Having the courage to speak up, experiment and take initiative
• To explore new opportunities

Play with Tenacity:

• Constantly seek continuous improvement
• Learning from our failures

Equal Opportunity Employer

At Lacoste, we’re committed to providing equal opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment regardless of their race, color, religion, creed, gender/sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, pregnancy, military status, veteran status, and/or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, and local laws.