Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization
At adidas, Sportswear is where sport-inspired design meets modern culture. As Category Manager, Sportswear for Southeast Asia, you will lead category planning and franchise execution for one of adidas’ most commercially important lifestyle categories, translating SEA Lifestyle category direction into strong assortments, clear franchise priorities, and consumer-relevant commercial opportunities across SEA markets.
Key Responsibilities
- Sportswear Category Strategy: Translate SEA Lifestyle category strategy into seasonal Sportswear category plans, franchise priorities, and commercial opportunities. Identify whitespace opportunities, range gaps, and growth initiatives. Support category pricing ladders, depth logic, and portfolio decisions through data-led recommendations.
- Franchise & Range Architecture: Lead franchise planning and lifecycle management across key franchises, balancing brand heat, commercial productivity, and long-term franchise equity. Deliver category priorities and portfolio recommendations across Global and SEA GTM milestones. Shape portfolio architecture through clear depth logic, franchise roles, and strategic category focus. Drive cluster category pricing recommendations and monitor Go-In-Margin performance.
- Marketplace & Commercial Execution: Monitor category trends, franchise performance, and the competitive landscape. Translate consumer, market, and competitive insights into actionable recommendations and growth opportunities. Balance regional scale with local market relevance. Support post-season reviews and partner with Commercial teams on sell-in strategy, key account frameworks, and segmentation.
- Culture, Consumer & Trend Insight: Champion a culture-led, consumer-centric mindset grounded in youth culture, fashion, streetwear, and creator insights across SEA. Monitor trend shifts and lifestyle footwear dynamics, identify untapped opportunities, and collaborate with commercial teams on channel growth.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Brand, GTM, MOPS, Commercial, Demand Planning, and Finance teams. Connect EM Sportswear Category teams and SEA markets, contribute to seasonal milestones and evaluations, and support Brand and Marketing with franchise focus, product stories, and category narratives.
- Stakeholder Management & Leadership: Build cross-functional partnerships, influence through data-backed recommendations and category expertise, support capability building across markets, and role-model adidas values.
Knowledge, Skills & Experience
- 5–8 years of experience in Category Management, Merchandising, or Commercial roles, ideally within footwear, lifestyle, or fashion-driven brands.
- Experience working in regional or multi-market environments, preferably Southeast Asia.
- Strong understanding of lifestyle footwear retail dynamics across DTC and wholesale.
- Expertise in assortment planning, franchise management, and range architecture.
- Strong commercial judgment and analytical capability.
- Experience working within seasonal GTM milestones.
- Ability to synthesize data, trends, and culture into clear category direction.
- Culture-curious, consumer-obsessed, trend-aware, structured, collaborative, adaptable, and comfortable with ambiguity.
Key Relationships
Internal relationships include EM Sportswear Category Teams, SEA Market Leadership, Brand, Product, GTM, MOPS, Commercial, Demand Planning, and Finance. External relationships may include key wholesale and retail partners.
About adidas
adidas fosters a winning culture built on courage, ownership, innovation, teamplay, integrity, and respect. The company emphasizes diversity, equity, and inclusion to create belonging and connect authentically with consumers and communities.