CATEGORY MANAGER SPORTSWEAR

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

 

Drive and ensure business success for dedicated product division (focus category – Sportswear FTW & Accessories)  with focus on key countries Poland and Czech Republic. Support the GTM Director with the execution of a robust category GTM plan, within the strategic framework set by the Global & European BU’s & following the EU PRIORITIES & Cluster Central Europe execution plan.

 

 

Key Responsibilities:  

 

GTM:

  • Delivers a complete GTM proposition & local category marketing plan (GTM plan) in line with strategic objectives for dedicated product division
  • GTM plan contains product, distribution, communication & activation tools, sports marketing, omnichannel
  • Product Division expert within the Category
  • Represent the brand and BU internally and externally.
  • Support the European BU on local ranging, forecasting, and pricing topics (data, mark-up, segmentation, allocation).
  • Provide input into SMU for local key accounts.
  • Get an early preview of the new season: Collaborate with stakeholders to review product concepts, provide feedback on market alignment, and ensure the product assortment meets demand.
  • Work with stakeholders to create activation plans for product launches, determining retailer selection and marketing budget allocation.
  • Ensure effective Go-To-Market execution, managing the product journey from HQ creation to retail landing, including retailer selection, activations, and visibility.
  • Own the process from product creation (with no direct impact) to its retail landing and activations.

 

Collaboration & Process:

  • Key contact person for Sales as well as cross functional marketing teams
  • Develop category plans and drive handover to Sales during Sales & Marketing meetings (SMM)
  • Together with Sports Marketing, create and present specific promo ranges and product offers in alignment with Europe BU
  • Ensures an efficient execution of the given sample order process & on target/budget
  • Engage with a x-functional group of category experts from different marketing & sales teams (“category/master-groups”) to drive the review and steering of the Cluster GTM plan and process for the Category
  • Serve as the voice of CZ & Poland towards Europe, ensuring that the needs of local markets are communicated effectively to European counterparts.
  • Serve as the voice of Europe within local markets, translating European strategies into actionable local plans.

Commercial & Analytics:

  • Demonstrate a “full marketplace” attitude (ALL countries & channels: DTC, WHS, X-border accounts) and stays in close exchange with the relevant AKA teams
  • Drives the successful sell-in process (from Category input, over pre-lines to sell-in meetings of identified strategic accounts)
  • Develops relevant distribution and segmentation strategies to successfully manage key franchises in the Cluster (MRA tiering, Allocation)
  • Uses available market data to build dedicated product division plans (e.g. NPD data)
  • Maintain regular analytics on the sell-in and sell-through performance of respective category (analytical support from Finance team)
  • Give input to European BU’s on country price-grouping and submit requests exception throughout the pricing process
  • Provide feedback on product offerings and suggest necessary adjustments to align with local market needs, particularly for seasonal products (FW/SS).

 

 

Key Relationships:

 

  • Brand activation & Sports Marketing teams
  • Sales, AKA & DTC
  • European BU
  • Cluster MOPS
  • Business & Sales Development
  • Finance teams
  • DTC & Cross-boarder accounts

 

KPIs:

 

  • Net Sales
  • Net Margin
  • Go In Margin
  • Sell out
  • Market share development
  • Share of search

 

Knowledge, skills and abilities:

 

  • Consumer focus with deep product and range knowledge (app, ftw, acc) with a strong understanding of seasonality (FW/SS).
  • Excellent understanding of the balanced relationship between brand and commercial aspects to develop distribution-channel-specific GTM solutions
  • Strong understanding of sports and or  lifestyle industry, or at least familiarity with the sports market and its trends.
  • Strong organizational and convincing presentation skills
  • Passionate about sports & fashion
  • Pro- active (engaging & impact-oriented) mindset, ability to think end-to-end
  • Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with different international cultures
  • Business mindset: Very good numerical and analytical skills, experience in finance
  • Good experience to manage projects on cross-functional level
  • Manager with advanced cross functional marketing knowledge and market experience in sport and/or fashion/lifestyle categories
  • Passionate about sports & fashion
  •  

 

Requisite Education and Experience/Minimum Qualifications 

 

  • University degree in business administration, ideally with marketing and sales focus or equivalent professional experience
  • 4+ years’ experience in merchandising, cross-functional marketing and/or sales
  • Fluency in English (written and spoken), Polish is a great plus.
  • IT skills: Outlook and Word: basic; Excel and PowerPoint: advanced
  • Competencies also for hybrid teams (remote teams)
  • People Connector – inclusive mindset and team player living DEI standards
  • Regular travel required (30% within a year across Central/Eastern Europe)

 


At adidas, we strongly believe that embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into our culture and talent processes gives our employees a sense of belonging and our brand a real competitive advantage.

– Culture Starts With People, It Starts With You –

By recruiting talent and developing our people to reflect the rich diversity of our consumers and communities, we foster a culture of inclusion that engages our employees and authentically connects our brand with our consumers.

Job Title:  CATEGORY MANAGER SPORTSWEAR

Brand: 
Location:  Warsaw
TEAM:  Merchandising & Planning
State:  MZ
Country/Region:  PL
Contract Type:  Full time
Number:  534292
Date:  Sep 9, 2025