Footwear Buyer

What You Should Know The Footwear Buyer is a category owner responsible for delivering profitable growth through disciplined assortment strategy, financial management, and execution leadership. The role requires a merchant's mindset, decisive action, and the ability to manage complex vendor and inventory dynamics at scale. The Buyer operates with a high degree of autonomy, sets category direction, and is accountable for results from strategy through execution. What You Will Do Own long- and short-term assortment strategy across assigned footwear catagories. Translate customer trend and completitive insights into scalable commercial assortments. Make independent decisions on brand strategy, SKU depth, flow timing, and exits. Ensure assortments balance volume drivers, margin protection, and trend relevance.

Own category P&L levers including sales, margin, inventory productivity, and GMROI. Manage open-to-buy receipts, and flow execution to minimize aged inventory and markdown exposure. Identify performance risks early and take decisive corrective action. Partner proactively with Merchandise Planning to optimize inventory placement and timing.

Serve as the primary decision maker and escalation point for key footwear vendors. Lead strategic vendor negotiations across cost, margin, and freight. Set clear expectations and hold vendors accountable to committments and performance. Develop vendor strategies that drive mutual growth while protecting company profitability.

Mentor and informally develop junior buyers or assistant buyers. Contribute to broader merchandising strategy and best practices. Represent the footwear business with credibility internally and externally.