Category Director - US Sports & Specialty Sports

ABOUT THE JOB

As the Category Director for US and Specialist Sports at adidas, you will play a pivotal role in managing a comprehensive go-to-market strategy that aims to enhance adidas's presence and performance in the North American marketplace, particularly focusing on athletes, teams, and retailers. This position requires a collaborative approach, working closely with various stakeholders including commercial teams, brand partners, Sports Marketing, and Global Creation teams. Your primary objective will be to deliver strategic business imperatives, implement key brand priorities, and drive growth for adidas as a leading sports brand. In this role, you will be responsible for creating, communicating, and implementing a strategy for seasonal sell-ins. You will ensure that the product range is aligned with market needs and that it meets the financial targets set for US Sports and Specialist Sports. This includes evaluating margin adjustments and increasing On-Time Availability across the business channels. You will actively participate in business discussions with partners and accounts, building productive relationships based on trust and accountability. Your responsibilities will also include developing an annual Go-To-Market strategy with key initiatives that align with North America’s operational capabilities. You will consolidate inputs from various categories and commercial channels to identify marketplace trends and business opportunities, providing valuable insights to Global and Local Business Unit counterparts. Additionally, you will develop channel-specific initiatives to leverage key sporting moments and ensure that the product range is executed with excellence, optimized for growth opportunities across different sub-businesses. You will be accountable for analyzing in-market performance and interpreting sales data to inform future season planning. Your leadership will model adidas values, fostering a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion while driving employee engagement and continuous development within your team. This role requires a strong consumer focus on all sport consumers Youth to Pro, advanced marketing knowledge, and the ability to balance brand and commercial priorities effectively.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Develop category initiatives to meet key commercial goals for both US Sports and Specialist Sports with a focus on driving Football, Dugout (Baseball and Softball), Tennis, Volleyball, swimming, rugby, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, and more.

Drive energy through US Sports to win in the home market

Win across the 5 stages of sports Rec, Club, High School, NCAA and Professional

Deliver the North America GTM strategy against global priorities; lead category management team to bring the strategy to life and win the Top Recruit

Work with product creation teams to create and launch innovative US Sports products, ensuring they meet the needs of the market and align with adidas's brand vision.

Align with Global on product range build and assortment strategy

Own go to market planning excellence in compliance with targets for forecasting, pricing, profitability, range size, range flow, range adoption, APR etc. including system, catalogue and master data maintenance

Build assortment plans that provide clear product direction and information to the global product team and supporting departments

Collaborate in preparing communication concepts for the category

Build market/retailer network to maintain trend and product awareness

Present ranges internally and externally (to key retailers)

Continually monitor and analyze product range and sales results to determine products that maximize profitability/productivity

Perform category insights and analytics including market/consumer/competitor insights and sales analysis and leverage for planning

Collaborate with supply chain to ensure end-to-end deliverables of product OTIF

Manage the process with effective communication and action steps to achieve margin, profitability, and acceptable inventory levels

Drive & develop a 3–5-year category plan based on overall adidas BU process in collaboration with Global BU

Ensure organizational efficiency through motivation, training, and development of direct reports

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Commercial partners including retailers, Canada, and DTC

Category and Marketplace Merchandising

Global Business Partners

Sports Marketing

Brand Communications

Finance

Brand Operations (GTM, Sample, & Merch Ops)

Demand Planning and relevant SCM partners

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

Extensive knowledge of the US Sports industry: Deep understanding of professional leagues, clubs, and athletes, as well as the competitive landscape

Advanced cross-functional Merchandising and Marketing knowledge and Market experience in sport focused on Sporting Goods, Grassroots, and DTC.

Strong presentation/communication, negotiation and influencing skills, especially with senior stakeholders within a global matrix organization.

Consumer-focused with deep product and range understanding and the ability to balance Brand and Commercial priorities to build channel- and consumer-specific activation plans that meet KPI targets

Advanced user of MS Office suite of products

Experience in both market and above market organization preferred

Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Strong presentation, planning, and analytical skills

A thorough understanding of consumer markets

Passion for sports

Ability to intake multiple sources of information/briefs and confidence and acumen to act decisively and with speed

Advanced analytical skills, be solution driven and result oriented, strong business orientation

Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment

Lead and manage a diverse team

Ability to travel domestic and international up to 30% of time

REQUISITE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE / MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

College degree, preferably in marketing/business /textile/fashion

Minimum of 7 years Product Marketing experience with FTW or comparable background

Experience in managing and developing direct reports

Strong, proven leadership skills

Experience in marketing, trade, or sales is helpful

Fluent in English

PC skills (MS Office programs)

adidas offers robust and progressive medical, including HSA (Health Savings Account) with employer funding or FSA (Flexible Spending Account) options, dental, vision, prescription drug coverage, adoption, with surrogate and fertility support, short and long-term disability, and basic life and AD&D insurance, which can be supplemented with employee-paid coverage. Employees are able to enroll in adidas’ 401k plan and Stock Purchase Plan with employer match. Full-time employees are eligible for education assistance and generous Leave policies including 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

Employees are eligible to earn an annual bonus based on both company and personal performance. Employees accrue prorated flexible time off in the amount .4388 hours per day that increases with years of service, twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year and Service Time Off during milestone years.

At adidas we offer a Hybrid work policy which requires attendance in the office Monday through Thursday, with the flexibility to work remotely on Friday each week. For work requiring a high degree of collaboration or an in-person presentation, in-office attendance is required even on Friday. The working location of this position is Portland, Oregon.

Though our teammates hail from all corners of the world, our working language is English.

AT ADIDAS WE HAVE A WINNING CULTURE. BUT TO WIN, PHYSICAL POWER IS NOT ENOUGH. JUST LIKE ATHLETES OUR EMPLOYEES NEED MENTAL STRENGTH IN THEIR GAME. WE FOSTER THE ATHLETE’S MINDSET THROUGH A SET OF BEHAVIORS THAT WE WANT TO ENABLE AND DEVELOP IN OUR PEOPLE AND THAT ARE AT THE CORE OF OUR UNIQUE COMPANY CULTURE: THIS IS HOW WE WIN WHILE PLAYING FAIR.

COURAGE: Speak up when you see an opportunity; step up when you see a need..

OWNERSHIP: Pick up the ball. Be proactive, take responsibility and follow-through.

INNOVATION: Elevate to win. Be curious, test and learn new and better ways of doing things.

TEAMPLAY: Win together. Work collaboratively and cultivate a shared mindset.

INTEGRITY: Play by the rules. Hold yourself and others accountable to our company’s standards.

RESPECT: Value all players. Display empathy, be inclusive and show dignity to all.

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 Director - US Sports & Specialty Sports

BRAND:

LOCATION:

Portland

TEAM:

Brand Management & Communications

STATE:

OR

COUNTRY/REGION:

US

CONTRACT TYPE:

Full time

NUMBER:

546447

DATE:

Jun 29, 2026