Multi-brand footwear and accessories retailer with 650+ stores and $1B digital business
Designer Brands operates a vertically integrated footwear empire—designing, producing, and retailing across 650+ owned stores and a billion-dollar digital commerce platform. The tech stack reveals a heavily operations-focused organization: HighJump (supply chain), Braze and Attentive (customer engagement), Adobe creative suite, and legacy ERP (AS/400). The hiring profile is dominated by store operations and sales roles (141 of 170 active postings), with acute focus on inventory management, omni-channel coordination, and shrink reduction—matching their stated pain points around loss prevention and labor efficiency at scale.
Notable leadership hires: Store Lead, Shipping Team Lead
Designer Brands owns and operates a portfolio of footwear brands including Topo Athletic, Keds, Vince Camuto, Jessica Simpson, Lucky Brand, and others, serving North American consumers through company-operated DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, The Shoe Co., and Rubino stores, plus e-commerce channels. The company also manufactures footwear for private label retail partners. With over 10,000 employees and approximately $1 billion in annual digital commerce revenue, Designer Brands is structured around two core operations: retail-store network management (650+ locations across North America) and direct-to-consumer omni-channel fulfillment. The organization actively manages inventory optimization, store labor allocation, and loss prevention across its distributed store base.
HighJump (supply chain), Braze and Attentive (marketing automation), Adobe Workfront (project management), and legacy AS/400 ERP. Creative teams use Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Illustrator.
Current project focus: BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store), omni-channel integration, inventory optimization and reporting, and cashwrap efficiency. Pain points center on inventory loss reduction and labor management across store locations.
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