Founded in 2000, FAM Brands designs, manufactures, and sells men’s and women’s sportswear and active wear apparel to major retailers, big box stores, and specialty boutiques across the country and throughout the world. Our portfolio of proprietary brands features Marika, Wildfox, Three Dots, and Balance Collection, while a partial list of licensing partners includes Orvis, Jessica Simpson, Eddie Bauer, and Woolrich.
With the capacity to produce over 75 million units per year, our mission continues to be making top-quality apparel accessible to everyone at an impressive value and an irresistible price.
That's the FAM Brands difference.
FAM Brands is seeking a strategic and hands-on Design Lead to support driving our Academy account including sportswear, women’s, and men’s sportswear. This role will oversee and mentor Design Managers and Sr. Designers ensuring cohesive vision, brand alignment, and executional excellence across all offerings.
- Lead, mentor, and develop Design Managers and Senior Designers across Sportswear, Women’s and Men’s categories
- Foster a high-performance, collaborative and accountable design culture
- Provide clear direction, feedback and career development opportunities for design teams
- Champion creativity while ensuring alignment with business goals and timelines
- Define and drive the overall design vision and calendars across all categories
- Ensure consistency in brand identity, seasonal storytelling and product aesthetics
- Review and approve design concepts, ensuring alignment with brand strategy and customer expectations
- Elevate product design through trend-right innovation and competitive benchmarking
- Partner with Merchandising, Product Development and Production teams to build compelling assortments
- Translate business objectives into actionable design strategies
- Ensure designs meet margin targets, cost constraints and production feasibility
- Oversee seasonal calendars, ensuring timely delivery of all design milestones
- Work closely with merchandising to align on assortment plans and category strategies
- Partner with sourcing and development teams to ensure material and construction innovation
- Collaborate with marketing and branding teams on campaigns, lookbooks and product storytelling
- Act as a key voice in leadership meetings, representing design priorities and insights
- Maintain deep knowledge of market trends, consumer behavior and competitive landscape
- Drive innovation through research, travel and trend forecasting
- Identify new opportunities for growth and category expansion
- 10+ years of experience in apparel design, with 3–5+ years in a leadership role
- Proven success managing and developing multiple design teams and/or managers
- Strong background in sportswear, activewear, or performance apparel preferred
- Deep understanding of the full product lifecycle from concept through production
- Demonstrated ability to balance creative vision with commercial and margin goals
- Strategic thinker with the ability to translate business objectives into design direction
- Strong leadership presence with excellent communication and influencing skills
- Highly organized with strong project management capabilities in fast-paced environments
- Collaborative mindset with cross-functional partnership experience
- Strong trend awareness and ability to drive innovation
- Ability to operate with speed, agility and attention to detail
LOCATION
This is a full-time, onsite position based at our current corporate office in Bell, CA 5553-B Bandini Blvd, Bell, CA 90201. In Q3, our corporate headquarters will relocate to 9242 Beverly Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
COMPENSATION
At FAM Brands, we are committed to fair and transparent compensation. Salary ranges for positions are based on job level, location, and market data. We offer competitive benefits and are dedicated to equal pay for equal work. Specific salary offers depend on each candidate’s qualifications and experience. FAM Brands also offers all employees participation in our annual bonus program (Non-Sales) or commission program (Sales).
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Notice for Job Applicants
FAM LLC values your privacy. This notice outlines our practices regarding the personal information of job applicants in compliance with the CCPA.
What We Collect: We collect information you provide in your job application, including contact details, educational and employment history.
Purpose: We use this information to evaluate your application and manage the hiring process.
Disclosure: Your personal information may be shared with service providers assisting with recruitment and as required by law.
Your Rights: Under the CCPA, you have the right to access and request deletion of your personal information and to not face discrimination for exercising these rights.
For questions or to exercise your rights, contact [email protected].
By applying, you acknowledge you understand our privacy practices.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of experience in apparel design
- 3-5+ years in a leadership role (managing managers and senior designers)
- Proven success managing and developing multiple design teams and/or managers
- Strong background in sportswear, activewear, or performance apparel
- Deep understanding of the full product lifecycle from concept through production
- Ability to balance creative vision with commercial and margin goals
- Strong leadership presence with excellent communication and influencing skills
- Highly organized with strong project management capabilities in fast-paced environments
- Collaborative mindset with cross-functional partnership experience (merchandising, sourcing, development, marketing)
- Strong trend awareness, research and forecasting skills; willingness to travel for trend research
- Ability to operate with speed, agility and attention to detail
- Willingness to work full-time onsite in Bell, CA (corporate HQ relocating to Beverly Hills, CA in Q3)
What We Do
Three Decades of Leadership In The Fashion Industry Founded in 1985 by Frank Zarabi, FAM Brands provides innovative fashion, design, brand development, and distribution solutions to a wide range of retail and wholesale clients and partners. Our unique performance materials and versatile apparel designs-along with our competitive pricing strategies-have enabled us to become leaders in apparel industry. Our ability to thrive, centers around impeccable design and excellent branding. Our designers and production teams collaborate closely with our factories to create exception fashion strategies and details. Our world-class brands include Marika, Balance Collection, Bally Total Fitness, Tehama, Peace and Pearls, Eddie Bauer, Orvis, Woolrich, and more. We are the trailblazers for activewear. Champions of fitness. We're for simple, elegant and vibrant designs. Our employees are star-reachers, bridge-builders, leaders and teammates. We are family-owned and operated. We are FAM Brands. We are growing and focused on strategic initiatives. Our factories are safe and our employees are valued. We are worldwide, world-class, forward-thinking and forward-looking. We work hard and believe in the work we do. We're for executional excellence and achieving our dreams. We are FAM Brands.
