What it is
Fiscal 2014 ran from June 2013 to May 2014. It was Khounlavong's third year as North America Footwear Merchandising Director for Basketball, the seat he had held since May 2011. The year's launches were the LeBron XI, the KD VI and the Kobe 9.
His career planning deck from April 2014 called the year a projected "Triple Crown": sales, margin and inventory together.
What Khounlavong did
- Ran the footwear line plan, forecast and assortments for the year against the category plan.
- Made the Signature Playbook common practice and kept its weekly meetings going to hold the functions to one voice.
- Created the Signature Launch visual line plan and gave it to the wider team, to plan launches around the consumer and the retail calendar.
- Led cross category partners through Launch 2.0, a launch planning process, and worked out launch and flow strategies with global, cross category and brand merchandising partners.
- Built the first three year line plan framework for the category in November 2013, using hindsight on past seasons and foresight on the next three years.
- Led market travel to New York, Philadelphia and Lexington, which his review records as a source of consumer insights.
- Drove the Nike Factory Store assortment for All-Star Weekend.
- Hosted meetings every two weeks with social media, brand and retail presentation teams to align what was communicated to the consumer.
- Coached his Converse counterpart on launch strategy and mentored merchants inside and outside the category.
Results
- Revenue grew 17.1%, or $78M, over the prior year and finished $37M above budget.
- Gross margin rose 230 basis points over the prior year and 230 over budget.
- Inventory was flat to the prior year, at plus 0.0%.
- The cancel rate was 2.8%, down 33.3% on the prior year.
- At mid-year, on January 2014 data, revenue was running 15% above the prior year's $457M and 8% above a budget of $486M. Gross margin stood at 36.4%, up 350 basis points. Inventory was $43M, flat to the prior year.
- Holiday 2013 orders for the LeBron XI came to $25.8M, up 31%, and for the Zoom Soldier to $13.7M, up 158.5%.
- Style count fell 5%, from 673 to 639, on the count used in his career profile.
- Launch sell-through in November 2013, from the weekly summary to North America leadership: the LeBron XI "Forging Iron" at 97%, and the LeBron XI "Away" at 66% after two weeks.
At a glance
| Project type | Annual business results |
|---|---|
| Industry | Athletic footwear |
| Seat | North America Footwear Merchandising Director, Basketball |
| Ran through | Nike |
| Dates | June 2013 to May 2014 |
| Related pages | Jimmy Khounlavong, Nike Basketball North America footwear, Signature Playbook, Three year line plan, Margin tools |
| Principal | Jimmy Khounlavong |