Pendleton winter packs: a material buy built from yardage and minimums

What it is

Pendleton wool and debossed leather were the materials of the customization platform's premium pack for holiday 2017. The concept was called winter in the city: a functional winter collection for city streets, made through customization. The pack offered Pendleton wool and debossed leather on the Air Force 1, the Air Max 1, the Cortez and the Presto Mid Utility.

The concept was set before Khounlavong started. It is in the leadership review of June 16, 2017, and he arrived in July. He launched it, extended it, and then planned the next year's buy.

Wool was ordered ahead of the season, in minimum quantities. The buy workbook tracks the yards and the pairs left over as excess. Reducing excess materials was one of his stated goals for fiscal 2018.

This page does not cover the ACG Mowabb made with Pendleton and Jay Gordon, which has its own page.

What Khounlavong did

• Set the winter pack in two flows in the holiday 2017 story flow, updated August 16, 2017. Wool ran from October 2 to November 15. Leather ran from November 15 to January 1.
• Listed the pack in the holiday 2017 master menu with 11,000 units available.
• Followed it with a Pendleton version of the SF Air Force 1 in high and mid. It went to Nike+ members through the member shop, from January 3 to January 25, 2018, in six SKUs, meaning individual styles and colors, with 1,500 units for North America at $220 and $200.
• Planned a second Pendleton story for holiday 2018 on five models: the Air Max 1, the Air Max 90, the Air Terra Humara and the Blazer in two heights. The concept map ran it from October 1, 2018 to January 7, 2019.
• Built the holiday 2018 Pendleton buy in a workbook that carries his initials, dated January 25, 2018. It forecast demand by model from weekly unit sales of the past seasons.
• Converted the forecast into yards of wool, using the yield from holiday 2017 and the usage from holiday 2013.
• Rounded each color to the mill's minimum order, which moved in steps of 84 yards, then calculated the excess yards and the excess pairs that each order would leave.
• Split the pack 60% Pendleton and 40% leather, across four solid colors and one print.
• Created a regular cadence with demand planning, and made the review of the materials inventory position a merchandising duty.

Results

• Excess materials across the platform fell 34% against the year before, a $2M reduction, recorded in his official Nike year-end review for fiscal 2018.
• The documents do not state how much of that reduction came from Pendleton.
• The holiday 2018 Pendleton story was dated to launch on October 1, 2018, after he left the role. The documents do not record its result.
• The winter premium pack with Pendleton wools produced $2.5M and 19,400 units in 90 days, 188% over budget, with 100% sell-through on the Pendleton wool Air Force 1 and Air Max 1.

At a glance