Footwear at Scale
Company
Canadian Tire Corporation — Sport Chek / Mark’s
Role
Design Manager
Context
As Design Manager at Canadian Tire Corporation, I led footwear design and development across Sport Chek, Mark’s and Canadian Tire, working across technical and lifestyle winter footwear, kids, safety and snowboard boots.
The role went beyond individual products. I worked across seasonal design direction, fit and development, materials and construction, while improving the systems we used to develop footwear at scale. This included collaborative fit sessions, streamlined technical documentation, PLM implementation and new AI-assisted concept workflows that helped teams explore and align on ideas earlier in the process.
Tech Pack & PLM Implementation
To streamline communication and reduce errors, I created unified tech pack templates for internal teams, factories, and agencies. I also led the implementation of PLM as a central source of truth for the footwear design team, improving transparency, eliminating confusion, and giving the team a more effective tool for managing collections both internally and externally.
Sketch to AI Workflow
To accelerate early concept validation, I introduced an AI-assisted visualization workflow that allowed teams to review realistic product directions at the start of development. This improved alignment across design, brand, and product teams, reduced rework during prototyping, and increased adoption rates by 40%.
Streamlining Creativity
I led a redesign of the footwear development workflow across all three banners at Sport Chek, focusing on optimizing systems before designing products. By restructuring team workflows, introducing rapid prototyping, and integrating new tools, I reduced timelines, improved collaboration, and increased product adoption by 40%.
Results:
20% cost savings through team restructuring
Buyer alignment reached 1.5 months earlier
Adoption rates increased 40%
Reduced sampling rounds + eliminated timeline bottlenecks
Trend Research & Market Intelligence
I led trend and market research through trade shows, in-store observation, and customer conversations to identify insights that shaped future Sport Chek collections.
