Design Director, Non-Apparel - A&F

Location: Global Home Office in Columbus, Ohio, United States

Company

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is a global, digitally led omnichannel specialty retailer offering apparel and accessories through its Abercrombie and Hollister brands, stores, and e-commerce sites.

What you will do

• Lead the design vision and product direction for women’s and men’s non-apparel, including footwear, bags, belts, and related accessories.
• Create seasonal concept decks translating brand, trend, and customer direction into product stories, category opportunities, materials, colors, construction, and design details.
• Own the design process from research, concept development, and sketching through material selection, tech packs, sampling, approvals, and production handoff.
• Adapt concepts across multiple vendors and white-label production models while maintaining brand consistency, quality, and commercial relevance.
• Lead and develop a small design team while establishing category best practices, technical standards, and scalable ways of working.
• Partner with Merchandising, Sourcing, Tech Design, Planning, senior leadership, and vendors to identify growth opportunities and balance creativity, quality, cost, and speed to market.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design or a related field preferred, with 9+ years of experience, including significant non-apparel design experience.
• Demonstrated experience designing and developing footwear, bags, belts, accessories, or other non-apparel products from concept through production.
• Expert knowledge of non-apparel materials, hardware, components, construction methods, finishes, costing considerations, and manufacturing standards.
• Strong ability to create and evaluate tech packs, specifications, sketches, and construction details for internal teams and external vendors.
• Proven experience translating concepts across vendors and white-label production models while protecting brand consistency, quality, and customer relevance.
• Exceptional ability to develop concept decks and translate macro trends, brand direction, and customer insights into differentiated assortments across both genders.
• Proven ability to lead and develop design talent, establish best practices, and teach category knowledge, industry standards, and technical skills.
• Ability to operate in a small-team, high-growth environment with hands-on execution, urgency, ownership, and comfort creating structure where needed.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to align cross-functional partners, vendors, and senior leaders around product vision.
• Ability to collaborate across Design, Merchandising, Planning, Sourcing, and Tech Design while managing multiple categories, vendors, and changing priorities.
• Strong eye for fashion, trend, construction, and detail, with a passion for creating exceptional products for the A&F customer.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time leadership role based at the Columbus Global Home Office.
• Entrepreneurial, hands-on environment supporting a rapidly growing, high-priority business.
• Cross-functional collaboration with design, merchandising, sourcing, planning, technical design, and vendor partners.
• Opportunity to shape and scale non-apparel design capabilities, standards, and best practices across a global retail organization.