Tapestry Footwear Product Developer
Tapestry — Footwear Product Developer in Ho Chi Minh City. Lead footwear development from proto to production for Coach and Kate Spade New York.
Overview
Tapestry, Inc. is a global house of modern luxury lifestyle brands including Coach and Kate Spade New York. The group combines design-led creativity with rigorous product and supply-chain capabilities, offering cross-brand career mobility across design, development, merchandising and retail functions.
Role & Responsibilities
- Manage footwear development projects from proto stage through confirmed sample sign-off, ensuring alignment with design intent and production feasibility.
- Liaise directly with vendors and overseas teams to transfer prototypes into production, review tech packs, and resolve technical clarifications.
- Coordinate with Raw Material Sourcing, Tooling and Supply Chain to track long lead items and ensure on-time delivery of materials and components.
- Maintain and verify accurate product specifications, size sets and quality standards to support programme timelines.
- Support sample and material transfers between vendors; oversee trims and secondary upper processes.
- Communicate shipping, tracking and production status between factories and international product teams.
- Participate in review/RA meetings and support SPs to achieve CRF corrections, clarifications and the preparation of wear-test and laboratory test samples.
- Drive product quality across sampling phases to meet established standards and influence corrective action when necessary.
Qualifications
- Minimum 3 years' hands-on experience in footwear product development or a closely related role within the footwear industry.
- Advanced knowledge of footwear product categories, materials, constructions and the product development lifecycle.
- Proven ability to manage multiple development projects under tight deadlines with strong organisation and prioritisation skills.
- Excellent written and verbal English; proficiency in Chinese is a strong plus.
- High attention to detail and the ability to communicate technical requirements clearly to cross-cultural vendor partners.
- Comfortable working with cross-functional teams and driving results in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.
Skills
Experience
At least three years of professional experience in footwear product development, demonstrating end-to-end involvement in sampling, tech-pack management and vendor communication across international supply chains.
Education
Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design, Footwear Design, Materials Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience in footwear product development.
Workplace
The successful candidate will be located in Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
Culture
Tapestry fosters an inclusive, creative and collaborative workplace where individual expression is encouraged across its family of brands. Employees are expected to bring entrepreneurial energy, cross-cultural collaboration skills and a commitment to craft and quality.
About Cerulean
Cerulean is the definitive career portal for the global luxury industry. We match exceptional professionals with exclusive opportunities at the world's most prestigious brands. From haute couture and fine watchmaking to prestige beauty, hospitality, and boutique retail, Cerulean centralises luxury employment to help you find the career for which you were destined.
Frequently Asked Questions
The luxury industry is characterised by a diverse and nuanced nomenclature. Esteemed houses frequently employ proprietary terminology, and even within a single organisation like Tapestry, titles may vary across global markets to reflect local conventions. To ensure absolute clarity, Cerulean assigns a standardised, industry-coherent canonical title to every listing. However, it is worth noting that this role is functionally synonymous with «Footwear Developer», «Product Development Specialist – Footwear», «Footwear Technical Developer», «Footwear Production Developer», and other variations. Our sophisticated search architecture anticipates these variations, ensuring that inquiries using related terms will seamlessly yield the exact roles you desire.