VP of Merchandising, TRX Licensing (Town of Florida)

Blulabs, a family-owned international supplier, is a trusted partner to clients worldwide, manufacturing products for the airline, food service, retail, and janitorial & sanitation industries with factories across Asia, Latin America, and the EU. We deliver high-quality products and drive a high-energy, entrepreneurial culture that values ownership and adaptability.

Function: Global Licensed Product Merchandising
Focus: Mass & Club Distribution (Target, Walmart, Costco, Off-Price)
Product Scope: Fitness Equipment, Recovery & Wellness, Apparel, Accessories, Bundles & Kits
Reports to: Chief Retail Officer
Key Partners: Executive Leadership Team, Vendors, Retail Buyers / Accounts, Finance, Operations

1. Context, Mandate & Objective of the Role

TRX is a globally recognized performance training brand with deep credibility among athletes, trainers, and serious fitness users. As the brand expands through licensed product into mass and club retail, merchandising leadership is required to own product strategy — ensuring TRX’s performance DNA is translated into clear assortments, disciplined pricing architecture, and competitive retail propositions.

Licensed product must:

• Protect Brand Equity: Maintain TRX performance credibility across all price tiers Drive
• Commercial Outcomes: Deliver productivity, margin, and scale in mass retail
• Operate with Discipline: Align product breadth, pricing, and cost structure to retail realities
• Scale Strategically: Expand categories and volume without assortment or pricing fragmentation

Objective of the Role

The VP of Merchandising, TRX Licensing owns the end-to-end licensed merchandising strategy — including category strategy, assortment architecture, pricing ladders, competitive positioning, and financial performance — across all retailers and licensed categories.

This role is accountable for what the line is, how it is priced, where it sits competitively, and why it wins at market.

1) Market Positioning & Competitive Strategy

• Competitive Set: Define and maintain the competitive set for each category and retailer, including branded competitors, private label, and adjacent substitutes.
• White Space: Identify where TRX should compete — and where it should not — to avoid price compression, brand dilution, or unnecessary complexity.
• Retail Positioning: Develop deep understanding of the mass and club retail landscape (Target, Walmart, Costco) to inform how TRX should be positioned by retailer, ensuring assortments, pricing architecture, and value propositions align with retailer expectations while maintaining a consistent core brand promise.
• Category Relevance: Define the role of each category (fitness, recovery, apparel, accessories, kits) based on brand relevance, consumer need, growth potential, margin contribution, and operational complexity — ensuring each category earns its place in the business.

2) Line Architecture & Assortment Strategy

• Assortment Architecture Ownership: Define the assortment architecture by category and retailer, translating market positioning into clear, intentional line structures.
• Good / Better / Best Frameworks: Establish Good / Better / Best frameworks within each category to clearly articulate consumer value propositions at each price tier.
• Product Mix Strategy: Ensure the right balance between entry volume, core offerings, and innovation within each category so the assortment supports both scale and differentiation.
• Assortment Breadth: Set deliberate expectations for assortment breadth by category and retailer, ensuring the line remains focused, understandable, and scalable.
• Lifecycle: Establish expectations for how products will evolve over time, including opportunities for scale, iteration, or replacement based on performance and insights.
• Retailer‑Specific Line Curation: Curate retailer‑specific assortments (Target, Walmart, Costco) by adjusting depth, packs, and selection while maintaining a consistent core line logic.
• Cross‑Retailer Alignment & Exclusives: Align the core assortment across retailers to drive scale, volume pricing, and operational simplicity, using exclusives selectively to support key retail partnerships.
• Pack & Kit Strategy: Determine when packs, kits, or bundles are appropriate to drive value perception, simplify choice, or meet club channel requirements.
• Operational Feasibility: Ensure assortment decisions align with vendor capabilities, lead times, and production realities to support reliable execution.

3) Pricing Architecture & Margin Strategy

• Retailer Price Architecture: Set price architectures by retailer (Target, Walmart, Costco), including opening price points, core price bands, and upper limits.
• Category Price Structure: Define price structures by category (fitness equipment, recovery, apparel, accessories, kits), reflecting differences in cost, usage, and margin.
• Cost & Margin Alignment: Align pricing with cost structures and margin targets in partnership with Finance, Operations, and Vendors.
• Margin Stewardship: Maintain margin integrity as the business scales through pricing and mix decisions.
• Pricing Performance Review: Review pricing performance and adjust architectures based on sell‑through, margin, and cost changes.

4) Brand & Licensor Partnership (TRX)

• Brand Alignment: Partner closely with the TRX brand team to ensure licensed assortments and category positioning are aligned with TRX’s core performance ethos and brand standards.
• Product Translation: Translate TRX brand priorities, product narratives, and performance credentials into mass‑ and club‑retail‑ready assortments and pricing frameworks.
• Ongoing Collaboration: Maintain regular working sessions with TRX stakeholders to review line direction, category expansion opportunities, and market feedback.
• Brand Representation: Represent retail, consumer, and competitive realities back to the TRX team to support informed, commercially viable decisions.
• Trust & Credibility: Build a strong working relationship with TRX to reinforce confidence in how the brand is being represented and scaled through licensed product.

5) Buyer & Account Partnership

• Buyer & Account Meetings: Participate in buyer and account meetings, supporting alignment and forward momentum on product, assortment, and pricing decisions.
• Merchandising Point of View: Bring a clear, consistent merchandising point of view into retail discussions.
• Retail Insight Loop: Bring retailer feedback and market perspective back into assortment decisions to strengthen the overall line.
• Retail Partnership Development: Build strong, collaborative relationships with key retail partners through credibility, trust, and consistency.

6) Business Planning & Review

• Planning Cadence: Set and maintain a regular cadence for line planning, pricing review, and category evaluation.
• KPI/Business Reviews: Review assortment and pricing performance at key seasonal and business milestones.
• Decision Timing: Establish clear decision points for assortment changes, pricing updates, and category expansion.

What Success Looks Like

• Assortment Clarity: TRX assortments are clear, cohesive, and easy to understand across retailers and categories.
• Strategic Alignment: Market positioning, line architecture, and pricing strategy work together as a single, coherent system.
• Disciplined Growth: Category expansion is intentional, scalable, and aligned with brand and commercial objectives.
• Partner Confidence: TRX, retail partners, and internal leadership have strong confidence in the product strategy and its execution.
• Decision Making: Product, assortment, and pricing decisions are proactive, well‑framed, and grounded in long‑term brand and business goals.

Experience & Background

• Licensed or Branded Merchandising Experience: Experience leading merchandising strategy for licensed products or branded consumer goods within mass or club retail environments.
• Mass & Club Retail Exposure: Direct experience working with large‑scale retailers such as Target, Walmart, Costco, or comparable national accounts.
• Category Breadth: Experience across hardgoods and softgoods categories, including fitness equipment, recovery or wellness, apparel, accessories, or adjacent consumer categories.
• Pricing & Line Architecture: Proven experience building line architectures, pricing ladders, and category strategies that balance brand integrity with commercial outcomes.
• Strategic Acumen: Track record of making clear, well‑reasoned merchandising decisions in fast‑moving, high‑visibility retail contexts.