Garment Sales Manager (Japan Market)

Key Responsibilities

• Lead strategic sales development for New Balance Japan and other priority Japanese sports/apparel accounts.
• Build direct relationships with NB Japan HQ sourcing, material, product, development and quality teams; identify costing break down/vendor-registration opportunities.
• Present TC’s vertically integrated yarn-fabric-garment capability and propose differentiated knit fabrics, functional/recycled materials and garment solutions.
• Manage the full business cycle: market/account mapping, development briefs, sampling, costing/quotation, negotiation, order conversion and seasonal follow-up.
• Coordinate R&D, Yarn, Fabric Sales, Garment, QA and Sustainability teams to meet Japanese buyer standards for quality, delivery, traceability and communication.
• Monitor market/competitor trends in Japan, prepare account strategy and sales pipeline, and report progress/KPIs to Sales Director.
• Support buyer visits, factory audits, exhibitions and frequent business trips to Japan; resolve issues quickly and protect long-term customer trust.

Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or above, preferably in Textile/Apparel, Business, International Trade or related fields.
• Business-fluent Japanese; JLPT N1 preferred. Working proficiency in English; Korean or Vietnamese is an advantage.
• Strong knowledge of the knit textile/apparel value chain, Japanese buyer practices, costing, quality standards and product development.
• Strong negotiation, presentation, solution-selling, relationship-building and cross-functional coordination skills.
• Commercially analytical with good project, pipeline, margin and reporting management skills.
• Proficient in MS Office and willing to travel frequently to Japan.
• Customer-focused, proactive, accountable, detail-oriented and culturally sensitive.