Elaine Lai

Responsible for men's and women's athletic and team sports apparel design and development, applying extreme attention to detail in designing and developing garments to following strict legal guidelines for licensed product for the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA. Categories include outerwear/jackets, cut-and-sew sportswear, and team jerseys for all major sport leagues, also seasonal collections for women's lifestyle products for stadium shops, Fanatics, Footlocker, LIDS, Champs, Modell's, and other sports industry retailers. Work closely with vendors, suppliers, and factories to achieve the perfect product, develop and review new fabrics, trims, colors, and applications, and review prototype through preproduction samples. Communicate daily with factories to achieve the highest quality product possible.

Responsible for researching current and future market trends to translate into mass market and private label presentations for major buying offices, follow strict deadlines to complete collections by Market Week, execute fittings for pre-production samples, prepare technical packages for production, communicate daily with vendors and contractors, manage design room staff of pattern makers, sample sewers, cutters, assistant designers, and CAD artists, monthly travel to New York showroom to work with buyers during Market Week and fill sample requests for product development, orders, and private label packages.

Adidas Sports Licensing Division (SLD)

Apparel, artwork, and tech pack development for overseas factories. Extreme attention to detail in replicating historically accurate garments and following strict deadlines for licensed product for the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA. Development includes cut and sew outerwear and jackets, knits and team jerseys for all major sport leagues.

Design and develop silhouettes, embellishments, textiles, sublimation prints, and graphics. Grade patterns and artwork per size for production and oversee pre-production. Design private label active wear for Under Armour contract, and team sports apparel for national clients including universities, athletic clubs, and the National Team for the Olympic Games.

Design and develop cut/sew knit and woven tops and dresses for the contemporary market, follow strict deadlines to complete collections by Market Week, execute fittings with fit models and patternmakers on hand, manage all tech packs / specs / grading for production, communicate daily with vendors and factories overseas, manage work flow between pattern makers, sample sewers, cutters, dye houses, screen printers, and graphic artists, travel to New York/Las Vegas for trade shows.

on a monthly basis flat sketching new designs using Illustrator producing tech packs flats and line sheets designing textile prints in Photoshop providing graphic material for sales and marketing department maintaining all trim and fabric books lab dips from dye houses sourcing and ordering sample yardage and trims fitting samples on models specing garments and researching new trends through forecasting services internet and vintage/shopping trips.

Graphic & Assistant Apparel Designer: design graphics using Photoshop & Illustrator for screen and sublimation printing, assisted in designing & coordinating sample lines on schedule with trade shows and sales calendar, sourcing fabric & printing, maintain relationships with sales reps & showrooms providing them with necessary catalogs & line sheets to ensure maximum sales of product, design all advertising and promotional artwork for tradeshows, showrooms & press.

Menswear company where I implemented processes to streamline and control all aspects of technical design, product development, sourcing, and production for seven flagship stores and wholesale accounts including Macy’s and Zumiez. Control every aspect of fit, blocks for standardizing garment categories going forward (pants/shorts, jackets, tops/shirts/fleece printables), and developing standardized tech pack format for factories.

Founded what eventually grew into an e-commerce based women's and tween's startup apparel brand. Catapulted a small $5000 investment from family into $300,000 in orders for 40,000 units for national retailer Hot Topic within the first year of business. Daily operations include design, sourcing, manufacturing, managing sales reps, and business functions. Work directly with factories, vendors, showrooms, tradeshows, and buyers. Brand has sold in over 100 boutiques and specialty stores globally, as well as 700 Hot Topic and Torrid stores in malls nationwide, and e- commerce platforms such as www.zulily.com.