Lisa Elston
Assoc. Faculty
Saddleback College
Fashion Design and Merchandising
Quiksilver
Huntington Beach, CA
Externship performed March – May 2009
15202 Graham St., Huntington Beach, CA 92649
Externship Goals:
 To continue to update the
student’s industry skills and bring
those to new and existing Fashion
classes at Saddleback College.
 Bring specific industry tasks and
job responsibilities such as tech
packs and updated information on
how the merchandising team
works.
 Provide tools and outline skills
students will need for the
merchandising job market.
Externship Description
 QS Boys, Kids, Toddler & Infant Program
 To work with the merchandising team creating a
“history” book for the department in power point form
to include the following information:
 Create Consumer Profile
 Retail Segmentation
 Product Segmentation
 Line Plans
 Wholesale/MSRP pricing strategy: good/better/best
Job Shadowing
 Regularly I met with the following people:
 Suzanne Ecker, VP QS Merchandising
 Kelly Dinh Ho, Director, QS Youth Merchandising
 Deanne Yap, Executive Assistant
 Stephanie McDonald and Nancy Diaz, QS Boys
Merchandisers
 I attended production and merchandising meetings
to review lines, costing, and sample delivery.
What is a merchandiser?
 Merchandisers work within larger manufacturing
companies between designers and production
departments.
 As described by the VP of merchandising the
merchandiser is a “hybrid” position: 51% creative,
49% business /critical thinking.
 Merchandising positions have increased in the recent
years. At Quiksilver, after their recent reorganization,
there were less design positions and more
merchandising positions.
Merchandising Duties:
 Market research
 Line planning and analysis
 Cost analysis
 Skills and computer software required:
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Excel
Power Point
Microsoft Office
Garment construction
Textile knowledge
Marketing
Business Planning & Development
PLM (Product Life Management)
 PLM is computer software being used in the apparel
industry to track the status of a product from design
to production.
 I was able to sit down with the Quiksilver PLM onsite specialist to get a review of the software and
how it works.
 Currently PLM is not being taught in colleges, but
would be a highly desirable job skill to have upon
graduation.
PLM cyle:
 Development Process using the PLM system
 Merchandisers create a line plan. Within PLM system, a way to organize
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styles.
Designers request pattern/body from technical department.
Technical designer creates measurements for style requested.
Designer creates BOM. Designating fabric, trims, etc.
Tech pack is then created by merchandiser. Includes sketch, BOM and
specs.
Sourcing logs into PLM system to request a sample request from vendor.
Vendor acknowledges receipt of request and updates status of sample.
Receive first proto and have first fittings.
Fitting notes and changes are sent to vendor with any updates to BOM and
spec changes.
Once proto approved, then on to pre-production, size set (run) and then
T.O.P.
End Result
 Using Power Point and Excel I created a 24 slide presentation
for the Boys, Toddler and Infants Division. Topics Included:
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Customer Profile
Division styles by size
Product Mix breakdown and chart
Pricing breakdown by “good, better, best” categories
Pricing strategy by style and department
Core and vertical competition pricing charts
Distribution strategy from customer data analysis
Distribution by outlet
Retail strengths and opportunities
Market research results
QSBY
MERCHANDISING STRATEGY
For the future:
 I will be sharing this information in the following
classes at Saddleback College:
 Fash 260 Children’s Clothing Construciton
 Fash 235 Designing for the Fashion Industry
 Fash 289 Special Topics: AIMS certification
 Fash 289 Special Topics: Pre-productionTechniques
Thank you to everyone who helped me with
this invaluable experience!
 Jen Barrios, Senior Merchandiser, Quiksilver
 Suzanne Ecker, VP Merchandising, Quiksilver
 Kelly Dinh Ho, Director, Youth Merchandising, Quiksilver
 Deanne Yap, Executive Assistant, Quiksilver
 Stepanie McDonald & Nancy Diaz, Boys Merchandising,
Quiksilver
 Lindsay Fox, Department Chair, Fashion Design and
Merchandising, Saddleback College
 Penny Skaff, and Tracy McConnell, CTE Saddleback
College