Brand Director
No salary listed
Expert
Charleston, SC, USA
In Person
Growth & MarketingBrand & Creative Marketing
About the job
Requirements
- 8-10 years of brand or integrated marketing experience, including people management and budget ownership.
- Experience leading campaigns across direct-to-consumer and wholesale channels.
- Proven ability to shape Creative, Content, and Community strategy, influence leaders without direct authority, and develop effective briefs and campaigns.
- Experience leading public relations and brand media strategies, managing agencies, and measuring effectiveness.
- Experience coaching strategic marketers, overseeing marketing operations, and aligning teams around competing priorities.
- Strong strategic and commercial judgment, with the ability to connect brand marketing decisions to business goals.
- Ability to turn consumer insights into compelling brand stories and marketing opportunities.
- Strong creative judgment and the ability to provide clear, constructive feedback on creative work.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to influence and gain alignment across teams.
- Strong collaboration and relationship-building skills, particularly in a cross-functional environment.
- Ability to coach, delegate, and develop others while giving team members appropriate ownership.
- A results-oriented approach with the ability to set clear expectations, track progress, and hold teams and partners accountable.
Responsibilities
- Lead Free Fly’s integrated brand marketing strategy, with direct ownership of the men’s category, public relations strategy and agency, and brand media strategy and agency.
- Manage, coach, and develop the team through clear goals, regular feedback, performance reviews, and career development.
- Provide guidance on Women’s and Kids marketing plans while maintaining the team’s ownership of category strategy and results.
- Oversee the company’s go-to-market process through the team, providing men’s priorities, removing roadblocks, and resolving cross-functional issues.
- Partner with the Head of Marketing on goals, performance, and resources while holding the team and agency partners accountable for results.
- Translate Free Fly’s overall brand direction into seasonal marketing priorities across category, creative, content, community, and marketing.
- Own the men’s category marketing strategy and growth plan, including target customers, positioning, product stories, seasonal priorities, and budget recommendations.
- Partner with Product to understand the men’s assortment, new products, and customer needs, using research, competitive insights, and performance data to inform marketing strategy.
- Identify opportunities to strengthen the men’s category based on customer insights, market trends, product innovation, and business performance.
- Partner with Creative, Content, and Community leaders to develop plans that reflect customer insights, brand positioning, category opportunities, and business goals.
- Lead the development of men’s seasonal and campaign briefs, including the target audience, objectives, key message, product priorities, and storytelling opportunities.
- Review Women’s and Kids briefs with the team to ensure they support the broader brand direction.
- Provide feedback on campaign concepts, content themes, and community initiatives to keep the work focused, relevant, and connected to business goals.
- Lead regular reviews across Creative, Content, Community, and Marketing to keep plans connected and resolve competing priorities.
- Partner with functional leaders and the Integrated Marketing Manager to keep key briefs and decisions on track for product naming, photography, content production, product detail pages, wholesale pre-selling, and launches.
- Own Free Fly’s public relations strategy and manage the public relations agency, including communications priorities, seasonal storytelling, earned media opportunities, and agency performance.
- Lead public relations agency planning, briefs, deliverables, budgets, and performance reviews in partnership with Creative, Content, Community, and Marketing.
- Own Free Fly’s brand media advertising strategy and manage the brand media agency, including audience priorities, channel strategy, investment plans, campaign objectives, and measurement.
- Review and approve media plans within delegated authority and coordinate placements with creative, content, community, and product launches.
- Partner with E-commerce and direct-to-consumer teams to connect brand media with customer acquisition efforts.
- Set public relations and brand media key performance indicators and evaluate agency performance, coverage, reach, awareness, consideration, and campaign results.
About the company
Free Fly Apparel makes performance clothing from bamboo-blend fabrics. Based in Charleston, they design and craft shirts and other activewear, selling through 600+ specialty stores worldwide and online. The fabrics are engineered to be soft, breathable, and durable for activities like boating, hiking, and workouts, with a focus on comfort and fit. Their products stand out by a long, research-driven development process (over two years) to create soft, high-quality performance fabrics, a design philosophy rooted in fun and adventure, and careful craftsmanship. The company differentiates itself from competitors with this material focus, in-depth development, and emphasis on practical, everyday wear for active lifestyles, offered through specialist retailers as well as direct-to-consumer sales. The goal is to become customers’ go-to, favorite shirt for active living by providing reliable, well-made apparel that performs across water, mountains, and gym environments.
Company Size
11-50
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
Charleston, South Carolina
Founded
2011
Get referred to Free Fly Apparel
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Active Breeze upgrades target higher-conversion favorites with athletic fits and bounce-free pockets.
- Free Fly added Cam Richards on January 5, 2026 and Brandon Cyr on February 19.
- Mike Reilly’s sales leadership and 800+ retail doors broaden wholesale reach.
What critics are saying
- James Evans’ October 14, 2025 ADA lawsuit targets freeflyapparel.com checkout accessibility.
- Wholesale-heavy distribution leaves Free Fly exposed if retailers cut shelf space or reorder slower.
- Patagonia, Vuori, and Western Rise outspend Free Fly on performance basics and brand gravity.
What makes Free Fly Apparel unique
- Bamboo-based performance apparel and water-sports identity separate Free Fly from generic activewear.
- 2026 ambassadors Cam Richards and Brandon Cyr feed product testing, credibility, and marketing.
- B Corp certification and 800+ partner retail locations strengthen trust and reach.
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