Kim Nemser: Warby Parker Chief Merchandising Officer and Head of Product Strategy and Operations

Second Life

Who What Wear

Business, Careers, Society & Culture, Arts, Fashion & Beauty, Personal Journals

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2024

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kim Nemser is the chief merchandising officer and head of product strategy and operations at Warby Parker. Kim studied English and French in college, and started her career in investment banking at UBS and The Blackstone Group. Soon after, she noticed she preferred reading Women's Wear Daily over the Financial Times and thought she might want to work somewhere in the intersection of business and fashion. Four years into her time in banking, she took a pay cut and pivoted to fashion, first working at Italian men’s luxury goods house Tod’s, and then at J.Crew, where she worked closely with Jenna Lyons and helped launch new categories like its iconic jewelry line. After several years and massive growth at J.Crew, Kim wanted a change and a new challenge. So she joined Warby Parker in 2016, when the brand owned only 12 stores. In the years since, she’s guided Warby Parker through product development, merchandising, planning and strategy, and everything in between. She also championed the launch of Warby Parker’s extended sizes line, and developed a multifaceted protocol that puts sustainability at the forefront of the business.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone I'm Hillary Kerr the co-founder and chief content officer of
0:10.1	who what where and this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers.
0:18.4	We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting aside their doubts or fears,
0:24.4	and what happens when they embark on their second life.
0:27.6	Today on the show, I'm speaking with Warby Parker's Chief Merchandising Officer
0:32.4	and Head of Product Strategy and Operations. with Warby Parker's chief merchandising officer
0:32.6	and head of product strategy and operations, Kim Nemser.
0:37.0	Kim studied English and French at Dartmouth
0:39.1	and started her career in investment banking,
0:42.0	putting in 80 hour weeks learning the ins and outs of the
0:45.1	financial services world. However, she soon realized that while she was happy to
0:50.2	work hard, she wanted to do so for something she was truly passionate about. Retail. So she pivoted and ended up taking a 50% pay cut to work at the luxury leather goods house Todd's where she could be
1:04.9	at the intersection of business and fashion and get close to the creation of the
1:09.7	actual product. She then spent several years at J crew starting as an associate merchant and
1:15.6	eventually rising to VP guiding the brand through some of its most
1:19.1	explosive years of growth and working closely with people like Jenna Lyons and Mickey Drexler.
1:25.6	In 2016, Kim once again decided that it was time for a new challenge.
1:29.8	So she joined Warby Parker, which only had about a dozen stores at the time, eager to use her wealth of experience to build something new from the ground up.
1:39.0	In the eight years since, she's done just that,
1:43.0	overseeing product development, merchandising,
1:46.0	retail planning and strategy, and so much more
1:49.2	as Warby Parker has grown to over 200 stores
	...

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