S&S Activewear LLC

Compensation

Full Description

JOIN US AND "CREATE YOUR VISION"  ABOUT US  S&S Activewear is a leading North American, tech-enabled specialty distributor of imprintable apparel, including t-shirts, fleece, athletic wear, headwear, workwear, scrubs and accessories. We pride ourselves on being the “critical link” that enables our 100+ brand partners such as Adidas, Columbia and Gildan to reach our hyper-fragmented base of customers, comprised of apparel decorators, eRetailers and promotional products distributors that embellish apparel items for diverse end consumer use cases (e.g., everyday wear, concerts, fitness attire, life events, team sports, etc.). At S&S, we differentiate in the market through a customer service focus, strategic product portfolio, world-class distribution infrastructure, a collaborative growth culture and a relentless focus on technology and innovation.  Our success has compounded since the Company’s humble beginnings in 1988 as a regional t-shirt distributor to a leading, multi-billion-dollar value-added distribution platform that drives market penetration for our suppliers while enabling growth, operations and fulfillment for a diverse range of customers across channels and business sizes.  We strive to be the apparel distributor of choice while inspiring and fostering growth for customers, employees and suppliers through our core values of service, deep relationships, innovation, continuous improvement and accountability. ABOUT THE ROLE  The Senior Creative Director is a seasoned creative leader responsible for elevating and executing all visual content across S&S Activewear’s marketing channels—while also stewarding the brand’s visual expression across the entire organization. This role leads the Creative Department across design, photography, and video, ensuring that the brand is consistently represented in marketing, sales materials, and all customer-facing and internal touchpoints. The Senior Creative Director oversees outsourced imagery and video production through agency partners and freelancers, and is responsible for building scalable processes, strengthening team capabilities, and ensuring high-quality execution that brings the S&S Activewear brand to life.  Monday - Friday, Full-time, Exempt Remote or Hybrid Available  Hybrid location: 220 Remington Blvd, Bolingbrook, IL  Starting salary at - $171k WHAT YOU WILL DO  Creative Direction & Execution  * Lead the concepting and development of creative assets for catalogs, events, email, website collateral, flyers, paid media, social content, and video. * Translate business objectives and marketing strategies into effective creative concepts that bring the brand to life while adhering to established brand standards. * Provide strong creative guidance and actionable feedback to designers, video producers, editors, photographers, stylists, and external partners. * Ensure creative is channel-appropriate, visually cohesive, and executed at an enterprise-quality level. Brand Guideline Stewardship  * Manage, maintain, and evolve S&S Activewear’s brand guidelines, ensuring they are clear, accessible, and consistently applied across all internal and external channels. * Develop and maintain templates, toolkits, and visual standards that support consistency in marketing, sales collateral, corporate materials, presentations, office/environmental branding, and partner-facing communications. * Serve as the primary resource for guideline interpretation, helping internal teams and external partners apply the brand correctly. Imagery, Video & Photography Leadership  * Oversee the imagery and video teams, including production operations, product photography, on-model and lifestyle shoots, and video content production. * Establish and maintain high standards for photography and video quality, ensuring consistency in lighting, composition, editing, color, and brand expression. * Drive innovation in visual storytelling across still imagery and video, enhancing product presentation and brand engagement. * Guide the development of video content for marketing, product storytelling, social media, events, and other initiatives. Team Leadership & Development  * Manage, mentor, and grow a multidisciplinary creative team, fostering a collaborative, high-performance culture. * Develop team capabilities through coaching, structured feedback, and opportunities for skill expansion in design, imagery, and video. * Partner cross-functionally with Marketing, Digital, Merchandising, Product, Sales, and Events teams to support company-wide initiatives and campaigns. Operational Excellence & Process Leadership  * Design and implement foundational processes, workflows, and creative operating systems to improve efficiency, throughput, and quality. * Introduce and optimize creative technologies. * Enhance creative intake, briefing, and review processes to improve cross-functional alignment and delivery predictability. * Maintain operational rigor across all creative output, including timelines, budgets, production schedules, and resource planning. Strategic Partnership  * Collaborate with Marketing and cross-functional leaders to understand business goals and translate them into actionable creative plans and visual executions. * Bring deep expertise in design, photography, videography, and creative best practices to help evolve how the brand is expressed across channels. * Recommend improvements and new creative approaches while ensuring alignment with established brand guidelines. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR  * 15+ years of progressive creative experience, with at least 10 years in a Director-level or above leadership role. * Proven experience overseeing both photography and video production in an enterprise environment. * Deep expertise in design, visual storytelling, photography direction, video production, and multi-channel creative execution. * Strong operational and process-building skills, with a track record of implementing scalable creative workflows and technology solutions. * Exceptional leadership and mentorship abilities with experience building high-performing creative, imagery, and video teams. * Experience in retail, merchandising, apparel, or consumer products strongly preferred. * Excellent communication, presentation, and cross-functional collaboration skills. WHAT MAKES YOU STAND OUT  * A visionary creative leader with strong operational discipline. * Highly organized and process-oriented, with a continuous improvement mindset. * Collaborative, confident, and proactive—able to move work forward and elevate creative output. * Strong ability to translate strategy into compelling visual storytelling. Physical Demands The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or listen.  Working Environment This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely involves standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines. Reasonable accommodation may be provided to enable people with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  Equal Opportunity Employer S&S Activewear welcomes people of all backgrounds and experiences and are committed to creating a diverse culture and supporting human growth. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing equal opportunity for all employees and applicants. We conduct business without regard to sex, race, creed, color, religion, marital status, national origin, citizenship status, age, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, military status, status as a veteran, or any other protected characteristic. Our policy is to recruit, hire, train, promote, assign, transfer, and terminate employees based on their own ability, achievement, experience and conduct and other legitimate business reasons. S&S participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm you are authorized to work in the U.S.  This job offer is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory background check.