group Y Member Profile: Cat Schnaidt Assistant Buyer at Zappos.com
Your name and official title
Cat Schnaidt, Asst. Buyer at Zappos.com @zapposcatattack
Before Zappos what other companies and projects were you involved in?
I worked at Vestal for a year before moving to Vegas, and prior to that worked with X-Games in their production department on the research team for summer and winter games. My first industry gig was interning with Kim Stravers at Sg Magazine during college, which definitely helped influence my decision and passion to work in the action sports industry. I’ve also been involved with B4BC (Boarding for Breast Cancer) for the past 6+ years and try to volunteer with them as much as possible when I can get out to the events.
What sports and hobbies are you actively involved in?
I grew up in Oregon near Mt. Hood, so snowboarding is my fave. I love all the board sports, but it’s hard to get out there as much as I used to now that I live in Vegas. Get stoked on being outside and traveling, and am usually MIA on the weekends in the summer here. Also huge music and art fan, so I’m always trying to hit up shows in Vegas or wherever I’m at-usually Southern California or Portland.
What does your daily routine look like … take us through it?
Oh man..no day is ever the same for me! But for the most part it usually involves waking up at 5:30 to run with my dog, Monster or RedBull for breakfast, get going on emails, analyzing business with brands, start checking twitter and facebook throughout day to see what’s going on, and working on new orders for future seasons. I’ll usually have a rep in at least a couple times a week, so I’m in a lot of meetings checking out new product or brands and working with reps on our biz. A lot of times our reps will stop in just to say hi too and grab lunch or ice cream sandwiches with us, which always stokes me out. Afternoons usually involve a team or company meeting, maybe some beach ball volleyball down our team row, more email catch up and maybe a team happy hour.
How many people are on the staff (Zappos & Rideshop) and what are their roles (Rideshop)?
Currently we have about 900 people at our Zappos HQ here in Vegas, and 6 on our Rideshop team. Within the Rideshop we have specific buyers for different categories-shoes, clothing, accessories, and boards/hardgoods.
Tell us about Rideshop?
The Rideshop http://rideshop.zappos.com/ is a specialized part of Zappos.com that focuses on the action sports lifestyle. We all have a passion for the industry and the brands we work with, and are constantly working with our reps and vendors on ways we can stoke our customers out. We work with a wide variety of brands to offer special product for our customers, whether it be a limited edition or special collabo piece that nobody else carries, extra inventory in product every other shop is sold out of, or just a bigger selection of product, we want to represent our brands as best as we can on the site.
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Tags: Member Profile, zappos
