Who I Work With
Consumer brands
Brands expanding into new retail channels, deciding which doors to walk through and what it takes to make the case to the buyer on the other side.
Retail & sellers
Retailers accessing the brands they don’t yet carry, and sharpening how they manage margin, merchandising operations, and assortment strategy on what they already do.
Founders & operators
Building, rebuilding, or scaling a buying process and supply chain from the ground up, before the business outgrows what got it here.
Consumer brand, retailer, or founder?
Most people are two of these at once. The call sorts out where to start, not which box you’re in.
Retail Access
Connect brands and retailers, building the relationship, the launch strategy, and the hand-off training to make it stick.
Margin & Assortment
Merchandise management built to improve margin and revenue, covering assortment, inventory, and vendor negotiations, run by someone who’s done it from the buyer’s seat.
Related field note: Full price is a strategy, not a hope → · Performance premium →
Buying Systems
Ground-up buying process and supply chain strategy, built for startups going to market.
Related field note: How to build a buying process for a startup →
What each pillar can include
Retail Access
Retail channel strategy
Buyer development
Wholesale pricing & margin structure
Go-to-market planning
Trade show strategy
Buyer events
Margin & Assortment
Assortment architecture
OTB strategy
Seasonal buying
Vendor negotiations on terms, costs, and partnership structures
Buying Systems
Process design
Vendor onboarding & supply chain infrastructure
Team and org design
Operating guides built to survive handoff
AI-enhanced operations, offered where it helps
Where brand growth meets retail strategy.
See results →The Opportunity Blueprint
A methodology built across ten-plus years of the full product and retail lifecycle. From diamonds to outdoor gear, the method holds. Every engagement runs the same sequence, whatever the size of the brand.
Map
StrategyWhere is the opening? Category structure, search and listing behavior, the margin math, the gap competitors stopped watching.
Design
OpportunityWhat is the blueprint? Positioning, price architecture, assortment, and the retail path, which doors, in what order, with what story for the buyer, all designed so the buyer says yes.
Build
GrowthWhat makes it stick? Buying and merchandising set up inside the business, holding full price season after season, until the niche is unmistakably the brand's own. Made to outlast the engagement.
Under every step sits operational discipline, systems tuned to run lean, built to be handed off, made to last for your team and grow with your business. For brands that want it, that can include AI, applied with operator judgment where it makes the work better. For those that don't, the systems run just as well without it.
The Blueprint architects the unrealized opportunity around the brand's core, a niche of its own, built so the client leads the space and others have to follow. Growth follows differentiation. It is the method behind performance premium, premium goods selling at full price, at volume.
Customized to your business
Every engagement starts somewhere on the Blueprint and takes only the steps the business needs, modular pieces mixed and matched to fit.
Research & discovery
A focused assessment to find where the growth exists and set priorities.
AI systems & training
AI applied to forecasting, reporting, and process work already in place, with the team trained to run it.
Growth project
A defined push into one goal or subject area, positioning, category, retail access, or partnerships.
Operational buildout
Buying and merchandising built out inside the business, then staffed to run it. Usually paired with a growth project or advisory partnership.
Advisory partnership
Standing access to strategic counsel on the business as it grows, without a defined project scope.
NordaFrom niche brand to top seller in the category, at full price.Read the story+
The opportunity
Norda had a premium product respected and used by top running athletes requiring highly technical, performance-based footwear, but also valued equally for visual design and quality materials that set the standard in the industry for innovation. That built a loyal following, but the brand was not yet recognized by the broader running and fashion markets. The open question was whether it could go mass market at premium price points, with a MAP policy that ruled out discounting.
The insight
The brand ethos and product innovation were building loyalty in a way I hadn’t seen in a decade. I saw the growth upside the brand would have if they were able to access a large format retail partner, but gaining access wasn’t enough. The brand needed a path cleared to survive in a large retail format as that momentum built.
The strategy
Hands-on attention. Tight assortment, balanced inventory, optimized investments, and a disciplined replenishment program. Full-price sell-through built momentum, and the investment rolled forward in incremental builds, month over month, acting on real-time trends and seasonal forecasting.
The result
Norda became a top brand in the category, at full price. Its success opened a new price point and product type at volume, a tier I defined as performance premium, and became the proof for building the product category into multi-brand representation.
The strongest brands don’t compete for space. They create it.
FubukiFirst major US online retailer to carry Fubuki, and the proof that reset the category’s direction.Read the story+
The opportunity
Fubuki, a Japanese winter boot brand, was small, with no major US retail presence, and the market underestimated its potential and volume. It was a new name in a winter footwear category struggling to stay relevant, with PFAS regulations pushing prices higher across the board.
The insight
Patience and loyalty. Fubuki was that rare thing, trendy enough for the street and functional enough for the mountain. None of it was fast, the brand was still building its US operations, but the potential was clear. The category was missing excitement, innovation, and a product that earned a place in everyday life. Fubuki proved that niche was worth owning.
The strategy
Be the first major US online retailer to carry the brand, and lean into the momentum that comes with being first. Launching was only half the job. The prep, the marketing, and real-time reaction to inventory forecasts based on run rate mattered just as much. I kept the momentum compounding all season. The listing ranked first online, stayed in stock through first access to replenishment inventory, and kept converting.
The result
The success became the case for a new direction, rebuilding the winter footwear assortment around functionality and trend that fit everyday life. Its winning product attributes became the template, and a category that needed newness had momentum again.
Different brand, same first step.
Norda needed volume without discounting. Fubuki needed to be first. Every engagement starts the same way, with a conversation about what’s actually stuck.
Quick answers
What is Opportunity Designed?
A growth strategy consultancy for consumer brands and the retailers who sell them, founded by Addie Morrow and based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It helps brands find the growth others miss and build the path to capture it, across positioning, category strategy, retail buying and merchandising, and market access.
How do engagements with Opportunity Designed start?
Most begin with a short conversation to find fit, then take shape around the business: from a focused entry engagement to a defined growth project, an operational buildout, or ongoing advisory.
Book a 20-minute Project Fit Call→Who is Addie Morrow?
Founding Consultant of Opportunity Designed. Ten-plus years in-house at major retailers in buying and merchandising, across 35+ brands, with products placed into Ulta, Costco, Target, and Whole Foods. The consultancy runs on what she learned from the buyer’s side of the table. See her LinkedIn →
What’s actually in the way?
Tell me who you sell to, or sell for, and where the growth stalls out.