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Sportsgirl marketing manager and Ragtrader's number one fashion marketer of the year, Kate Rees, discusses the early days of her career, as well as the challenges she's faced. 

I started in the industry as a graphic designer working in advertising, this then led me to work in the retail sector in house at The Sportscraft Group.

The Group had about 10 different brands including Sportscraft, David Lawerence, Lacoste and Sportsgirl and I worked across all of them, in an in-house creative department like our own mini advertising agency.

Retail was in it’s hey day, money was no problem, it was exciting, experimental and loads of fun.

Then things changed.

The recession took hold and business was tough, discounting became commonplace and due to lagging sales The Sportscraft group was sold and split.

Naomi Milgrom bought her long-desired brand Sportsgirl to add to her stable of female fashion businesses, Sussan and Suzanne Grae. I was one of the select few who went with her.

Energy, fun and more importantly cash flow was injected back into the brand and Sportsgirl was back.

It was a great time to work for the brand and I learnt a lot very quickly, expanding my role into marketing and really focusing my career in this area.

Sportsgirl is such an amazing Australian heritage brand to work on, particularly in marketing as it has lead the way in youth fashion retail for so long.

Point to prove

In the early days of my career most of the top positions were held by men, at the time I didn't think much about it but as I look back I was probably over looked for a role because of my gender.

I worked in an alpha cultured environment, so I really had to prove myself.

I had to take calculated risks and show initiative. 

I have always had s strong work ethic, inherited from both my career driven parents but that was not enough. 

I had to prove myself, be innovative, be confident and this really led me to find an inner strength that I still use today.

All these traits have held me in good steed throughout my career and I now work at an organisation run my amazing women, who inspire and drive me every day.

A group of girl bosses that use collaboration to drive a business, it's so refreshing!

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