Abigail Butte, a senior at the Gabelli School of Business. Photo by Hector Martinez
Gabelli School senior Abigail Butte has been working since May as a product allocation intern at Oakley, the popular sunglass brand also known for sporty apparel and accessories.
A global business major with a concentration in marketing and consumer insight, Butte always wanted to work for a global organization like EssilorLuxottica, home to iconic vision care and eyewear brands – including Oakley. She’s also an avid outdoor enthusiast, which makes her job even more fun.
When she started, though, she wasn’t sure if the internship was right for her; she had been more interested in the marketing side of retail.
But after the first three weeks, “I started really getting into it,” she said. “Product allocation and execution? I'm loving this. This is exactly what I want to do.”
She shared some of the lessons she’s learned while working for the retailer.
Plan Ahead. Waaaaaaay Ahead.
Eyewear is usually developed a year in advance, so we see the product a year prior, along with quantities of everything that needs to be made. That's all figured out based on sales from the previous year. I’ve already seen the 2025-26 fall-winter apparel lines. If we’re producing a similar style to one we already have, we would compare it to that current style and how it did. Then we’d figure out the quantities each store will receive. That’s all part of the product allocation team.
Leave No Cubby Untouched.
We work with marketing, visual merchandising, and operations when it comes to planning an Oakley store. There is an almost mathematical formula for figuring out how to move someone through the store and get them to buy the products that we want them to buy. I was on a call recently where we were talking about a new design that we're doing for clothing that's being dropped in a few weeks. We're going to do folded pants in this one cubby where we normally do t-shirts, and there was this whole thought process behind that. You would just think, ‘Oh, there's a pair of pants.’ But we had a whole meeting about it.
Collaboration Is Key.
I learned a lot about collaboration through the Gabelli School’s Consulting Cup, and I have 100% applied those lessons within Oakley, working with several teams to understand the complexities of projects and figuring out how to start a project and lead it to finish.
Excel Is Your BFF.
I start every week by looking at the reports of last week's sales in all of the retail stores in North America. We're constantly looking at every single style of eyewear, apparel, footwear, and accessory to see what was sold. We will adjust if we see a pair of sunglasses that have not consistently done as well. I am not exaggerating when I say I have six Excel spreadsheets open all day, every day. You're constantly looking at it because all our decisions are driven by data. It's not just what we think customers would want. It's clearly seeing what they want.
Promotions Are Not Just for Holidays.
I always thought promotions were more for holidays or trying to get rid of products, but that is not always the case. A lot of times, promos are being changed, altered, or added as we go through the month. Let's say shorts have been down significantly week after week. So what's a way of getting people in the stores to buy shorts and pairing that promotion with something that is current? We're in back-to-school season, so maybe we pair it with a promo with backpacks. So, there are constant changes and constant conversations with all of the teams.
Check out Abigail and one of her fellow interns as they talk about their internships at Oakley.