Columbia Sportswear has appointed Kirk Richardson as its new general manager for footwear. This is a new position within Columbia’s top management. Richardson will oversee the entire footwear business of the Columbia, Montrail and Sorel brands and will report to Mark Nenow, vice president for global footwear.
Richardson is a veteran of the footwear industry who served for Nike for 27 years and, since 2006, for Keen. He led Keen between February 2006 and last March in connection with the company’s move to Portland, Oregon. He then left the assignment to act as chief sustainability officer.
As the editor of The Outdoor Industry Compass found out at its recent European sales meeting in Geneva, Columbia has great plans for Sorel, the brand for rugged outdoor footwear that the group acquired in 2000. As reported more in detail in this sister publication of ours, it plans is to turn this straightforward, rugged, functional brand into something sexy designed for girls and younger women.
The company emphasizes, however, that Sorel will not compromise as far as the functional qualities are concerned, which Sorel customers are used to. However, it could be desirable for Sorel to attract retailers other than the usual suspects in specialty outdoor retailing to win also customers among fashion and footwear retailers who are dedicated to trendy footwear. The plan sounds similar to what Lacrosse and its previous European distributors have accomplished with its rubber boots in Denmark and some other Northern European markets.
On the other hand, Mountain Hardwear, the high-end outdoor label of Columbia Sportswear, is expected to reach global sales of $97.2 million this year compared with $82.6 million in 2007. The brand’s most important European market continues to be the U.K., followed by Italy, France and Germany at pretty much the same level. The strong position of Mountain Hardwear in the U.K. comes from the the brand’s history and the way it set up its distribution in Europe before Columbia acquired it in 2004.
The brand is working hard on improving its global distribution network. While it opened its own sales subsidiaries in Canada and Japan at the beginning of this year, Mountain Hardwear has announced major changes in local distribution in some European countries, effective with the next Spring season.
France is now the only country in Europe where Mountain Hardwear has its own employee to cover a local market: Gregory Allali has been hired from Mammut’s French partner. For Spain, Mountain Hardwear now relies on the Altitud agency, which covers the entire Iberian Peninsula with brands like Garmont, Hagan, Diamir and Singing Rock. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it works with Prague-based Rock Point, which is both an important retailer with 20-odd stores as well as a local wholesaler in charge also of Lowe Alpine and Keen. The local company will be MHW’s distributor in the two countries. As of Spring 2009, it will be pretty much the same situation in Poland where Alp Sport has taken over as both wholesaler and distributor. Alp Sport is also the local partner of Lowa. In Germany, the Fuchs brothers, who are also in charge of Keen and X-Technology, now have the distribution of the brand in their hands. The Fuchs people helped introduce Odlo to the German market.
Productwise, Mountain Hardwear has announced that it is switching from W.L. Gore to OutDry for its gloves. It will stick to Gore-Tex as a supplier for all other relevant product ranges (more in The Outdoor Industry Compass).
