Shoemaker American Sporting Goods Corp. is closing a Portland, Ore., development and design office and moving the operation to its headquarters in Aliso Viejo.
The company, which makes basketball and other sports shoes, is moving about 17 jobs from Portland to Aliso Viejo, Chief Executive Tom O’Riordan said.
About half of the workers at the Portland office are expected to move to American’s 50,000-square-foot headquarters, which has about 200 employees, he said.
“Most of our brands, resources and corporate executives are here in Aliso Viejo, so the move should help us make decisions faster,” O’Riordan said.
American makes shoes and clothes under the And 1, Ryka, Avia and Apex brands, among others.
The company has yearly sales of $300 million and some 4,000 workers, most at the company’s plants in Asia.
Its Portland office oversaw product development and design of the And 1, Ryka and Triple Five Soul brands.
The office was in the backyard of rival Nike Inc., which has its headquarters in the Portland suburb of Beaverton.
The move is just one of the changes the company has gone through in the past few years.
Earlier this year, American called off a possible sale of the company after hiring O’Riordan, a former chief executive of Maryland’s Fila USA Inc.
Founder and Chairman Jerry Turner had sought to sell the company as part of his plan to cash out his investment.
In 2005, American came close to closing a deal with an undisclosed private equity firm.
In late 2006, Turner hired Wachovia Securities to work on a sale.
The company dropped that effort in March after landing O’Riordan, a longtime friend of Turner’s.
O’Riordan replaced former chief executive Kevin Wulff, a onetime Nike executive who left American to become chief executive of San Diego’s Pony International LLC, a former shoe and clothes subsidiary of Adidas AG.
No Talk of Selling
There’s no talk of selling now, O’Riordan said. American doesn’t have any interest in going public either, he said.
“(The Turners) decided they didn’t need to sell the business,” O’Riordan said. “They’re focused on growing the business that’s here.”
That business continues to change.
O’Riordan said he’s focused on efforts to help the company’s brands stand out against bigger competitors Nike, Reebok International Ltd. and Adidas.
Marketing stands to play a key role in growing the business, he said.
Last month, the company signed a licensing deal with Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN to
help the sports network launch an X Games line of shoes under American’s Nice Skate Shoes brand.
The line is set to start selling in spring.
Celebrity Endorsements
Celebrity endorsements are another push, O’Riordan said.
The company hopes to close a deal with an unnamed celebrity for its Ryka shoe line later this month, O’Riordan said.
American, which has grown through acquisitions, isn’t actively looking for deals but keeps its eyes open, according to O’Riordan.
The company has bought five businesses since 1996, including Avia, a maker of upscale women’s shoes, from Reebok.
In 2005, American bought Pennsylvania-based basketball shoemaker And 1, which has more than 80 NBA players wearing its gear under sponsorship deals.
Last year, it sold its 260,000-square-foot Irvine headquarters to developer Hines Interest LP of Houston and Newport Beach real estate investment bank Buchanan Street Partners. Terms weren’t disclosed.
The new owners had planned to tear down American’s old warehouse and build condominiums. Now, with the slumping housing market, Hines plans to remake the site with office and industrial space.
American now handles warehouse operations from Fontana, where it signed a five-year lease on a 320,000-square-foot building.
