Aliso Viejo-based American Sporting Goods Corp. said its chief executive has stepped down and been replaced by the shoemaker’s owner and chairman.
Tom O’Riordan, a former executive at Maryland’s Fila USA Inc. who’s led American Sporting Goods for the past two years, stepped down to “pursue outside interests,” the company said.
Chairman Jerry Turner has assumed the role of chief executive.
American Sporting Goods makes basketball and other sports shoes. It has yearly sales of $300 million and some 4,000 workers, most at the company’s plants in Asia.
O’Riordan, a longtime friend of Turner’s, was brought on after American looked at and then called off a sale of the company.
In 2005, American came close to closing a deal with an undisclosed private equity firm as a way for Turner to cash out.
In late 2006, he hired Wachovia Securities to work on a sale.
The company dropped that effort after landing O’Riordan.
American didn’t elaborate on O’Riordan’s departure.
“I am confident that this new chapter will be a positive one for all brands in the ASG fold,” Turner said in a statement. “Our foundation remains strong despite the tough economic environment.”
American makes shoes and clothes under the And 1, Ryka, Avia and Apex brands, among others.
