Asics North America has revamped its executive team and organizational structure, and the Japanese footwear brand, whose domestic operations are based in Irvine, is putting an increased emphasis on its recently established East Coast offices.
The footwear and apparel company, which is a unit of Japan-based Asics Group, recently announced a shake-up in its executive ranks. Chief Executive Gene McCarthy was replaced by Koichiro Kodama.
McCarthy, a more than 30-year retail veteran, joined Asics in 2015 after serving as president of footwear company Merrell, a unit of Rockford, Mich.-based Wolverine World Wide Inc.
“Gene made countless contributions to Asics America as he navigated the brand through an incredibly turbulent time for our industry and implemented numerous changes that set the region on course for success,” said Alistar Cameron, Asics Group executive officer and senior general manager of the geography strategy division.
Kodama, who also has 30-plus years of experience, joined Asics in 2016 serving as vice president of corporate strategy and executive vice president of sales for the Americas region.
He will reportedly split his time between Asics’ Boston office—a 19,000-square-foot, open-concept design studio that opened last year—and Irvine.
The Boston location, called Asics Creation Studio, holds about 100 employees, including positions related to product design, marketing and e-commerce.
Asics’ Irvine headquarters, a two-building creative office campus totaling 121,000 square feet of office, R&D and amenity space, opened in 2014 and holds an estimated 256 workers. It is Orange County’s 35th-largest foreign-owned company by employee count, according to Business Journal records.
The company’s North American base is in Irvine “because of communications and travel to Japan,” McCarthy previously said. Boston—now home to Converse, New Balance and the country’s biggest base of athletic footwear employees outside of Nike’s hometown of Beaverton, Ore., “is important because of the Northeast corridor’s consumerism, major retailers and its proximity to Europe.”
Back to Roots
Along with Kodama, other new additions to Asics’ U.S. executive team include Richard Sullivan, executive vice president of sales, categories and marketing; Kevin McHale, director of run specialty sales; Craig Gillan, vice president of operations; and Paul Ljucovic, vice president of finance.
Most of those executives have been in their new positions for about a month.
Along with the personnel moves, Asics said it would be tweaking its product category structure by creating three key segments—running, core performance sports and sports style.
“In 2019, we are acutely focused on accelerating growth in Asics North America and in order to do so, we are implementing two key changes: category [led] organizational structure and a reimagined leadership team,” the company said in a statement to the Business Journal.
Kodoma this month told trade publication Footwear News that the company has “to get back to our roots of focusing on run specialty, especially in the North American market.”
Asics ranks No. 3 in the run specialty channel—trailing Brooks Running and Saucony—with an estimated 10% market share for the segment targeting users of high-performance running shoes, according to research firm NPD Group.
Asics has struggled in the past year to gain a foothold among U.S. consumers.
Sales in the Americas region dropped 15% to about $806 million for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31. The company cited lower volume of shoes sold, increased discounting and increased costs related to retail stores for the drop.
The hit to the Americas region contributed to a 3.4% total decline in global sales for Asics Group last year, to $3.5 billion. The company lost about $182 million last year.
Stepping Up
Kodama takes over the top spot as the brand is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.
While it’s been making a push to attract a younger demographic—tapping the likes of Grammy-nominated producer/DJ Steve Aoki and Brooklyn-based street artist ELLE—through it’s “I Move Me” North America campaign, the company has shifted toward pushing performance products.
Last month, it unveiled its MetaRide shoe. The high-end sneaker, retailing for $250, is said to be an energy-saving shoe designed to help long-distance runners.
Asics said it spent two years developing the technology and said research showed it bringing about 20% reduction in energy loss around the ankle joint.
