Teko Socks restructuring, moves U.S. operations to Bozeman

Teko Socks is restructuring the company, signing an operations agreement with Hyalite Outdoor Group and moving its U.S. operations from Boulder, Colo. to Bozeman, Mont.

Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed.

The move comes after the company’s latest CEO Rich Weight left the company in March 2011, along with three of four employees in Boulder.

The employee attrition presented an opportunity for Teko to restructure and move to Bozeman, where Hyalite is based, company officials told SNEWS®. Hyalite is the parent company of outdoor brands Pacific Outdoor Equipment and Baladeo USA.

The new Bozeman location will house Teko’s sales management, customer service, operations, and western states warehousing. Teko will maintain its eastern warehouse facility.

Hyalite employs nine people at the Bozeman office and plans to add another two. Eight will work in part on the Teko account. The remaining Boulder employee will work remotely. Hyalite President Greg Garrigues will head Teko’s U.S. operations from Bozeman.

“We look forward to supporting as well as taking an active role in shaping Teko further as they continue to develop cutting-edge performance socks,” Garrigues said in a statement. “The Hyalite Outdoor Group brings the ability to provide efficiencies in fulfillment and in distribution channels to Teko, and will bring our strong customer-service team to the company.”

Jim Heiden founded Teko in Boulder in 2004. The company primarily makes organic merino wool socks with a commitment to sustainable business practices. Heiden left the company in March 2008.

A new private investor, Gordon Fraser, became chairman of the board at Teko, opening an international sales department in Scotland. And in January 2009, the company hired former SmartWool President Chip Coe as its CEO. Coe left Teko in June 2010 to join footwear brand Wolverine, and was replaced by Weight.

The latest changes for Teko “will help move the company forward,” company officials said in a statement, “without altering the many values that define the Teko brand, including its users’ and company’s ethos, its environmentally sound sourcing and manufacturing practices.”

—David Clucas