Outdoor: Movin' & Shakin' – Igloo names a new president; plus new hires at Backcountry.com, Leisure Trends, Mountain Hardwear, American Rec and more …

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• Igloo Product Corp. (www.igloocoolers.com) has named Jeffrey P. Cartwright as its new president and chief operating officer, effective Jan. 3, 2012. Cartwright will handle day-to-day operations at Igloo and, with resident management, will execute the company’s short and long term strategic plan. The company also promoted David Thornhill to executive vice president and chief product officer.
• American Rec (www.americanrec.com) has hired Scott Kaier as its new public relations manager with a primary focus on its Kelty, Sierra Designs, Ultimate Direction, Slumberjack and Isis brands, along with American Rec corporate public relations. Kaier is based at American Rec’s headquarters in Boulder, Colo., after relocating from Vermont, where he previously worked with Pale Morning Media.
• Marker (www.markerusa.com) has named Steve Batchelder of SB Associates as its new sales representative in the Northeast market, replacing Doug Hawkins of Hawk & Associates.
• Keen (www.keenfootwear.com) has hired Ron Hill as its new vice president for merchandising. Hill comes to Keen in Portland, Ore., with three decades of leadership roles in product merchandising at Nike and Nordstrom.
• Brendan Quirk, founder and former CEO of CompetitiveCyclist.com, is the new general manager of Salt Lake City, Utah-based Backcountry.com’s Bike Division.
• Backcountry.com (www.backcountry.com) also hired CJ Singh as its new chief technology officer. Singh joins Backcountry.com after a two-plus-year stint at Synacor, most recently as senior vice president of technology, where he focused on delivering high-growth products and creating the technology vision to increase the scalability of the business. Prior to that, he spent three years as director of engineering and product development at Yahoo!, where he was responsible for leading the company’s development centers in Latin America.
• Backcountry.com also named Young Lee as its vice president of product management. Lee will be responsible for understanding and predetermining user needs and building easy-to-use products to meet them. Most recently Lee was senior vice president for Minted.com.
• Peri Puckett joined Buff, Inc. (www.buffusa.com) as its new director of sales, based at the company’s headquarters in Santa Rosa, Calif. Puckett brings more than 20 years of sales and management experience in the sports and retail industry at Any Mountain, Athleta, Spyder Active Sports and Paragon.
• The Boulder, Colo.- based Leisure Trends Group (www.leisuretrends.com) recently made a few new hires: Jennifer Key, PhD., senior research analyst; Tina Anderson, production analyst; and Russell “Eric” Erickson, data analyst.
• Headsweats (www.headsweats.com), in Boulder, Colo., named Jack Cochran as its new senior account manager. Cochran, formerly of Reebok and Head Sports, has nearly three decades of experience in the industry.
• Mountain Hardwear (www.mountainhardwear.com) recently announced new sales team members. Jim Lupinski has been named Northeast regional specialty sales manager for Mountain Hardwear and Montrail, overseeing all sales in a newly created territory encompassing Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Jon Hanson, has been named Midwest regional specialty sales manager for Mountain Hardwear and Montrail, overseeing all sales the Midwest territory. Mike Welch has been named Eastern regional sales manager for Mountain Hardwear, leading sales initiatives throughout the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and Ohio Valley territories. 
• Icebreaker (www.icebreaker.com) recently added Kimberlee Viera as its new U.S. finance director. Viera will be based out of Icebreaker’s U.S. headquarters in Portland, Ore., and be responsible for the finance functions across USA wholesale and retail, as well as the global e-commerce and global product design and development business units. She previously worked at Dr. Martens USA, where she was the company’s chief financial officer since 2005.
• Bern Unlimited (www.bernunlimited.com) has named John Morgan as its new vice president, providing executive leadership for all departments from the company’s headquarters in Duxbury, Mass. Morgan previously held several product marketing, development, management and executive roles at Nike, Reebok and New Balance.
• Body Glove (www.bodyglove.com) has hired Mike Vavak as sales manager for its surf, wake and dive categories, where he will be responsible for growing the company’s brand business through new and existing accounts, as well as restructuring its specialty sales force.
• Big City Mountaineers (www.bigcitymountaineers.org) has elected Nate Simmons, partner at Backbone Media and global director of marketing at Polartec; Michael Leming, chief talent scout at Nike, and Carol Sweasy, chair of Red Wing Shoe Co. Foundation to its board of directors.
• PrimaLoft (www.primaloft.com) has hired Birgitte Norenberg as its European trade marketing manager based in Munich, Germany, where she will be responsible for developing training concepts for trade, customers, retailers and communication. She will also handle trade shows and events.
• Injinji (www.injinji.com) named Russell Nadel as its new senior vice president of operations and general manager. And it named George Schott as its new vice president of sales and marketing. Nadel, previously with Quiksilver, will be responsible for overseeing all corporate operations, supply chain, and product development. Schott, previously with Native Eyewear will be responsible for growing Injinji’s sales, U.S. and international distribution and managing its sales rep programs.
• JanSport (www.jansport.com) has named Chris Speak as its director of sales. Speak previously worked with JanSport and most recently served as global sales director for Vasque and Irish Setter at Red Wing Shoe Co. He will be responsible for managing several groups of independent sales reps across North America while facilitating strong relationships with key partners and will play a critical role in growing the JanSport equipment business.
• Bemis Associates (www.bemisworldwide.com) has named Tom Mendl as director of marketing for apparel and footwear. He joins Bemis with more than 20 years of outdoor sports industry experience, most recently serving as the director of sales and marketing for Vibram China.
• Point6 (www.point6.com) in Steamboat Springs, Colo., has hired Terry Fisher as vice president of sales for North America. Fisher is based in Southern California where he led his own sales agency, Fisher Sales Inc., for 26 years. Betsy Seabert, international sales and marketing director for Point6, will continue to oversee international sales.
  
  

Partnerships

• Polarmax appointed Specialty Sports Reps of Boyne City, Mich. as its newsest sales rep group. Chris Rounds and his team bring 40 years of experience to the table in the Midwest, covering Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio for the Polarmax and AYG brands. Rounds also represents Osprey Packs, Princeton Tec, Treksta, Point6, and Fisher Space Pen, and for the Polarmax account he’s appointed Susan Welborn to handle the skiing/snowboarding side of the industry.
• Balega (www.balega.com) appointed In-Sport Fashions as its exclusive Canadian distributor, in effect Jan. 1, 2012.
• Nikwax (www.nikwax.com) announced its partnership with the nonprofit Adventures Without Limits (www.awloutdoors.com), an organization dedicated to using the outdoors as an experiential learning tool to enhance the lives of youth, families and adults with special needs in the greater Portland, Ore., metropolitan communities. Nikwax will provide ample supplies of product to the non-profit throughout the year to help the organization maintain their gear and equipment.
• Dasani and New Balance annouced a national co-branded campaign that promotes their shared efforts to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of recycling. The national program encourages increased recycling and features Dasani PlantBottle packaging and New Balance newSKY footwear with the headlines “Step Up and Recycle” and “A bottle today. A shoe tomorrow. Recycle.” The campaign will reach people at through in-store materials at New Balance retailers, Dasani retailers, out-of-home advertising, as well as online and mobile sweepstakes.
• Victor, N.Y.-based Sports Specialists Ltd. (www.sportsspecialistsltd.com) recently added new members to its snowsports retail buying group, including: Equipe Sport, Rawsonville, Vt., and owners Wilbur Rice, Sue Rice and Parker Rice; Alpine Sport Shop, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and owners Jack Hay and Cathy Hay; Ski Frisco Sports, Frisco, Texas and owner Rick Holliday; Mammoth Sporting Goods, Mammoth Lakes, Calif., and owners Steve Hertzog and Phil Hertzog; California Ski Company, Berkeley, Calif., and owner Greg Whitehouse; Helm of Sun Valley, San Mateo, Calif., and owner Greg Hohl; and Ski Chalet, Portland, Ore., and owner John Hanson.
• Woolrich (www.woolrich.com) has signed a partnership with FiftyOne Global Ecommerce to allow international customers to purchase Woolrich products online on its website using their local currency, with all taxes, duties and shipping costs provided upfront for a guaranteed landed cost.
• Chaco (www.chacos.com) has appointed Alpert-Tebrich & Associates as its independent sales agency to cover California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii. Alpert-Tebrich & Associates also represents other outdoor brands such as Smartwool and Vibram Five Fingers.
  
  –Compiled by SNEWS editors