Puffin Drinkwear hired Julian Davis as VP of wholesale sales, effective immediately. With over ten years of lead sales experience partnering with major channel-leading retailers, Davis is skilled in managing direct relationships with retail partners and scaling wholesale businesses through periods of high growth.
Davis also reportedly brings a deep understanding of executing high-level product innovation, go-to-market strategies and partnership excellence.
“After an exhaustive search and fantastic pool of candidates, I couldn’t be more proud to have Julian Davis join Puffin Drinkwear as vice president of Wholesale Sales,” said Tory Upham, CEO of Puffin Drinkwear. “Julian’s most recent work at PopSockets and Mighty Jaxx has proven his exceptional ability to lead high-growth sales organizations across a diverse channel mix of category-creating and highly expressive products. Julian brings a thoughtful approach to managing teams and delivers results in a fun way, a perfect tie to Puffin Drinkwear’s ‘Fun Together’ mission.”
At Mighty Jaxx, Davis led North America sales, managed direct relationships with key retail partners, led revenue and operational objectives in the North America region, executed go-to-market strategies for U.S., Canada, and Latin America markets, and increased YOY revenue by 240 percent. Before that, Davis was the VP of sales for PopSockets, scaling wholesale business from $3 million to $150 million.
During his five years working at PopSockets, Davis led successful partnerships with Target, Walmart, Best Buy, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, developed channel-specific sales strategies and budgeting processes, and led in-store sales through assortment optimization and employee training to ensure PopSockets product received premium-tier attention at the store level. During this time, PopSockets placed second on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in 2018.
“I am thrilled to be joining Puffin Drinkwear to help continue to build on an already impressive foundation of retail partners throughout North America,” said Davis. “The Puffin brand is built on the power of “Fun Together,” and I look forward to working with the team to expand Puffin’s partner network with this in mind while delivering a bit of fun to consumers along the way.”
Based in Bend, OR, Puffin Drinkwear launched in 2018. The company reported that its products are on shelves at over 4,500 stores in the U.S. and Canada, including REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shops, The Paper Store, and World Market.
Puffin Drinkwear ranked #8 on Inc. Magazine’s list of Pacific Region’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies in 2023 and placed #1 in the Oregon Business Category.
Image courtesy Puffin Drinkwear, Julian Davis
