Deckers Outdoor Corp.s proposed acquisition of the action sports brand Sanuk announced last month (SEW_1123) now puts internal pressure on Simple to perform at a more accelerated rate, said Deckers Outdoor Chairman and CEO Angel Martinez at the Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference last week.
MartinezH said Sanuk came on his radar screen four years ago when Deckers founder Doug Otto mentioned that his brother was doing design work for the company. Sanuk will not only give Deckers its first foothold in the action sports market, but it will expand its reach to new department stores and Sports Authority.
Another big attraction is Sanuks sandal-based construction methods.
That’s a pretty significant opportunity because that allows us to diversify our production outside of China, said Martinez. That allows us to be anywhere that sandals are made, Latin America, Europe, even North America.
