Asics America announced the addition of a new department called Onitsuka Tiger Lifestyle to accommodate the current and future growth of the flourishing Onitsuka Tiger brand.
Onitsuka Tiger has seen significant growth over the past 10 years, since its launch in 2001. The brand is owned by parent company ASICS Corporation, which launched the collection as original models brought back from the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970â€s and 1980’s with color and material updates. Maintaining the vintage and authentic history of these styles, Onitsuka Tiger caught the attention of the public because each shoe tells an athletic story from the past. The collection has shoes that were worn in the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968 (Mexico 66) and shoes that were part of the 1980’s running boom (Ultimate 81). The brand saw sales of $16 million in 2010.
“For the past 10 years, the brand momentum for Onitsuka Tiger has grown significantly and consumer demand continues to skyrocket,” says Kevin Wulff, President and CEO for ASICS America Corporation. “Weve reached the point in which this category needs a standalone business unit.”
Natacha Alpert will lead the newly formed department of marketing, sales and product for Onitsuka Tiger as the senior lifestyle manager. She will report directly to Kevin Wulff, and will be responsible for footwear and creating an apparel and accessories collection specific to the brand. Alpert comes to ASICS most recently from American Sporting Goods (ASG) as the Global Senior Product Development Manager for AVIA.
Prior to ASG, she was at Reebok as the Global Senior Product Manager for Lifestyle, The Timberland Company on the Men’s Footwear for Europe and Asia and Kenneth Cole as the International Brand Manager.
In addition, Colin Brickley was recently hired as Sales and Marketing Manager for Onitsuka Tiger Lifestyle.
Brickley will be responsible for implementing strategic sales and marketing plans to achieve sales goals within the category. He brings experience with lifestyle brands working most recently at Pony International as the Director of Global Marketing and prior to that at Reebok, where he served as the Entertainment Marketing Manager.
Veterans John Luna and Akiko Amano-Clodt will continue as Product Manager and Creative Manager for footwear respectively. Luna has been with ASICS for nine years, working on the Onitsuka Tiger brand since 2005. He will work with the global team to create the distinctive look of\ this vintage category of product.
Amano-Clodt, has been at ASICS for 13 years and helped launch the brand in 2001, she will continue to head up the creative direction of the styles, colors and special projects.
Onitsuka Tiger Lifestyle will utilize the events experience of Aggie Bartlomowicz, who has been managing the ASICS and Onitsuka Tiger lifestyle event sponsorships for over two years. Within this new department, she will be able to focus solely on one brand and maintain the momentum. Bartlomowicz also brings global experience from her time spent at Oakley managing their direct marketing efforts.
