Birki's, the casual footwear brand, has appointed Robert Mangione as its vice president of Sales and Marketing. In this newly created position, Mangione will lead programs to strengthen brand positioning with existing customers, and drive growth in new trade and consumer channels.
He will be based at the company’s US headquarters in Novato, CA.
“Birki’s has real brand equity amongst retailers and consumers, and there’s incredible opportunity for stronger placement due to the brand’s continued product innovations,” said Mangione. “Our collection impacts many market segments and we’ve only just begun to realize the brand’s full potential in these areas.”
The company's offerings include clogs, cork-based sandals, and water sandals
for the pool and spa, For the 2010 season Birki’s introduced a new Disney by Birki’s collection of clogs and sandals, new two-tone Soft-Base soles, and an international partnership with DKMS.
Mangione brings to Birki’s an extensive background in both the footwear and apparel categories. Most recently, he served as senior vice president at Piloti where he led an innovative launch for footwear designed to take elements of both motorsports and car culture interpreted into sport casual footwear. Previously, Mangione was vice president of US Sales for Global Brand Marketing (GBMI), where he was responsible for both the Diesel and Nautica brands. He has held senior sales positions at Sperry and Prince Mfg.
His sales staff includes Director of Sales Daniel Silver, and an inside sales team based in Novato, CA, and territory managers in five key geographic regions throughout the US.
