Kirk Richardson, who took the reins at Keen when ownership moved to Portland, OR, has been named general manager of footwear at Columbia Sportswear Company. 

 

Richardson served as president from February 2006 until March of this year, when he moved into the position of chief sustainability officer. Richardson joined Keen after a 27-year career at Nike, where he held various footwear and apparel leadership positions. 
Richardson is credited with overseeing the launch of Keen’s sock business as well as Hybrid.Transport, a line of bags built with materials recycled from its footwear manufacturing. 


The Oregon native, who is also a climber, runner and alpinist, will report to Mark Nenow, Columbia’s VP of Footwear. His appointment comes at a time of declining footwear sales at Columbia. Sales fell 10% in Q3, due partly to a delay in export orders, and were down 6% for the nine month YTD period.