Athletic footwear and apparel industry veteran Chuck Eggers is forming a team to enable 20 Athletes Foot stores to rise from the ashes of the former parent companys bankruptcy.
Eggers, who was most recently EVP/GMM for The Athletes Foot, LLC prior to that entity filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December, has apparently pulled together a deal to pick up the leases that were acquired by DJM Asset Management in a January auction. Eggers told SEW that the stores will operate as TAF franchises.
The stores are mostly urban-influenced locations that range in location from Virginia Beach to Florida. He said the mix includes both mall and free-standing locations, with three of the latter located in South Carolina, one in Tennessee, one in Georgia, and one in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
While the merchant and planning teams were disbanded after the decision was made to close all 114 corporate TAF stores, Eggers did say that he will bring back one planner from the team, but will need to add two new buyers that understand the urban business. He said he is looking for an apparel buyer now and will add a footwear buyer later.
Chuck will continue to work out of the current TAF offices in Kennesaw, Georgia.
