Horny Toad, which recently completed its hand off of the Nau apparel brand to the owners of South Korea's Black Yak outdoor brand, revealed several key pesonnel changes aimed at propelling its core Horny Toad apparel brand to the next level.
The staff will work from a new headquarters space in Santa Barabara, CA.
“I am proud of what we were able to accomplish with our partners at Nau through the toughest of economic climates,” states Gordon Seabury, CEO of Horny Toad. “We will continue to be their greatest fans and supporters as they pursue their ambitious vision. At the same time, this allows us to be laser focused and double down on our efforts to fully realize our vision of building a 21st Century outdoor lifestyle brand at Horny Toad.”
Recent personnel changes include:
Chad Alasantro joins Horny Toad as a designer after starting his career as a product designer at Reef and then launching as co-founder and former designer/creative director of Vuori Clothing, a high-end organic clothing line. Alasantro’s work at Vuori lead to numerous high-profile collaborations with musical artists like Jason Mraz, Missy Higgins and Colbie Caillat. He most recently worked for several years with Ibex. Alasantro’s first collection with Horny Toad will debut in spring 2015.
Chris Anderson steps into her role as director of e-commerce and digital merchandising after spending the past five years consulting in multichannel business environments including the three years influencing the Horny Toad product collections. Previous to her consulting work, Anderson was a VP of merchandising at Sundance. Her experience in leveraging market opportunities for growth based on trend analysis and product merchandising will be critical as she focuses on expanding Horny Toad’s digital presence to support the next level of specialty outdoor retailer success in an omni-channel world.
A long-time employee of Horny Toad and store manager of the Lizard Lounge, Kelsie Morrow assumes the newly created role of visual merchandising manager. Horny Toad has long understood the importance of specialty retail to the success of the business. Morrow has been at the center of this, educating key partners about the importance of merchandising through an online blog, Specialty Retail Collective, and immersions at the Portland, OR-based Lizard Lounge. Her new role will enable her to dive deeper into these programs and insure all retail partners have access to the latest trends and tools for visual merchandising to help the industry mature beyond the standard outdoor retail store.
Born in Telluride, CO and based in Santa Barbara, CA, Horny Toad recently moved its headquarters to a new space to further foster creativity, brand inspiration and company culture as it ascends to the next level. The company has made clothing for use on the trail or in the tavern since 1996.
