Canaima Outdoors, the umbrella company for Boulder-based brands Treepod – Hanging Habitats and Slackline Industries, has appointed James Samuel as president, effective immediately. Reporting directly to CEO and founder Ricardo Bottome, Samuel will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of operations, marketing and sales.
“In just the last five months we have signed a number of important retail accounts for the TreePod Cabana and Lounger–Academy Sports, Scheels and REI, as well as international distributors in Australia, New Zealand and Korea,” said Bottome. “And we are now close to signing retailers in Canada, Germany, the U.K. and Costa Rica. We have a product with enormous international sales potential across multiple channels and we needed to bring someone on board who could harness that energy.”
Samuel, 55, is a 23-year veteran of the outdoor industry with extensive experience in international sales and management. Before coming to Canaima, Samuel served as the general manager and vice president of sales at Hincapie Sportswear in Boulder, Colorado, where his focus was on company-wide systems improvement and implementing new sales management strategies. Samuel’s distinguished career has also included senior positions at outdoor brands such as Cloudveil, Sugoi, Sierra Designs and Schwinn.
“James brings a proven track record of boosting revenues, streamlining work flow and creating collaborative team environments,” said Bottome. “I’m confident he will make a great contribution to our strategic objectives and international growth.”
The new TreePod Cabana and Lounger launched to consumers in January 2018 after an overwhelmingly positive response on Kickstarter. The company started the crowd-funding campaign with a modest goal of $20,000 and ended up with more than $400,000 and 3,000 pre-orders from all over the world. Canaima Outdoors recently raised a further $100,000 using Kickfurther.com to help fund inventory demand during the busy spring and summer months.
