Canari Cycle Wear announced the appointment of James S. Johnston as General Manager of Canari. Johnston, a 28-year veteran of the performance sports apparel industry, will take up this newly created position at Canari's headquarters in Vista, in the north county area of San Diego.
Johnston joins the current Canari management team of Scot Robinson, President, Chris Robinson, Vice President, Jerry Newray, National Sales Manager, and Jami Hoaglund, Office Manager.
Johnston began his sports apparel career at Descente Ltd., in Osaka, Japan, later opening Descente's first U.S. office, introducing the brand to this market. Over the years, he started each of Descente's apparel divisions in North America, including businesses in team sports, ski, golf, tennis, running and cycling. He later assumed the role of President of the Arena brand, and expanded its market presence in competitive swimming and triathlon. Over the past eight years, as an industry consultant, Johnston has had various consulting, management, and sourcing responsibilities for such notable brands as Pearl Izumi, Asics, le coq sportif, Trek, Berghaus, Oxbow and others. Around the sports of cycling and triathlon, Johnston's experience included marketing relationships and projects around and with USCF, NORBA, USA Triathlon, the 7-Eleven/Schwinn Cycling Team, the Tour de France, the Coors Classic, Dave Scott and various grass roots events.
“Jim's experience among some of the world's top performance sports apparel companies gave us motivation to seek his consulting advice.” stated Scot Robinson, Canari President. “Once the dialogue began, we were totally impressed by the momentum his ideas and observations created within the things we already had in motion, and we knew we wanted him on our team for our next efforts.”
Chris Robinson added, “As a relatively new ownership group, we were smart enough to know that we didn't have all the answers for swiftly making Canari a more valuable brand in the cycling market. Adding Jim to our team dramatically shortened our learning curve and we are already picking up the pace in our growth.”
“In two short years of ownership, the Robinson family has been systematically refining the Canari operations in preparation for growth and success,” stated Johnston. “With my perspective developed among both global brands and startup operations, I realized the Canari team was making the efforts that truly valuable brands must pursue to become important industry suppliers. I was more than pleased to accept the invitation to join in the process to make Canari the most valuable brand for people who ride bikes, whether for recreational enjoyment, personal fitness, or competitive excellence.”
