Columbia Sportswear Co., which owns Montrail, appointed Kirk Richardson as general manager of footwear, effective Dec. 1, 2008. Since March of 2006, Richardson has served as president of Keen Footwear, following a 27-year career with Nike, where he held various footwear and apparel leadership positions.

Richardson will report to Mark Nenow, Columbia’s VP of footwear.

“We are very excited to welcome Kirk Richardson to Columbia Sportswear,” says Nenow. “Richardson’s proven strategic skills will play an important role in driving product innovation and attacking global market opportunities across our three footwear brands: Columbia, Sorel and Montrail.”  Says Richardson, “Columbia has a portfolio of strong brands with tons of potential and a rich heritage of designing great products for outdoor enthusiasts. One of my goals will be to ensure we actively listen to the hopes and dreams of core active consumers and use their insights and aspirations to inspire products with purpose and utility engineered into them.”