Leonard Armato is exiting from his role as president of Skechers Fitness Group. Michael Greenberg, president, Skechers USA Inc., told SportsOneSource that Amarto, who joined Skechers in 2010, will become chairman of Leverage Agency, a sports-marketing firm and will support Skechers efforts to build its performance business.
“Leonard Armato began with Skechers in 2010 as we entered into a two-year formalized working partnership to launch our Fitness
Brands,” said Greenberg. “As president of the Fitness Group, Leonard played a vital role in maximizing the exposure of Skechers performance and Meb Keflezighi, who became the first athlete on the 2012 Olympic team with his win wearing Skechers GOrun in the marathon trials in January, and he helped drive the success of our back-to-back Super Bowl commercials, including the 2012's Skechers GOrun spot starring Maverick's owner Mark Cuban and Mr. Quiggly, the spunky English bulldog. We are pleased that he will be moving to Leverage Agency as Chairman as our strategic plan has always been to work with an agency to build our performance footwear.”
Greenberg added that brand's performance push, led by GOrun, continues to gain ground.
“We are well on our way to the most exciting brand evolution in our history: the building of Skechers Performance,” said Greenberg. “At the heart of it is our Skechers GOrun minimalist running shoe with a mid-foot strike and our incredible partnership with Meb. With Meb about to run in the Olympics in our footwear, and on the heels of receiving the Most Innovative honors from both Competitor and Women's Running magazines, we are launching Skechers GOrun Ride (July), a mid-foot strike shoe with extra Resalyte cushioning, and another ultra minimal shoe in August. This is just the beginning. Our Advanced Concepts Team is continuing to develop exceptional performance footwear, utilizing the input of Meb and other ultra runners to build footwear runners need to take them to the next level. We are committed to a long-term strategic plan to leverage the Skechers GO platform through a family of innovative performance products and targeted messaging with an impact.”
