Swiss footwear maker MBT said CEO Richard Litzel stepped down Nov. 3 to focus on the German markets and has been replaced on an interim basis by Ken Pucker, former COO of Timberland.

During his 15 year tenure at Timberland, the brand grew by eight fold to over $1.6b in sales, and the company was recognized for nine consecutive years as one of Fortune magazine's 100 Best Companies.
 
Also joining the company is Marc Estor, who has been named as VP for sales and marketing and will be based in Romanshorn, Switzerland. Most recently Marc served as global division director performance at Ecco, where he supervised process steering for design, development, sourcing, allocation and implementation. Estor started his career at adidas in 1995 where he held various management positions in product marketing, business development and marketing. These moves reflect the company’s desire to establish seasoned leadership in support of the brand’s increased growth and popularity.

“We are very excited to welcome both Ken and Marc to the MBT team. With their leadership and extraordinary expertise in athletic footwear and the brown shoe business we look forward to increased momentum and even more success,” commented Hermann Oberschneider, chairman of the board.
 
Inspired by the way the Masai of Kenya walk, MBT stands for Masai Barefoot Technology, which is designed to enable the body to stand and walk in the way intended by nature. MBT relieves stress to the knee and hip joints, and strengthens and tones leg, abdominal and buttocks muscles using proprietary technology that mimics the effect of walking barefoot on soft, uneven terrain. It’s sole is curved, not flat. It is unstable, not stable. It activates your muscles instead of undermining them. It has a positive effect on the entire body, not just your feet. In other words: It is the antithesis of a shoe. It’s the anti-shoe.

Introduced in 1996 the MBT line is now available in 33 countries around the world.