Outdoor Research, the Seattle-based manufacturer of outdoor apparel and gear, on Thursday, announced the hires of Andrew Osborn as creative director for marketing and brand, and Kat Schoewe as creative design director.
On the eve of its 40th anniversary, Outdoor Research said these two hires will play key roles in aligning creative direction moving forward.
Bringing brand-level insight from his work at several creative marketing agencies, Osborn has deep experience developing and executing national and global marketing campaigns. Most recently, he was associate creative director at Archrival, a Portland, OR, creative agency with an expertise in youth culture, where he led work on campaigns for Adidas, Adidas Originals, Yeti, Adobe, Teva, Red Bull, and Hollister, among others.
At Outdoor Research, he will focus on developing creative marketing campaigns and interactive content strategy to drive consumer engagement. He’ll also build holistic plans to support those efforts across different platforms, including digital, print, events and in-store, aligning closely with the company’s head of marketing, Erika Canfield.
Schoewe is a design-team leader who brings an extensive creative and product-development background working for both national and internationally recognized consumer apparel brands. She brings long tenures as a design director and senior design leader at Under Armour and L.L. Bean and most recently led the Pearl Izumi team through a product transformation and brand repositioning efforts as its director of design.
At Outdoor Research, Schoewe will focus on helping the brand evolve its technical leadership in function-led design, elevating its design aesthetic and aligning Outdoor Research’s product collections to key brand focus areas while building a strong design team. She will work closely with Liz Wilson, head of product.
“Andrew and Kat both excel in their respective areas of brand marketing and product leadership, but what we’re most excited about is the fresh creative perspective they bring to our team,” said Michelle Wardian, president of Outdoor Research. “As our brand continues to evolve approaching our fifth decade in business, it’s essential that – along with the perspective of our longtime core team – we also keep bringing new ideas to the table as well, and we’re excited for Andrew and Kat to help us do just that.”
Photo courtesy Outdoor Research
