Veteran outdoor executive Michael Crooke was named CEO at prAna Living, LLC last week in a move that should free up co-founder Beaver Theodosakis to focus more on product design and the future.
In his new position, Crooke will be responsible for managing company operations and building a strategic plan.
The announcement came roughly ten months after Theodosakis and his wife and co-owner Pam bought prAna back for publicly traded Liz Claiborne after two frustrating years. At that time, Theodosakis told The BOSS Report he looked forward to getting back to designing product with his wife, who remains the brands lead designer. Crooke said last week that Theodosakis will soon get his wish.
“If Im successful, he will be working about twice as hard,” said Crooke. “My last mentor was (Patagonia Founder and Chairman) Yvon Chouinard and I had seven great years with him. The more he was involved in the business, the better it got. At Pearl Izumi, I got Stan Mavis involved and he is the one who came up with the products. Their brilliance just blossomed.”
Crookes outdoor pedigree includes serving as president and CEO of Patagonia Inc. from 1999 to 2005. The former Navy Seal was CEO and chairman at Pearl Izumi and a former managing director for Kelty Packs. He joins prAna after a nearly two-year stint as CEO for Revolution Living, a company founded by AOL founder Steve Case in 2005 to build businesses that harness the Internet to empower consumers. The company has holdings in financial services, health, resorts and owns Zipcar, a car-sharing service. Crooke spent much of his time at the company recruiting management teams for the business and will remain on Revolution Livings board.
Interviewed on his third day as prAnas CEO, Crooke said he is eager to get back into operations, where he can test his research on sustainable business practices. While at Patagonia, he co-authored a paper on the launch of the companys organic cotton apparel line with a Harvard professor that showed consumers were willing to pay a premium of up to 10% for the product.
Crooke holds a B.S. in forestry and an M.B.A. from Humboldt State University and just completed a Ph.D. in management from Claremont Graduate University. His dissertation focused on building a business case for sustainable business practices. He said prAna, which makes roughly half its product in the United States and imports the rest, still has lots of work to do to become a sustainable business. “Its much more than just the fabrics,” he said of the industrys drive to reduce its environmental impact. “You can have great fabric, but if you dye it in one part of the world and cut it another and sew in another, you are not there yet.”
He said he was drawn to prAna by its authenticity; something he said will become increasingly valuable in a shrinking market. “At times like this there is a flight to quality,” he said. “You have to have a business and a brand that differentiates itself. If its authentic and transparent, people connect with it no matter how you distribute your product and you will probably be successful. If you are just building for the purpose of growth, those are companies that are having trouble with their business model.”
Still, Crooke acknowledged that nothing is certain in the current economy. “Spring booking was the best spring booking period weve had, but we dont know what cancellations, if any, we will get,” he said of prAna. “A lot of people say we are flying blind right now and we are.”
