SCARPA North America hired Mark Mathews as its new director of sales and summer product development. Mathews brings a multi-faceted outdoor industry perspective to SCARPA, having worked for the last 17 years in the industry as a director of sales, a product manager for hiking and running footwear, as well as on the retail side of the business.


The hire will allow Chris Clark, SCARPA North America’s Sales and Marketing Manager since SCARPA opened a North American office in 2005, to assume a new role as Director of Marketing and Winter Product Development. According to CEO Kim Miller, the separation of sales and marketing functions will allow Clark and Mathews to bring singular focus to each of those arenas.
 
Most recently, Mathews was Director of Sales for Sierra Designs, where he managed global sales and distribution, and also oversaw a sales force of 50. Before that, he worked at Vasque Footwear for six years, half of that time as Director of Sales and half as Product Manager prior to that.
 
Mathews also brings three years of independent sales rep agency experience, having represented Vasque, Smartwool, Cascade Designs, Bluewater and other well-known industry brands. He also has five years of retail sales and management experience at two Midwest outdoor specialty shops. In addition, Mathews’ varied background includes working for a year as a wildlife biologist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and four years as a financial analyst at Shearson Lehman Brothers. He holds degrees in both biology and business administration, is a former professional soccer player, and an avid trail runner, skier, climber and backpacker.
 
“Beyond knowing the outdoor industry inside out, Mark is well versed in international business and product manufacturing, and he’s also the kind of person that I know will fit right in with the rest of the growing team here at SCARPA North America,” Miller said.
 
“SCARPA has a long and well-respected heritage of innovative and high-quality performance footwear,” Mathews said. “I’m really excited to be joining the team and look forward to working with them to take SCARPA to the next level.”
 
Mathews officially starts his new post the first week of April.