David Chamberlain is chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of The Stride Rite Corporation. Mr. Chamberlain joined the company in mid-November, 1999. Prior to joining Stride Rite, he was chairman of the Board of Genesco, Inc. from 1994 to 1999, and president and CEO from 1994 to 1996.

From 1983 until 1993, Mr. Chamberlain was with Shaklee Corporation, serving as president and CEO and later as chairman. From 1980-1983, he was president of a division of Nabisco Brands. Mr. Chamberlain has a Master’s degree from Harvard Business School and an Undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He served two years as an officer in the Army.

SEW: Congratulations on the nice quarter. Thanks for taking the time to chat during a busy week. On the conference call you talked a bit about the Saucony acquisition you closed on September 16th. How is the integration progressing?

DC: We’ve hired an outside consulting firm to help with the back of house integration, finance, IT, distribution, etc. They have expertise in integration and can devote full time to the project.

SEW: Who will head up the new division?

DC: Mike Umana is now president of the Saucony division. He will report to Rick Thornton, COO of Stride Rite Corp.

SEW: What plans do you have for changes to the Saucony organization?

DC: What we have said is the way we run our company is to have different divisions focused on different customers, each with its own president, merchandising marketing, and sales people. What we integrate is the back end: procurement, logistics, IT, and finance.
Saucony is a technical running brand. The stores they sell and the consumers who use the products are very different than the other SRR divisions. We expect the people who have been building the technical running business will continue to do that.

We feel very strongly that you have to keep the personalities and DNA of each brand very separate. It takes very passionate expert people around those brands to keep them moving forward.

SEW: Will you maintain the Saucony headquarters in Peabody?
 

DC: No. What we have announced is that we are moving them down here to our building. This will happen hopefully by February/March. We have some space here in our building, which is being remodeled. So that worked out.

SEW: Any thoughts or concerns about the recent softness in the Saucony business?

 DC: Fundamentally, their technical running business has been strong. The product offerings have been well received by both the retailers and the runners. Where they have had some softness is in some of the big box athletic and in the fashion area. That is something we will look to address as we go forward. The product team at Saucony has been developing some product to specifically address some of those issues.

Our feeling is that some of the product offerings for Big Box have not been as strong as we would have liked.

SEW: You have talked about the potential for Saucony kids’ shoes to be carried in the Stride Rite stores. Where does that stand?

 DC: Saucony does not really have a significant children’s business. We hope, with our skills and the store base we have, to be able to help them develop that line. It takes about a year to accomplish this.

SEW: What are the plans for the Hind brand?

DC: I think it is a wonderful brand. Our goal is to continue to grow it. It fits in very nicely offering an apparel component to complement the running shoes

SEW: It sounds as though Keds is still going through its transition…

DC: We feel pretty good about it. We feel good about the marketing and position of the brand as well as its return to its athletic heritage. We’ve worked very hard to restore the prestige to the brand.

We’ve closed down a lot of the business in the close out and value channel and regained some strength in the premier department stores and are starting to test the product in some of the athletic stores. We’re interested in bringing the profile of the user to a much younger level, while at the same time we maintain our wonderful base of older women.

SEW: What do Keds futures look like?

DC: We don’t release them. Unlike the athletic market, Keds is such a heavy fill-in business. The volume from fill-ins is over half.

SEW: Do you see the Saucony model moving to more of a fill-in basis?
 

DC: No, I don’t. You’ve got to play by the rules of the markets you are in. Athletic is futures driven. We see Saucony as a wonderful brand with great upside. That will come from continuing to do what they are doing, building strength in the technical running area.

SEW: What’s happening with Sperry Top-Sider?
 

DC: There’s been a real re-interest in classics and boat shoes. That clearly is helping. About 3 ½ years ago, we had gotten off track and now have returned the brand to its nautical heritage. We have built up our business in the outdoor retailers. We have gained more creditability in that market. We’ve had 15 or 16 quarters of growth. We are up over 30% for the first 9 months of this year.

SEW: What is the impact on the Rocawear license now that Damon Dash has sold his share of that company?
 

DC: None at this point. His company Fresh to Death holds the license for Rocawear footwear.

SEW: How is the Pro Keds business?

DC: Understand that it is a small business. This year the product was distributed in key “igniter” accounts. They’ve had some nice sell throughs and are looking to expand into a slightly broader market.

SEW: Any thoughts on further acquisitions?
 

DC: The Saucony acquisition is the biggest thing we have done since the Keds and Sperry acquisitions in the late 70’s. This is something that we think we would like to execute in a great way. On the other hand you always have to be opportunistic depending on what happens.

SEW: Since we saw you at the ASR show, we should read into it that you are looking at acquiring a skate brand?

 DC: (Laughs out loud…) You have a good sense of humor.

Editors Note — Each month, Sports Executive Weekly goes One-On-One with a key executive that is seen as a driving force for the future on the sporting goods, athletic footwear and/or athletic apparel markets. If you would like to nominate someone for an interview, just drop us an e-mail at editor@SportsExecutiveWeekly.com.