Skins Compression, the maker of gradient compression sportswear, continues to grow and expand its North American presence with the addition of Ben Harper as channel manager for the Endurance and Winter Sports business. Since the beginning of 2013, Skins has rapidly grown its marketing team in an effort to support the brands continued long-term growth strategies across multiple sporting disciplines and channels within North America.
In his new role, Harper will report to Skins Senior Marketing Manager Danielle Said, and work alongside her to provide cross-functional support to the internal and external sales teams. The focus of his role is to maximize exposure for the brand via Endurance and Winter Sports expos, events and tradeshows, fostering industry partnerships and key partners, grassroots marketing, advertising and sales initiatives. In addition, he will field all channel marketing requests for products, images, and general information in support of revenue driven sales initiatives at both the wholesale and direct-to-consumer levels.
Bringing Ben to the team represents the next steps in our continued expansion and commitment to the Skins North American business unit, said Johnny West, General Manager of Skins North America. Ben has tremendous experience throughout the endurance community with athletes, retailers, and media alike, and it is important for our brand to continue to create specialists within key communities that will not only act as the face of Skins but to foster brand relations, dealer support and drive channel demand.
Harper, an endurance sports industry veteran, brings more than 10 years of experience to his new role at Skins. Most recently, he served as Director of Sports Marketing, Events & Sponsorships for K-Swiss in Westlake Village, CA, responsible for growing the triathlon category, overseeing all event, sponsorship and expo efforts. Prior to that he was a Marketing Manager at California-based Zoot Sports, as well as bringing his talents to Tom Schulers Team Sports as Manager of the Timex Multisport Team in Milwaukee.
As an endurance athlete, I was familiar with Skins on a product level and as a part of the sports apparel industry, I was impressed by the development and expansion of the brand, said Ben Harper. The opportunity to join a respected and innovative company like Skins was one that I couldnt pass up. I am excited to be able to use my experience and passion for sports to help extend the reach of the brand.
Sports have always been of both Harpers personal and professional life. He is an avid cyclist and completed in the Ironman Wisconsin race in 2008.
The vast relationships and significant experience Ben has within the endurance and winter sports communities make Ben a valuable addition to the Skins marketing team, said Danielle Said, senior marketing manager of Skins North America. I am thrilled to have Ben on board as he adds another amazing dynamic to our business and will play a pivotal role in furthering the Skins presence within these key channels.
Skins best-in-class gradient compression is supplied to top professional teams across many disciplines of sport, including professional cycling team Lotto Belisol, and throughout the NFL, NBA, and NHL with exclusive partnership of the St. Louis Blues, San Jose Sharks, Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks hockey teams, and professional football players Bryan Scott, Chase Blackburn, Brian Rolle and Peyton Hillis.
