Gary Wakley has rejoined Prince Sports, Inc to attend to some unfinished business. Bringing a lifetime of experience in athletic footwear, including several successful years with Prince, Wakley will be responsible for leading the product management of Prince’s tennis, racquetball and squash footwear categories in the U.S. market. This will include overseeing all product management efforts, including market research, product development, product positioning and market support programs.

The addition of Wakley, according to President of Prince Sports (USA) Bill Foy, will provide Prince’s footwear business with an experienced leader that brings enthusiasm for the sport.

“Prince is thrilled to welcome back Gary Wakley to our footwear team,” said Foy. “We know that Gary’s experience, combined with his passion for tennis and the Prince brand, will make a significant contribution to our business, both immediately and in the long-term. We are exploring several new initiatives to grow the brand, and Gary’s expertise will play a pivotal role in our success.”

Wakley will interface closely with key areas of the business including U.S. Sales, Next Generation, Marketing Communications, R&D, Operations and vendors,. In addition to focusing on developing product for the U.S. market, he will also interface with Prince’s international team as part of an on-going product development process. Supporting Gary will be James Lin, Product Manager for Footwear.

“Prince has an outstanding group of people who have jumped on board with the new management team and have already made several additions and changes that have created quite a buzz around the brand,” said Wakley. “I share their passion for racquet sports as well as for the Prince and Ektelon brands, and this is truly a dream come true to have the opportunity to join an amazing team of professionals in a business and sport that has been such a big part of my life.”

Wakley formerly worked at Prince from 1994 through 1999 in the footwear division, where he introduced the very successful NFS and Quik Trac lines of Prince footwear. Before that, Wakley worked at athletic footwear companies such as Adidas and Lotto, among others.