Oakley has restructured a portion of its sport regional sales force in what Brandon Williams, vice president of sales, sport regional, calls one of the largest organizational investments the division has seen in over a decade.
Williams, who has been with Oakley for 23 years and has led the sport regional team for three years, oversees the brand’s endemic specialty channels across North America, including surf, snow, and golf, as well as Costa and Ray-Ban within the premium eyewear category.
The restructure, which took effect at the start of 2026, does not affect sales leadership but reshapes how some sales reps in key states are organized and deployed across the country, Williams told SESO at Surf Expo.
Oakley Channel Specialization at Surf, Snow and Golf
The new structure moves away from a model where a single sales rep might cover multiple, unrelated channels of trade — visiting a surf shop, a golf door and a running store in the same week. Going forward, a portion of the rep force will be aligned to specific endemic channels, with surf, snow and golf serving as a major focus in key states.
“The moves at the onset of 2026 created initial changes to specific states and individual golf/surf/snow territories,” Williams said. “Just as importantly, it set the foundation for continued scaling. Meaning, as the business evolves throughout ’26, we’re now structured to scale the surf, snow and golf channels of trade in additional regions using the same model (in the future). Bike would likely be another area for future consideration.”
When it comes to golf, Oakley has doubled the size of its golf-focused sales team, placing more reps on the channel full-time, Williams said.
Sales Headcount Is Growing, Not Shrinking, Williams said
The restructure adds roughly 11 new positions across the U.S., with manpower over-indexing in high-volume states like California, Texas, and Florida.
“This is actually a big investment, probably the biggest investment that the organization has made in the sport regional (division) in 10 to 15 years,” he said.
California is receiving particular attention. Oakley grew up in the state, and the new structure there includes dedicated surf reps alongside snow reps, he said. In certain regions of California, reps will carry multiple brands— Oakley, Ray-Ban, and Costa — under a single point of contact. Williams said the model came directly from feedback gathered at trade shows and account meetings over the past two years.
“One of the things that we heard is retailers are looking for efficiency in their commercial modeling,” he said. “Our way to do that is to make sure that they have one point of contact that is authentic in that space.”
A similar approach is being applied in Florida, where Costa has a strong heritage presence.
Oakley Surf, Snow and Golf Performance in 2025
Oakley’s sport regional business had a strong year in 2025 across several categories, Williams said. Snow goggles, helmets and premium eyewear all performed well. The water icon surf helmet, which had its first full year in market, was a standout performer. Golf surf, and snow channels all “won” in 2025, he said.
When we talked to Williams at Surf Expo in January, the snow market was off to a slow start due to poor weather conditions on the West Coast, a challenge Williams acknowledged while remaining cautious but optimistic about the back half of the season.
On the broader sunglass opportunity in specialty retail, Williams pointed to premium eyewear as the key area for reinvestment.
“We need to get back to storytelling around the roots of who we are as a brand — function, technology,” he said. “The premium eyewear space is still growing overall.”
Integrating the Costa Brand
Williams also addressed the ongoing integration of Costa, which falls within his purview. He described it as going well overall, noting that retailers have responded positively to the multi-brand model and that Costa’s recent product introductions have strengthened the assortment.
“Any integration is going to have potential hiccups, but overall, (Costa’s) done really, really well,” he said.
Preserving Rep/Retailer Relationships
Williams said Oakley made deliberate efforts to maintain existing account relationships through the transition. Where reps had historical ties to specific retailers, those relationships were factored into how territories were drawn.
“When you have long-standing relationships, there’s no reason to just purposefully disrupt them,” he said. “We’re reinvesting in a really big way, but we’re also doing so with trying to maintain that kind of relationship and business continuity.”
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