Veteran industry salesman John Gothard is heading to footwear company Freewaters to become Vice President of Sales.
Most recently, John led sales at Sanuk for nearly six years, a period when the company grew from about $13 million in sales to about $95 million.
John will be joining former Sanuk COO John Vance at Freewaters. John Vance joined the young shoe brand as a partner and CEO in July.
Martin Kim and Eli Marmar, who remain with the company, founded Freewaters.
Before Sanuk, John Gothard worked for Spy and Arnette.
John said he loved his time at Sanuk, but missed being on the ground helping a young ground grow.
John likened it to wishing you could drive a Mercedes when you only have a Datsun, and then when you finally get the Mercedes and realize, “You know, driving that Datsun was pretty cool.”
He is ready to get out and about and back in touch with what is happening on the floor at core shops, he said.
“I wanted to come back to the core channel and give them something consumers at core surf shops can’t get elsewhere and allow the retailers to make good margins,” he said.
John will be in the Freewaters booth at Surf Expo this week.
