At Outdoor Retailer last week, we ran into several former surf industry executives who are working in new roles, including:
Bill Bettencourt, who has served in high-level positions at Vans, RVCA, Sperry, Toms, and more, is the new president of Gathr Outdoors, which includes the GCI Outdoor and ORCA coolers brands.
Sean Smith, the former executive director of SIMA who has worked at B2B platform Elastic Suite since 2021, is now acting show director of Outdoor Retailer.
Former Volcom executives John Fearnley and Mike Magiera traveled to Outdoor Retailer Summer to show Fearnley’s men’s activewear line, Forcis.
The former SVP of global production and supply chain at Volcom, Fearnley started his own sourcing and apparel manufacturing company, Rooster Apparel Group, in 2014. He also was a partner and chief operating officer of Athletic Recon.
Forcis originally launched as a DTC brand in 2021. Fearnley recently tapped Magiera to help launch the wholesale channel for the brand, which specializes in functional and minimalistic performance designs in neutral, accessible colors.
