Key takeaways:
- Columbia Sportswear named Joe Vernachio as Sorel brand president, effective June 22, 2026, succeeding Cory Long.
- Vernachio brings experience from Mountain Hardwear and Allbirds along with earlier roles at The North Face, Nike and Patagonia.
Columbia Sportswear Company announced Wednesday that it has named Joe Vernachio as the next president of Sorel. He begins in the role on June 22.
Vernachio most recently served as CEO of sustainable footwear brand Allbirds, where he had been Chief Operating Officer beginning in 2021 before ascending to the top job in March 2024.
In April, Allbirds was acquired by American Exchange Group for $39 million in a deal including Allbirds’ intellectual property and certain other assets and liabilities. Allbirds then announced it had secured $50 million from an institutional investor to support its pivot to becoming an AI-focused company.
Before Allbirds, Vernachio spent more than four years as President of Mountain Hardwear, another Columbia Sportswear brand, where he led a full brand and business turnaround centered on innovation and athlete-inspired design. His background also includes nearly six years as Global Vice President of Product and Operations at The North Face and earlier roles at Spyder, Roots Canada, Calvin Klein, Nike and Patagonia.
“We’re excited to welcome Joe Vernachio back to the Columbia Sportswear family,” Tim Boyle, CEO and Chair of the Board, said in a statement. “Joe is a terrific leader who can build on the great work, talent and momentum in place at Sorel.”
Craig Zanon, EVP of Europe Direct, Asia Direct and Emerging Brands at Columbia, described Vernachio as a consumer-focused, collaborative leader with a deep passion for product and brand storytelling.
“His energy, expertise, and proven leadership will help fuel scalable growth and meaningful brand expansion for Sorel,” Zanon said in a statement.
A Familiar Face Departs
Vernachio’s appointment means Cory Long, who joined Sorel as President in December 2023, has exited the company. Long came to Sorel from the action sports world, where he had been Global General Manager and Chief Global Merchant at DC Shoes. He joined DC as Vice President of Footwear in 2018 and played a central role in the brand’s well-documented resurgence before DC was sold to Authentic Brands Group as part of the Boardriders acquisition in September 2023.
Prior to DC, he held senior positions at Mitchell & Ness and Asics and had earlier worked in merchandising at DC during a previous stint with the brand.
Cory Long. File photo courtesy of DC Shoes.
Sorel’s Revenue Trajectory
Founded in 1962 and acquired by Columbia Sportswear roughly 25 years ago, Sorel grew from a men’s utility boot brand into a women-led contemporary lifestyle footwear label with meaningful global reach.
The brand had an extended run of strong results: net sales reached $320.9M in 2021, up 8%, followed by $347.3 million in 2022, a gain of 8%. At its 2022 investor day, Columbia set a target of 20% to 22% compound annual growth for Sorel through 2025, calling it the company’s fastest-growing brand.
The headwinds arrived before Long joined to lead the brand. In fiscal year 2023, Sorel revenue slipped 3% to $336.7 million, the brand’s first meaningful annual decline in more than a decade.
By the fourth quarter of that year, sales had dropped 19% to $116 million as Boyle pointed to shifting consumer trends and weather-driven weakness in sell-through. Long joined the brand in December 2023, inheriting a business already navigating difficult conditions.
The challenges deepened through 2024, with Sorel’s full year net sales declining 29% to $238.3 million, driven by lower wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales amid softening industrywide footwear demand and heightened competitive pressure. Sorel saw a further 7% decline in 2025, with full-year net sales of $221.7 million.
Even as revenue contracted, Columbia’s leadership pointed to signs of underlying brand health. On the company’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call, Boyle noted that full-price demand for the brand was healthy, with demand exceeding supply for key styles, and that the e-commerce business continued to acquire new consumers.
The team also launched the Horizon Collection during the quarter, with the Callsign style delivering particularly strong results. For 2026, Boyle said all of Columbia’s emerging brands are expected to grow, with the group growing at a faster rate than the flagship Columbia brand.
