Mountain Hardwear Expands Leadership Team

Mountain Hardwear, a leader in performance equipment and apparel for climbers, mountaineers, and athletes, has announced three internal promotions including a new Vice President of Product Line Management and Merchandising, plus two new hires. The recent influx of promotions and hiring are a signal of Mountain Hardwear’s strength and growth within the outdoor industry.

In 2021, Mountain Hardwear saw tremendous growth over the past year, including a 33 percent increase in net sales; plus a 30 percent increase during the fourth quarter. Groundbreaking product development and additional leadership set the stage for another big year in 2022.

“At Mountain Hardwear, we celebrate the strength of our brand through our people and their diverse experiences,” said Troy Sicotte, President of Mountain Hardwear. “These significant promotions will supercharge our ability to nurture our continued brand growth. With our growth, there has been a profound need to expand the team. More so than other growth metrics, celebrating the type of world class talent we’ve been able to attract amongst the ‘Humans of Hardwear’ family is how I measure Mountain Hardwear’s success – with more to come later this year.”

Leading the latest wave of announcements is Becky Avila, Mountain Hardwear’s new Vice President of Product Line Management and Merchandising. Avila previously held the role of Mountain Hardwear’s Director of Product Merchandising for the past two and a half years. Prior to Mountain Hardwear, she climbed the ranks at The North Face, leaving for Mountain Hardwear as the Global Product Director of Adult and Youth Logowear after nearly 12 years.

In addition to Avila’s new role, Mountain Hardwear promoted Sara Lin to Director of Sourcing, Manufacturing and Quality Assurance. In this newly created role, Lin will oversee the fortification of Mountain Hardwear’s sourcing, manufacturing and quality assurance as an individual brand while helping to strategically integrate and leverage the power of the Columbia Sportswear Company manufacturing Center of Excellence.

Lin’s promotion is further evidence of Mountain Hardwear’s growth in the outdoor industry. She will be tasked with helping the company stay ahead of the global supply chain evolution that has been accelerated over the past two years, in order to ensure that the brand is positioned to evolve and source responsibly with current and future partners.

Lin is a stalwart of Columbia Sportswear Company having joined in 2004, and she has been part of the Mountain Hardwear team since 2014.

Similarly to Avila and Lin, Malorie Benz has been promoted to Senior Manager of Marketing Operations after steadily establishing herself as a leader in the brand’s marketing department.

Benz’s new title underscores Mountain Hardwear’s emphasis on expanding its brand awareness within the outdoor industry as well as the broader consumer market. Benz is responsible for leading the company’s growth amongst its brand pillars of product, people and place.

Each of these promotions comes on the heels of Sablle Scheppmann’s recent appointment to Director of Sales in January 2022.

Mountain Hardwear Adds Two New Hires

On the heels of its internal promotions, Mountain Hardwear has announced the addition of Greg Garrigues as Director of Innovation, and Sanda Williams as Director of Material Research.

As the innovation lead, Garrigues will be responsible for delivering innovative and dynamic product solutions that create real value for our customers.

Prior to joining Mountain Hardwear, Garrigues spent the last four years as part of the Vertical Product/Innovation Team at W. L. Gore & Associates. Previously, he has also held leadership and innovation roles at Hyalite Equipment, Baladeo USA, Teko Socks USA, and Dana Designs.

As the Director of Material Research, Williams is responsible for leading and driving Mountain Hardwear’s commitment to delivering industry-defining durability and continuing to improve the company’s sustainability through its materials.

Over the past five years, Williams has worked for Nike as the senior director of materials, leading a 40-member team across ten apparel categories in creative direction conception through commercialization.

“We take great pride in our mission to design and build the best products possible and hire the best people,” said Peter Valles, VP of Product & Brand Creative at Mountain Hardwear. “To align with our goals, we added two key leadership roles to our product creation team and couldn’t be more excited to advance our products and brand.”