Dive Brief:
- On Thursday, Merrell named Noreen Naroo-Pucci as its chief product officer, per a company news release. She reports directly to Janice Tennant, Merrell global brand president, according to a company spokesperson.
- Naroo-Pucci was brought on full time by parent company Wolverine World Wide after spending the past several months serving as chief product consultant. Previously, Naroo-Pucci was product chief of men’s apparel brand Mizzen+Main and senior vice president of design for menswear in the North America region for Calvin Klein. She spent close to 11 years at Under Armour, including as vice president of global design engine.
- As chief product officer for Merrell, Naroo-Pucci will help with the company’s expansion into a lifestyle brand. She has experience in “design across performance and sport lifestyle products, brand creative and product storytelling” per the company release.
Dive Insight:
The appointment of Naroo-Pucci comes amid change at parent company Wolverine World Wide. Wolverine is in the midst of a corporate restructuring program, which it first implemented in November of 2023 with goals of reducing debt and seeing annualized savings of $215 million.
“Merrell, like Wolverine, is going through a transformation,” Naroo-Pucci said in a LinkedIn message to sister publication Retail Dive. “The world of outdoors has evolved as has the hike space — we are simply bringing the joy of outdoors to a much larger reach. There is a huge crossover between active and everyday, and we are evolving as this evolves.”
As it works through its restructuring, Wolverine has experienced revenue declines. Wolverine’s third-quarter revenue was down 16.6% year over year, though Merrell grew 1.4% in the quarter. That result was an improvement from the second quarter, which saw the company’s overall revenue down 27.8% year over year, with Merrell falling 19.2%.
As part of Merrell’s continuing evolution as a lifestyle brand, the brand and sister brand Sweaty Betty collaborated earlier this year on a women’s hiking capsule collection consisting of footwear, apparel and accessories.
Wolverine World Wide earlier this month also brought on a new chief product officer to lead its Work Group, overseeing product development, merchandise strategy and market expansion initiatives across all brands within the division.
