ADWEEK: When you were hired, you said you were focused on building a “consumer-obsessed brand.” What are some ways you’ve been doing that over the last four months?
Allen-Altimare: Some of my peers in the category, you can see where they’re just signing up their money to reach a consumer versus actually being obsessed about what makes a consumer move [and] what makes a consumer engage in your product. I think that’s the difference between good brands and great brands.
The only way that feels authentic is to put [consumers] first and show up in authentic ways where they already are, versus trying to force them to come to [us]. It’s also being able to say, ‘This is not the right place for Saucony.’ When you’re being consumer-obsessed, you think through that: ‘Am I going to sacrifice long-term gains for this short-term moment of showing up and saying I was there?’
How are you maintaining Saucony’s heritage as a performance wear brand while moving into lifestyle and streetwear?
Saucony is the original running shoe [and] we’re never not going to be that. While we are going after lifestyle in a more confident way, we’re not forgetting our heritage in [running]. That’s what made us a company. Even the Jae Tips collab, or any other collaboration that we’re doing, every shoe we create in that space sits on the structure of a performance shoe.
We’re seeing streetwear become more popular, and some of our peers are just putting out shoes and showing up at run crews or at culture moments. Saucony has always [told] a bigger story. I always use this example: Saucony created a [breakdancing] shoe in 2005 with the Floorlords in Boston. This Olympics, everybody was talking about breaking, and everyone was [making] a breaking shoe. [After a colleague shared the history], I said, ‘That’s the story that we need to tell that provides authenticity and authority for us to be in this space.’
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned or challenge you’ve faced since joining Saucony?
Mostly everyone has more years of footwear experience [than me]. My boss has 40 years of footwear experience and my team, although they’re very young, they’ve only worked in footwear. There’s good and bad with that. They understand uniquely how a product is developed, but they’re so myopic in their viewpoint, because they only come from footwear. I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is to be patient with myself, because I want to understand the category, but also be patient with them.
This is still a retail business, but we also are living in a D2C ecosystem, so [I’m] balancing both of those. How are we going to coordinate this in a way that doesn’t cannibalize our relationships, but also doesn’t leave us stagnant?
You spoke with Shannon Sharpe at Blackweek about the growth of Black-hosted talk shows, podcasters and pundits. Are there any creators or influencers that you want to work with?
I personally am looking for the creator that goes beyond the soundbite. There’s so much noise. There’s so many people doing amateur podcasts or Instagram Lives everyday. I’m looking for someone who is passionate about the things we stand for at Saucony. I’m looking for female creators, particularly of color. I think that voice is understated universally, but shows up more in beauty and hair. There’s so many beautiful athletes [and] culture creators that I would love to shine [a light] on.