Italian Outdoor Brand Garmont Names Andrea Nalesso as CEO
Stephen Garner
Senior Editor
Garmont International has named a new CEO.
The Italian outdoor footwear company has tapped footwear industry veteran Andrea Nalesso for the top job. According to a statement, Nalesso will be tasked with continuing to grow the brand’s international presence, opening new markets and expanding the existing distribution base.
The new chief executive joins Garmont from motorcycle brand Dainese, where he most recently served as chief commercial officer. Prior to that role, he served as CEO at Italian boot brand TCX. Nalesso has also held positions at the Oberalp Group, Geox and Diadora.
“I am proud to lead a company with so much heritage and am pleased to place my experience in the footwear and outdoor industries at Garmont’s service to achieve important goals,” Nalesso said in a statement.
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With this move, Pierangelo Bressan, who has been leading the company since 2014, will remain as president of the board of directors as well as a shareholder in the company in what is being described as a “gradual succession plan.”
Bressan said in a statement that the last few years have been “very important” for Garmont. “I was in agreement from the outset with the new shareholders on the strategic plan for a new direction in the interest of growth and strengthening also our international presence,” Bressan said. “The arrival of Andrea Nalesso is part of this broader project. I am certain that his contribution will enable Garmont to realize its development plans, continuing to focus on the quality, reliability and innovation that have always distinguished it on the market.”
Along with focusing on international expansion over the past few years, Garmont has also invested in the development of footwear with a lower environmental impact. For spring ’24, Garmont introduced the Dragontail Tech Geo shoe: a new, responsible version of one of its best sellers, the Dragontail Tech. It features the same performance as the original but has a lower impact on the environment.
Overall, the new Dragontail Tech Geo, which the brand developed in collaboration with responsibly-made footwear company ACBC, has a 28.8 percent lower environmental impact in terms of CO2 emissions compared to the original version.
“Rolling out this process to the entire collection is not quick and cannot happen overnight,” Davide Calcagnotto, chief operating officer at Garmont, told FN in August. “It is part of a longer journey. It is also an individual action but to really make a difference we also need to act as a community, as an industry.”
Riello Investimenti SGR, which also invests in Golden Goose, is the majority shareholder of Garmont International through its Italian Strategy fund. Garmont is currently distributed in over 40 countries worldwide.
