Vans Taps Former Lululemon Product Chief Sun Choe as Global Brand President
Stephen Garner
Senior Editor
Sun Choe, who stepped down last week as Lululemon’s chief product officer after seven years, is going to Vans.
According to the VF Corp.-owned footwear brand, Choe has been appointed as Vans’ new global brand president – a role that has been vacant since Kevin Bailey stepped down in October. The move is effective in late July.
While at Lululemon, Choe was instrumental in the company’s expansion into footwear. At the 2022 FN Achievement Awards, Choe and Neuburger accepted the Launch of the Year honor for Lululemon’s debut women’s shoe. During their acceptance speech, the duo explained how the four-year journey to launch shoes was driven by women from start to finish. “We not only design shoes for her,” Choe said at the time. “We design shoes with her.”
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Choe was also front and center when Lululemon launched men’s footwear earlier this year. “For over 25 years, Lululemon has been designing feel first,” Choe said at the NYC event in February. “Our feel first innovation philosophy is our ‘north star’ that blends art and science to discover technical and functional solutions in order to take a broader and more sensory focused approach to product creation.”
Prior to her time at Lululemon, Choe also held positions at Marc Jacobs, West Elm, Madewell, Urban Outfitters, Levi’s and Gap.
“Sun is a strong leader who is focused on consumer insight and has a proven track record of driving brand heat, and translating it into financial results,” Bracken Darrell, president and chief executive officer of VF Corp. said in a statement. “I am confident that Sun is the right leader to take Vans® to new heights. With Sun’s appointment, we are further transforming the VF leadership team to ignite growth across our brands and enhance value for our shareholders and other stakeholders.”
Choe added in a statement that Vans is an “incredible brand” with a storied history and devoted customer base. “I am passionate about building high-performance cultures and teams and creating great designs and guest experiences that build long-lasting, meaningful connections with consumers around the world,” Choe said. “At Vans, we will do just that – capitalizing on the brand’s identity as a lifestyle defined by creativity and authenticity. I can’t wait to get to work.”
The move comes one week after Darrell updated analysts on the footwear brand’s turnaround strategy during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
VF last year laid out a plan to reinvigorate its struggling Vans brand and identified several missteps, including not innovating enough, becoming dependent on classics and becoming less strategic about where the brand shows up in the marketplace.
And on last week’s call, Darrell said the company was witnessing early green shoots — such as strong direct-to-consumer sales in Europe and positive Google search trends — within the Vans business, despite overall weak financial results. Vans revenue dropped 27 percent in Q4.
