In 2010, the professional outdoor wool product socks brand SmartWool takes the opportunity to come to China. Mr Mark Satkiewicz, President of SmartWool visits China in January; the following is the interview with Mark, thank you Mark for accepting this interview!

Mr Mark Satkiewicz(Left behind)

8264: It is your first time to come to China? What is your purpose of this trip? Thank you!

Mark: I have three primary reasons for my trip to China. First, I wanted to familiarize myself with the market in my new role as president of SmartWool. I wanted to gain perspective as to  how we can better  develop the SmartWool brand and our products for the global market where China is such an important player. In order to gain this type of valuable insight you have to immerse yourself in the marketplace.
 
Secondly, I felt it was important to show my support and demonstrate SmartWool’s commitment to our partnership in person with our distributor Hill Rock. Creating strong, long-term partnerships is very important to us and felt this would be best done in person.

And lastly, I wanted to spend some time educating our partners in the global marketplace about our full product range that includes tops, bottoms, and accessories in addition to the socks for which we are best known in North America.

8264: Why do you choose Hill Rock as your partner?  What about your opinion of your partnership?

Mark: We partnered with Hill Rock because we needed someone we could trust to help us build the SmartWool brand globally. We needed a partner who could establish us as a premium and important player in the global outdoor industry.

Building strong partnership is the foundation for everything we do at SmartWool from our supply chain to our corporate team and sales people to our retailers and consumers. Without strong strategic partnerships, it is impossible to build a successful long-term strategy and you tend to only focus on the short-term sales opportunities predominately on product.

Strong, strategic partnerships allow us to focus on building a successful long-term strategy rather than on short-term sales opportunities that are predominately product driven.

8264: What about the SmartWool development in 2009?

Mark: The year 2009 was a very interesting for SmartWool. With the downturn in the global opportunity we were not sure how the year would turn out. Fortunately, we grew our total business, and most importantly, our marketshare. In the United States in particular, we were able to show positive gains while our competition and the industry remained the same or were down last year. We were able to increase our specialty sock market share to more than 70% in dollars.

8264: SmartWool will make some plans to develop in 2010 globally? Smartwool will make some measures in China in the future in order to develop better in China?

Mark: The global market place for SmartWool, in particular Western Europe and Asia, is critical to our success as a brand. In 2010, we are going to spend a significant amount of energy educating consumers in these markets to the benefits of wool, why SmartWool is their best option for the most comfortable premium merino wool products available, and to create opportunities for consumers to experience our brand for the first time.

8264: As to the Smartwool development in China, what about your anticipation or ideas?

Mark: For China specifically, we want to work with our existing retail partners to deliver the brand message. We also want to make sure we give our distributor everything necessary to be successful.

8264: What about your opinion of China outdoor market?

Mark: China is quickly becoming the center of the outdoor market in Asia. We are excited to get into this market and see many opportunities to introduce SmartWool to the marketplace. This is an opportunity for SmartWool to connect on a long-term basis with the great people of China.