Top 25 Supply Chain Leaders in Sports Brands in USA 2026

Neal Kotzian is Nike’s VP of Supply Chain Flow, based in the Portland area, with a scope that sits at the intersection of international transportation, trade, and customs, and distribution. That combination matters at Nike because “flow” is where cost, speed, and carbon collide.

Kotzian frequently highlights decarbonization efforts in ocean freight, working with carriers on greener vessels and alternative fuels, and pushing supply chain partners to treat emissions as a fundamental operating metric.

His expertise lies in the network that connects factories to markets. That means port strategy, container discipline, customs readiness, and the operating cadence that keeps inbound predictable enough for planning teams to do their job. Leaders like Kotzian are measured by outcomes that consumers never see. Some examples are fewer delays, cleaner data, and a transport system that can flex when the world changes. 

Amy Jendras - Under Armour VP, America’s Supply Chain

An execution-first leader turning service reliability into a competitive advantage across channels.

Amy Jendras leads America’s supply chain at Under Armour, a role built around end-to-end execution and service. She has lived through the unglamorous work, involving SAP realities, business warehouse reporting, and the constant tension between forecast plans and what actually arrives.

Jendras’ strength is operational control, which includes measuring service, spotting risks early, and working cross-functionally when the plan breaks down.

Under Armour’s footprint spans wholesale, direct-to-consumer, and e-commerce. That mix creates everyday decisions about allocation, replenishment timing, and order prioritization. Customer outcomes judge leaders in her seat: what shipped, what did not, and how quickly the business learned from the miss.

Jeff Harville - Elevate Outdoor Collective VP, Global Supply Chain

 Keeps seasonal demand executable across a multi-brand outdoor portfolio.

Jeff Harville serves as VP of Global Supply Chain at Elevate Outdoor Collective, the portfolio behind brands like K2, Ride, and Line. In outdoor gear, supply chain performance is tightly linked to “in-season” timing.

For example, a winter product that lands late is often a product that does not sell. Harville’s remit spans planning and logistics, which is the right pairing for a category where demand swings with snowfall, resort traffic, and specialty retail commitments.

His background includes experience in large-scale operations environments, and the job today is less about theory and more about execution quality: getting demand signals into the plan, protecting margins when freight costs move, and building a calendar that suppliers can actually meet.

Jean-François Tremblay - Bauer Hockey VP, Global Supply Chain

A long-tenured operator bringing discipline and precision to technical sports equipment supply chains.

Jean-François Tremblay is VP of Supply Chain at Bauer Hockey and has been with the organization since 2001. That tenure matters. Bauer sits in a category where product is technical, sizing and fit are critical, and the customer base ranges from youth athletes to pros. Tremblay’s experience spans both the supply chain team and the commercial side of the business, which shows up in how leaders like him operate. These leaders translate retail signals into production and inventory decisions.

He is known for building repeatable processes and for operating across multiple brands in the Bauer ecosystem, including Cascade and Maverik. He also brings multilingual capability, which is practical in a supply chain that crosses borders and time zones daily.

Jason Susalla - Acushnet Sr. Director, Supply Chain

 Safeguards premium product launches through supplier performance and disciplined sourcing.

Jason Susalla is the Senior Director of Supply Chain at Acushnet, supporting brands such as Titleist and FootJoy. His background is unusually broad for the sporting goods industry. He brings experience working with brands such as SpaceX, Oakley, and Callaway Golf. That blend points to a leader comfortable with both engineered supply networks and brand-led consumer expectations.

At Acushnet, the supply chain must protect premium positioning while still controlling costs. Golf equipment and footwear also follow a different rhythm than mass athletic goods, such as planned launches, strong specialty retail relationships, and customers who notice quality issues immediately. Susalla’s work includes sourcing and strategic supply management, ensuring margins are protected.

Joe Raines - Vans (now Varsity Brands) VP, Supply Chain

Builds resilient operating cadence where brand heat and demand volatility collide.

Joe Raines is widely known for his supply chain leadership at Vans, where he held senior roles, before joining Varsity Brands as Chief Supply Chain Officer. That journey signals a leader trusted to build an operating cadence that goes beyond just running today’s shipments.

His work has centered on practical interventions: footprint decisions, cost-of-goods discipline, fulfillment performance, and capacity planning.

Raines comes out of environments where brand heat can spike demand quickly and where wholesale and direct-to-consumer compete for the same inventory. The job in those situations is to create allocation logic that can survive pressure. He also emphasizes building a strong talent bench, which is not soft language in the supply chain.

Jude Prych - Callaway Golf Sr. Director, Supply Chain Planning & Purchasing

Reduces launch risk through tightly aligned planning, purchasing, and distribution execution.

Jude Prych is Senior Director of Corporate Supply Chain Planning and Purchasing at Callaway Golf, based in Carlsbad, California. He has a long tenure, including leading the North American distribution and supply chain program management.

His experience also spans Top-Flite and Spalding distribution roles, which is the kind of operational background that produces leaders who respect warehouse realities.

Prych’s remit (planning plus purchasing) puts him close to both demand and supplier commitments. Leaders like him spend their time reducing surprises: confirming capacity, managing inventory risk, and keeping procurement aligned with what the commercial team is promising.

Mark Yates - Converse Director, NA Logistics

Leads logistics orchestration for both evergreen icons and high-stakes limited releases.

Mark Yates leads North American logistics at Converse, based in the Boston area. Converse is a brand with global demand and a high mix of classic styles and limited-edition drops. These are two very different operating models within the same network.

That makes logistics leadership less about routine shipping and more about orchestration. This orchestration includes inbound timing, distribution throughput, and the ability to execute when marketing turns up the volume.

Yates’ background sits squarely in operations and process refinement. In practice, that means carrier strategy, dock-to-stock discipline, and continuous improvement inside distribution. For brands operating at scale, logistics is where small inefficiencies multiply fast.

Lisa Kulok - Columbia Sportswear, EVP & Chief Supply Chain Officer

Driving forecasting modernization and inventory precision across seasonal global brands.

Lisa Kulok is EVP and Chief Supply Chain Officer at Columbia Sportswear, with decades of experience and a long career that includes leadership roles at Nike before joining Columbia in 2008.

At Columbia, she has held senior planning and supply chain operations positions and now oversees global supply chain, inventory planning, and customer-facing execution.

What makes Kulok stand out is the blend of planning discipline and transformation work. She has discussed rebuilding forecasting and inventory processes using machine learning, improving forecast accuracy, and reducing inventory drag. Columbia’s mix, involving footwear, apparel, accessories, and outdoor gear, creates complexity across channels and seasons.

Jason S. - United Sports Brands, VP, Global Supply Chain

Applies structured S&OP to turn supply chain scale into sustained margin gains.

Jason S. is VP of Global Supply Chain at United Sports Brands, the parent organization behind performance and protective brands such as Shock Doctor and McDavid. He brings more than two decades of experience and is explicit about the operating tools he leans on.

These tools include S&OP, Lean methods, and a structured inventory strategy. He is also associated with documented cost savings exceeding $30 million, signaling a leader who treats the supply chain as a profit lever rather than just a service function.

For United Sports Brands, the challenge is breadth: multiple brands, multiple channels, and a catalog that spans team sports, protective gear, and accessories. That creates complexity in demand planning and SKU management.

Greg James - The North Face, VP, Supply Chain Distribution

Steadying distribution performance through seasonal peaks and channel evolution.

Greg James is VP of Supply Chain Distribution for The North Face and has held senior responsibilities since 2009. His career includes leadership roles at Nike, Levi Strauss & Co., and VF Workwear. That mix matters because it combines apparel logistics discipline with the realities of outdoor demand. It involves unpredictable weather-driven peaks and a broad product assortment.

The North Face lives in a world where gear launches and seasonal buys matter. A distribution leader like James sits at the fulcrum of that calendar. When the network performs, the product is on shelves and on doorsteps when customers actually want it.

Beth Meade Rasmussen - Everlast, VP, Global Sourcing

Strengthens global sourcing networks for durability-driven, safety-critical products.

Beth Meade Rasmussen leads global sourcing for Everlast, a brand rooted in boxing and combat sports with a wide product range that includes gloves, training gear, and fitness equipment. Sourcing leadership in this category is about supplier relationships, cost structure, and quality consistency. It is especially relevant when products are expected to meet safety and durability standards.

Rasmussen brings a distinct background that includes international business and Mandarin Chinese studies, which is practical in global sourcing environments where communication and cultural context matter. Her role connects product development, vendor negotiation, and procurement execution.

Raul Corella - WHOOP SVP, Operations & Supply Chain

Scaling wearable-tech supply chains with consumer-grade reliability and manufacturing rigor.

Raul Corella is Senior Vice President of Operations and Supply Chain at WHOOP, the performance wearable brand. His background spans major consumer technology organizations, including Meta/Oculus, Bose, and Jawbone, and he is credentialed through APICS and ISM pathways.

That profile fits the realities of wearables. The fact is that supply chain leadership blends the discipline of electronics manufacturing with the expectations of direct-to-consumer delivery.

Leaders like Corella build scalable systems early so growth does not turn into chaos later. In high-growth categories, the supply chain gets exposed fast. If the operation cannot keep up, the brand pays in churn and reputation.

Frank Cesare III - Peloton Director, Supply Chain Operations

Aligns systems, partners, and data to deliver precision in complex home fulfillment.

Frank Cesare III is a Director of Supply Chain Operations at Peloton, working across process design, project management, data analysis, and partner management from order through delivery. Peloton’s supply chain is unusual within sports. It includes large, high-value products, complex home-delivery requirements, and a heavy reliance on planning accuracy.

Cesare’s experience includes inventory operations and analytical roles, both critical when managing bulky goods with high carrying costs. A leader in this role spends time connecting systems to execution. He ensures that forecasting aligns with production decisions and that logistics partners can meet service expectations without driving costs out of control.

Tod Soller - Patagonia Chief Supply Chain Officer

Operationalizing circular supply chains with measurable environmental and service outcomes.

Tod Soller is Patagonia’s Chief Supply Chain Officer, responsible for global supply chain planning, production, logistics, distribution, repairs, and circular commerce through programs like Worn Wear. Patagonia’s supply chain has a clear mission constraint. The mission is that sustainability is not a side project; it is part of how the operation is designed.

Soller’s work sits in the hard part of sustainability, including Scope 3 emissions, supplier collaboration, and circularity at scale. Patagonia has publicly stated that repairs are a core operational capability, treating durability and repairability as supply-chain strategies rather than marketing language. Leaders like Soller show how a supply chain can be built around values without sacrificing service or quality.

Nicholas Langan - Rawlings, Director of Supply Chain

Brings military-grade planning discipline to a diversified sports equipment portfolio.

Nicholas Langan runs the supply chain at Rawlings Sporting Goods from the St. Louis area, and his path into the role is a little different than the usual sporting goods profile.

Before Rawlings, he served as a U.S. Army Aviation Officer, then earned an MBA focused on logistics, materials, and supply chain management. That combination tends to produce leaders who are methodical about planning and comfortable with complex coordination.

Inside Rawlings, Langan has moved through transportation and sourcing roles before taking on end-to-end supply chain responsibility. That matters for a brand with a broad mix: bats, gloves, protective gear, and team equipment with very different demand patterns. It is not one supply chain; it is several. His work sits at the intersection of sourcing decisions, inbound logistics, and operational execution.

Oliva Vargas - Wilson Sporting Goods Director, Supply Chain Ops

Transforms long-range planning into dependable shelf availability across categories.

Oliva Vargas leads supply chain operations at Wilson Sporting Goods in Chicago, with more than two decades at the company and a career primarily in planning. She ran global supply planning for years before stepping into her current director role, which is a classic progression in a category where planning maturity drives real performance.

Wilson’s assortment is broad and unforgiving: tennis, baseball, basketball, football, accessories, and seasonal products that need to arrive on time. Vargas’s background in project management and planning suggests a leader accustomed to cross-functional alignment, bringing product, sales, finance, and supply chain together to agree on a single plan before the season starts.

Jason Issertell - TaylorMade Director, Product Cost, Sourcing & Supply Chain

Protects gross margin by aligning sourcing strategy with immovable product roadmaps.

Jason Issertell leads product cost, sourcing, and supply chain work at TaylorMade in Carlsbad, California. That puts him close to the golf industry’s product development ecosystem. His mandate is to protect and improve gross margin by controlling COGS while keeping materials and suppliers aligned with long-term product roadmaps.

Issertell’s role is not just negotiating price. He manages a large spend, reported at more than $600 million. He has to synchronize technology, materials availability, lead times, and cost targets for products that launch on a calendar that does not move.

In golf, a late launch is not a small miss; it is a season-level problem. He is also known for translating complex data for executives, which matters in sourcing because the best decisions often require trade-offs that are hard to explain.

Christophe Mahaut - Brooks Running ,CSCO & COO

Leads end-to-end operations with a focus on agility, scale, and customer trust.

Christophe Mahaut leads Brooks Running as Chief Supply Chain Officer and COO, bringing a global operations background from major FMCG and consumer brands before moving into performance running. That switch matters because it suggests he is comfortable with scale, complexity, and process discipline. He applies that rigor to a brand that has grown quickly.

At Brooks, Mahaut owns end-to-end operations from factories to customers, including planning, sourcing, logistics, distribution, and the systems that connect them. He is known for customer-centric supply chain thinking, which in practice means building agility without losing cost control: the ability to react to demand, not just report on it.

John Barton - Dick’s Sporting Goods , Sr. Director, Global Logistics

Manages one of retail’s largest transportation portfolios with technology-led discipline.

John Barton runs global logistics for Dick’s Sporting Goods from the Pittsburgh area and owns a cost line that is big enough to demand real discipline. His scope covers international and domestic transportation execution and costs, with reported P&L responsibility exceeding $200 million.

Barton’s background is deeply technology-forward for logistics. He has worked across SAP and major transportation and labor systems (including Manhattan tools), and he is known for using process redesign and vendor collaboration to drive cost reductions.

Dick’s moves everything from small accessories to bulky fitness equipment. Barton’s value is in making a complex mix behave predictably, so the stores and e-commerce teams are not constantly improvising around late freight.

Steve Bostwick - PING, VP, Global Supply Chain

Ensures forecast accuracy and allocation precision in performance-driven markets.

Steve Bostwick has led the global supply chain at PING for years, focusing on demand planning, forecasting, and inventory management in a business where customer expectations are precise. Golf equipment is a performance category. Players notice quality, and they also see when the product is not available.

Bostwick’s job is to keep supply aligned with demand while protecting service levels for retail partners and direct buyers. During high-demand cycles, especially the kind the industry saw during and after the pandemic, the supply chain becomes the limiting factor. He is also involved in shipping and IT integration decisions, where much of modern supply chain performance actually resides.

Ron Adjami - Reebok, Head of Supply Chain Mgmt

Applies financial rigor to supply planning and allocation in a global brand environment.

Ron Adjami has run supply chain management at Reebok for a long tenure spanning multiple eras of the brand. He began his career in audit and finance, then moved through Reebok roles in sales operations and commercial functions before leading supply chain.

That background matters because supply chain decisions are business decisions, and leaders who understand the numbers tend to be sharper about trade-offs.

Adjami’s remit covers the planning and operational mechanics that keep product moving. It includes allocations, supply planning, purchasing coordination, and the process routines that prevent late-stage chaos. He is also active in recruiting and university engagement, which is a practical signal that he cares about building capability rather than just managing outcomes.

Marcy Plummer Duggan - Black Diamond Equipment, VP, Supply Chain

Balances technical product standards with disciplined sourcing and planning.

Marcy Plummer Duggan took on supply chain leadership at Black Diamond in early 2024, bringing a career that sits at the intersection of footwear, sourcing, and demand planning with her.

Her previous roles include senior positions at Sperry and Wolverine Worldwide, as well as leadership in merchant operations in retail. That blend is helpful in outdoor equipment because it connects product decisions to operational consequences.

Black Diamond sells technical climbing and outdoor gear, where quality, compliance, and seasonality create real supply chain constraints. Duggan’s experience in targeted costing and planning suggests she is comfortable managing margin pressure while still protecting product standards.

Jason Edwards - Burton Snowboards, Sr. Director, Intl Logistics & Fulfillment

Executes season-critical international logistics where timing defines revenue.

Jason Edwards, based in Montreal, leads international logistics and fulfillment at Burton Snowboards, overseeing a global network for a category where timing is everything. Snowboarding is seasonal. If the product misses the winter window, it is not “late.” It is effectively next year’s inventory.

Edwards brings a background in logistics, procurement, and industrial engineering, with experience across complex multi-country supply chains. In practice, his job includes freight strategy, customs readiness, inbound planning, and the fulfillment execution that supports both wholesale accounts and direct-to-consumer demand.

Sherry Harriman - Academy Sports + Outdoors, Former SVP, Logistics

Scaled high-volume retail logistics through engineered productivity and network modernization.

Sherry Harriman led logistics and supply chain at Academy Sports + Outdoors through a growth period that required absolute operational scaling. She brought decades of Walmart distribution experience to a retailer that had to modernize its network for omnichannel demand.

Her record is unusually specific. In past roles, she has driven cost-per-case reductions, increased capacity, and led technology integration in high-volume distribution environments. Those are the kinds of results that only come from operator discipline: engineered labor standards, process redesign, and a willingness to measure what is actually happening on the floor.

Ready to Take Your Sports Supply Chain to the Next Level?

Book a Demo today and discover how ClickPost can help you win the logistics game, ensuring your products are available, fast, and reliable—on and off the field!

Conclusion: What separates strong sports supply chains

Sportswear and sporting goods are unforgiving because timing is the product. A launch that misses the season is not just a late shipment. It is lost demand, forced markdowns, and a planning reset.

The leaders in this directory work in different parts of the chain, including trade, sourcing, planning, distribution, and fulfillment. Still, they share one trait. They reduce uncertainty. Furthermore, they build systems that make the business less dependent on heroics, whether that means tighter S&OP, better allocation logic, stronger supplier performance, or logistics networks that can flex when the plan breaks.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer: This list was compiled through an independent editorial review aimed at highlighting the key leaders currently shaping the U.S. sports and athletic gear supply chain. The evaluation criteria included innovation in performance material sourcing, leadership in seasonal inventory planning, digital transformation in wholesale and DTC integration, and measurable influence on product availability for global sporting events. This compilation is illustrative rather than exhaustive and is not intended as a formal ranking. All insights are based on publicly available data and industry analysis at the time of publication. No commercial affiliations, sponsorships, or endorsements influenced the selection of these individuals.

About the Review: We conducted this review to identify the individuals who aren't just managing gear, but are actively redesigning how athletic performance moves. Our team analyzed over 100 profiles across global sports powerhouses, boutique performance brands, and equipment innovators to select 25 leaders who represent the gold standard in sports-focused logistics.