Hari Mari said Wednesday that Billy Reid co-founder and former CEO Jake Szczepanski will become president of the fast-growing Dallas-based flip flop startup, which is planning to expand into apparel this spring.
Szczepanski has been on the Hari Mari board for three years and is moving onto the management team “to help spearhead the brand’s continued growth,” the company said.
Jeremy Stewart, Hari Mari’s co-founder, said Szczepanski’s “lifetime of consumer goods and brand-building know-how” will help the company move into lifestyle and apparel categories.
“With the sizable growth Hari Mari has experienced over the last few years, we look forward to adding Jake’s experienced voice and leadership to our management team to help foster its next growth chapter,” said Stewart, who founded the company in 2012 with his wife, Lila Stewart. Hari Mari hasn’t disclosed annual sales. Its flip flops are sold at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, J.Crew, West Marine, Zappos, Whole Earth Provision Co. and Saint Bernard.
Szczepanski joins Hari Mari from upscale men’s and women’s apparel brand Billy Reid, where he was a co-founder and CEO of the Florence, Ala.-based company. He spent 13 years working with designer Billy Reid to build the brand, which operates 14 stores, including one at NorthPark Center in Dallas and in upscale shopping districts in major cities including New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
“I believe the Hari Mari brand has established a foundation and a strategy for continued success alongside a highly talented management team. As the footwear and fashion industry evolves during these unprecedented times, Hari Mari is uniquely positioned and poised for accelerated growth,” Szczepanski said.
He added the brand has momentum and can expand from a “premium flip flop maker at its core into a fulsome premium lifestyle label in the months and years to come.”
Szczepanski is from a local retail family. His father, Gerald Szczepanski, was the founder of Gadzooks, which was based in Carrollton and operated 243 mall-based teen apparel stores when it was sold out of bankruptcy in 2005 to Forever 21. That acquisition doubled the size of Forever 21.
Twitter: @MariaHalkias
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