British heritage-meets-fashion brand Dr Martens has faced its challenges in the US in recent periods — think the teething troubles with its LA distribution centre earlier this decade and ongoing sales falls in the Americas generally. But the US and wider region remain key for the brand and it has appointed Paul Zadoff as the company’s new president of the Americas to drive growth in the region.

Starting next month, he’ll lead the experienced regional team in “driving the performance, growth, and profitability of the Americas business”. He’ll also join the global leadership team and will report directly to CEO Ije Nwokorie.

The brand has been present in the US since 1980 and today across the Americas region it has 59 owned stores, with total regional sales accounting for nearly 40% of group revenue.  

Zadoff joins from luxury eyewear brand Caddis and Dr Martens said he “brings 30 years of leadership experience with iconic global brands spanning the footwear, sporting goods, fashion apparel, and accessories sectors. He has consistently guided teams through periods of growth and transformation throughout his career”.

In two decades at Nike, he held a range of global and regional leadership roles in sales, product and brand, culminating as MD of Nike Pacific. Before that he’d been president of fitness company TRX Training, VP of global sales at Patagonia and senior VP Americas commercial operations at Levi Strauss & Co.

Nwokorie said it’s “a testament to the power of our brand to have someone of Paul’s calibre join our team to shape and execute our regional strategy. His experience leading teams, working in partnership with wholesale customers, building omnichannel businesses and driving growth at some of the world’s most recognisable brands will be hugely valuable. I look forward to working with Paul and have no doubt he will help to take our Americas business to another level”.

Dr Martens divides its business into three regions with EMEA headquartered in London, Americas headquartered in Portland and APAC headquartered in Hong Kong. The overall head office is in the UK.