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Christopher M. Walsh is widely considered to be one of the premier production, sourcing and operations executives within the footwear, apparel and sporting goods industry. A thirty year veteran of the athletic and action sports footwear industry, Mr. Walsh began his career with Nike in 1974 and established and implemented Nike’s first manufacturing operation in the Far East in 1976. He is credited with establishing their footwear manufacturing network in Taiwan, The Philippines, Thailand and China. Over the course of his career, Mr. Walsh has had quite an impressive list of accomplishments. After a ten year career with Nike from 1974 to 1984, he moved to Kurt Salmon Associates as a specialist in strategic planning, manufacturing productivity, sourcing strategy and quick response planning. In 1987, Mr. Walsh moved to Toddler University as Vice President of Operations. During his tenure at Toddler University, from 1987 to 1989, he helped that start-up organization in children’s footwear achieve a commanding position within the marketplace and implemented a sophisticated sourcing and productions system. In 1989 he joined Reebok International as Vice President of Production. In that role he moved the company from the use of a Far East manufacturing agent to a centralized Asian manufacturing organization headquartered in Hong Kong with satellite organizations across Asia. He oversaw the sourcing and production of over 75 million pairs of shoes annually and instituted the company’s first vendor performance ratings system to help rationalize the manufacturing base. Mr. Walsh played a critical role on the Reebok Pump Task Force and oversaw the plan to produce the unique components of the Pump system domestically. After Reebok, Mr. Walsh moved to LA Gear in 1992 and, as Senior Vice President of Operations, became a critical figure in the turnaround team assembled by LA Gear. At LA Gear, Mr. Walsh was responsible for all R&D, design, development, manufacturing, sourcing, quality control, distribution and logistics. He helped to re-engineer the 400 person US and Asian organizational structure and dramatically improved efficiencies in costing, quality and overall product integrity. He instituted the CAD/CAM system at LA Gear which dramatically reduced cycle times and enabled the company to be more responsive to shifts in consumer tastes. He was instrumental in the complete overhaul of the LA Gear Asian production network and transferred manufacturing out of South Korea and into China and Indonesia. He installed an expatriate management system throughout the Far East and integrated the LA Gear system with that of the company’s new manufacturing agent, Pentland Industries. Upon leaving LA Gear in 1995, Mr. Walsh founded CW Resources, a Los Angeles based firm providing design, development, manufacturing and licensing consulting services to an extensive client base, both domestic and international, within the footwear, apparel, textile, sporting goods and action sports industries. In 1999 he took a temporary hiatus from his consulting firm to serve as Chief Operating Officer for his client, Dunk.net, a performance athletic products and services company, where he was instrumental in helping create the sporting goods industry’s first business paradigm incorporating B2C, B2B, C2C and C2B models to delivery custom apparel and footwear. In 2001 he re-established his consulting practice. Mr. Walsh received a B.S. in Marketing from Boston College in 1973 and previously served on numerous organizational boards within the footwear and textile industries including The Two Ten International Footwear Foundation and The Footwear Distributors and Retail Association.practice. |
