Bozeman-based Oboz Footwear has opened a product design and development office in Portland, Ore. In addition to establishing the Portland location, the company has added two new team members to its product creation team: Brad Long as Director of Product and Seth Brown as Senior Product Developer.
According to Oboz founder and president John Connelly, Oboz added a Portland location to “give us the best of both worlds. Our roots are in Bozeman and the surrounding mountains, and Portland adds energy to what we will accomplish in the future.”
Chuck Roth, who co-founded Oboz and has designed its shoes and boots since the company was founded in 2007, explained that “resources in Portland that are second to none as far as footwear. This is where it all happens.”
At the Portland office, Long and Brown join Chuck Roth, Design Director and also will work with Derek Gustafson, who works from Oboz’ Bozeman headquarters as the Product Development Manager.
Long (pictured left), who will lead the team, has more than 35 years of experience in athletic and outdoor footwear development, engineering and project management, much of it from a long tenure with Nike. His background includes product innovation, product line management, testing, merchandising and marketing and product engineering. He is proficient in footwear construction methods and technologies from extensive time gained from working with manufacturers in Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Indonesia and Italy. Long has been awarded with two Industrial Designer Society of America awards for his accomplishments, as well as two Nike Milestone awards recognizing his exceptional contributions to the company.
Brown most recently was the Director of Asia Footwear Product Development for VF Timberland, where he led product creation teams and partners to deliver products from concept through development and commercialization. In that role, Brown had oversight of a staff of 45 in China and Vietnam in 11 development centers that managed more than 300 new projects per season. In his 30 years in the footwear, accessories and apparel industry, he has held positions with Nike, adidas, Scott USA and other high profile footwear companies. Additionally, he has worked with over 70 different footwear manufacturers in six different countries.
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