Comune Names New Execs
Up-and-coming skate and lifestyle brand Comune has two new label executives and will have new offices after a recent exodus of many executives and design staff.
Brian Kail is the new president, and Sven Almetz, co-founder of the brand, will serve as the vice president. They will move the label’s offices from Costa Mesa, Calif., to downtown Los Angeles on July 1.
On June 17, several Comune staffers unexpectedly quit the 3-year-old label in a protest over the brand’s direction. Frank Delgadillo, brand founder and president, and nine other top staff members announced their decision to leave in an email sent by Julie Shumaker, Comune’s vice president of marketing, to retailers, manufacturers and friends of the brand. In the email, Shumaker said a brand investor had made a hostile takeover and sought to change the direction of the brand.
“Comune was never designed to be a mass-market brand,” she wrote.
The brand’s designers and executives disagreed with its partner, Los Angeles–based Komex International Inc., over the reported hiring of a new sales team. (Kail also serves as president of Komex.) There also were disagreements over sourcing and fabrication used for the line, Comune sources said.
California Apparel News broke the news of the executive split on June 17, but Delgadillo declined to be interviewed. According to Mike Quinones, Comune’s former creative director, who also left the company, the departing staff was angered over Komex’s intent to cut the label’s sponsorship of a skate team. “We came to the industry with skate roots,” he said. “I’d rather leave the brand than stick around and watch it turn into something we wouldn’t recognize.”
In a prepared statement, Almetz said that he was “saddened” by the departure of staff who had built the brand. “Comune is determined to work through this change,” he said. “We are in the process of replacing the sales and marketing team with qualified people who represent the image of the brand and whom we are certain will work well with our distributors and retailers.”
The brand’s Fall and Holiday orders will be shipped in a timely manner, Almetz said.
Delgadillo will embark on a new fashion project in the near future, Comune sources said. Shumaker’s letter said the Comune staffers who resigned will “transition as a cohesive team.” The other team members leaving Comune are Mark Logan, brand manager; Matt Davis, vice president of sales; Clifford Lidell, graphic designer; Keri Banach, designer; Billy Garner, marketing coordinator; Sean Ciminesi, West Coast sales; and Cory Heenan, East Coast sales.
Comune’s Jake McCabe will continue to design for the label. Corey Smith also stayed on staff and will run the marketing and art initiatives, such as the Drop City program, snow team and contributing-artist program. Designer Howie Marchbanks and Raul Montoya, who worked in sales, remained with the brand.
Comune sells at a number of well-known stores, including Pacific Sunwear, Jack’s Surfboards and American Rag. Last September, it started a diffusion line called Sandinista for Pacific Sunwear that had a more economic price point than Comune’s.—Andrew Asch
