• by Sarah Mahoney , 89 minutes ago

Vuori has hired Carey Collins Krug, CMO of Abercrombie & Fitch, to help the company continue expanding beyond its fitness roots into a broader lifestyle brand.

She replaces Karen Riley-Grant, who left the CMO post late last year. Krug, who starts the new gig in October, also held senior marketing roles at David Yurman, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan International.

In addition to leading the global marketing organization, she will oversee brand, creative, consumer engagement, digital, retail, wholesale and integrated marketing. That includes strengthening connection across channels. While the company launched in 2015 with a store in Encinitas, California, it has grown rapidly as a direct-to-consumer brand; it now also has more than 100 retail stores of its own, as well as broad distribution at REI, Nordstrom, and Dick’s Public Lands stores.

The company competes closely with Lululemon and Alo, but those companies fueled their growth with women’s apparel, while Vuori first gained its style stripes marketing men’s gear. Its high-profile athlete partnerships  include University of Texas QB Arch Manning, NFL QB Jared Goff and actor Tom Holland.

Krug “brings the kind of brand-building, consumer engagement and cross-functional marketing leadership that will be instrumental as Vuori enters its next chapter of growth,” said Joe Kudla, founder and CEO, in the press announcement. “Her experience helping global lifestyle brands sharpen their storytelling and build deeper connections with consumers aligns closely with where we’re headed as we continue to scale.”

The company likely hopes that Krug will bring some of the A&F magic with her. That company is still in the midst of one of the decade’s greatest brand comeback stories, fueled in no small part by brand positioning and influencer marketing: A&F recently posted its 14^th consecutive quarter of sales growth.

And there's more happening at A&F, barreling into back-to-school season (it also owns Hollister) with new denim campaigns. It's also expanding an ongoing partnership with the NFL. It will continue to deliver signature NFL apparel for all 32 teams and host in-season activations. But distribution is widening, and will now include NFLShop.com, NFL stadium stores, team ecommerce sites and Fanatics.com.

This season’s marketing will showcase the personal style of NFL players like Drake Maye (New England Patriots), Justin Jefferson (Minnesota Vikings) and Jaxson Dart (New York Giants), as well as Ann Michael Maye (content creator), Emily Engram (model and content creator), Claire Kittle (content creator and media personality) and Diana Flores (captain and quarterback of the Mexico Women's National Flag Football Team).