Terence Reilly might not be a household name, but he played a big part in making a product that is likely already in your house into a national phenomenon.
Reilly is credited with making the Stanley Cup a must-have item. Now he’s leaving Stanley and will try to work his magic on another brand, which already has a fairly high level of consumer appeal: Heydude shoes.
It’s a return of sorts for Reilly. Crocs owns the Heydude brand, and that’s where Stanley recruited him from originally. His marketing leadership on the rubber clog shoes made them a must-have for Generation Z and others for a while, with a strong rub from social influencers. He will serve as president of Heydude, replacing Rick Blackshaw, who left the company earlier this week.
“We are thrilled to be welcoming back Terence to the Crocs, Inc. Family,” said Andrew Rees, CEO at Crocs, in a statement. “Terence has had tremendous success in creating and executing brand-building playbooks at both Stanley and Crocs by leveraging iconic product, scaling awareness, driving brand relevance and ultimately building communities… I am confident he is the right person to lead the Heydude Brand into its next phase of growth.”
Heydude shoes—which are lightweight and comfortable, but are hardly fashionable—have a following with some teens, but the brand hasn’t broken out like Crocs had hoped it would when it acquired it in 2021. Sales increased 6% last year, less than half of the increase Crocs saw.
Rees, on an earnings call in February, admitted the company had oversaturated the market with Heydude shoes in late 2022 and early 2023. Despite that, brand awareness only reached 32%, which Rees called “low by any global brand standards.”