Los Angeles-based eyewear lifestyle brand Garrett Leight California Optical (GLCO) announced last week the appointment of Barney Waters as president, on the heels of a $20-million investment from The Untitled Group.
In this position, Waters will lead the executive team to help achieve the company’s ambitious goals including 20 percent top line growth year-over-year to double volume over the next five years. He will also lend his marketing expertise to projects spanning sustainability initiatives and partnerships to the addition of some limited drop ancillary products.
Waters joins GLCO from K-Swiss, the American heritage sneaker brand, where he served as the brand’s president since 2016. During his tenure, K-Swiss went from multimillion dollar annual losses to profitability, with renewed energy and relevance in the market.
Prior to that, he entered the sneaker industry by way of Puma as its VP of marketing for seven years, and later landed at the K-Swiss-acquired, French heritage boot brand, Palladium that Waters’ ultimately led from $15 milliobn in global sales to $110 million, in under five years. His career began at the software company, Lotus.
