Kizik Hires Morgan Keldsen to Expand the Brand Internationally
Kizik, the hands-free footwear brand, opened its first permanent store in Salt Lake City in May — but that’s just the beginning.
The Lindon, Utah-based brand has brought Morgan Keldsen on board as its first-ever chief international officer as it plots expansion outside the U.S. borders.
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Keldsen, a veteran of Nike, Converse, Vans and Stussy, spent the bulk of his three-decade career in the Asia-Pacific region helping those brands gain a foothold in the area.
But after working outside its borders for so many years, the American executive was itching to get back to U.S. soil. The wheels were put in motion after Keldsen heard from Skip Lei, chief product officer of Kizik and a former colleague at Nike, that his new company was interested in expanding internationally. He introduced Keldsen to Kizik’s chief executive officer Monte Deere, the two hit it off and realized they were aligned in their strategy for bringing Kizik to the next level.
And so, in this newly created role, Keldsen will explore opportunities to bring Kizik to everywhere from Canada and Asia to the Middle East.
“Kizik has a really unique selling point that provides consumer benefits to anyone around the world,” he said.
The brand is owned by HandsFree Labs Inc., a business that licenses hands-free solutions. It was founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Mike Pratt as a direct-to-consumer shoe company targeted to people seeking an alternative to lacing their shoes due to accessibility issues or simply for ease and speed. It holds the patents or the pending patents to more than 150 hands-free technologies and as a result, Nike Inc. in November 2019 made a strategic investment and entered into an exclusive intellectual property licensing partnership so it could utilize the technology in its product line, including the Go FlyEase that it introduced at the beginning of 2021. Kizik also received $20 million in series B funding led by The Newcastle Network last April.
Since joining Kizik, Keldsen has been exploring both digital and physical expansion options, including opening company-owned stores and adding wholesale accounts overseas.
Currently, Kizik is working with Global-E, a digital commerce company that sells and ships its products to nearly every country around the world. But Global-E does not market for the brands it services so Keldsen said Kizik will work to “maximize” business by promoting the brand in other regions.
And eventually, once the infrastructure is created, Kizik envisions operating internally in other countries. “I will identify a more holistic way of operating,” he said.
So far, Kizik has seen the most success in Canada, but Keldsen is eyeing Asia — particularly Japan — as his next target.
He said the “habits and customs” of the Japanese consumer, which require them to take their shoes off a number of times every day, opens up a major window for Kizik. He said he will be leveraging the network he developed during his years in the area to establish an outpost there.
After that, he sees Western Europe, particularly the U.K., as next on his list.
Keldsen said his goal to have the structure in place to start selling putting down significant roots internationally by next year.
“I’ve worked for huge companies like Nike and small companies like Stussy and now I’m taking that experience to a start-up brand with a real reason for being to help make it truly global,” he said.
After receiving the $20 million in financing last summer, Kizik said it planned to open five stores in the U.S. this year and between 15 and 20 by the end of 2024. It also moved into wholesale earlier this year with Nordstrom.
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