footwear-accessories
(2)
Implus
Implus is a Durham, North Carolina-based consumer products company that builds and buys active-lifestyle accessory brands - insoles, performance socks, shoe care, home fitness, recovery tools and outdoor traction gear - and sells them through more than 60,000 retail outlets across roughly 60 countries. Founded in the late 1980s around the Sof Sole insole brand, it grew into a house of around 18 brands including SKLZ, Yaktrax, Balega, Spenco, TriggerPoint, Harbinger and RockTape, largely through a long string of acquisitions under private-equity ownership.
Michael Polk
Michael Polk is the President and CEO of Implus, the Durham, North Carolina maker of footcare, fitness and sporting goods brands like Sof Sole, Spenco, Yaktrax and TriggerPoint. A first-generation American and career consumer-goods operator, he spent decades climbing through Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods and Unilever before running Newell Brands for eight years, where he led a transformation that roughly tripled enterprise value. Since 2020 he has paired the Implus job with an advisory role at private equity firm Berkshire Partners, trading the glare of a public-company quarter for the hands-on work of building brands shoulder-to-shoulder with a smaller team.