Wendy Kula - Saucony's New Chief Marketing Officer

The Lead

Wendy Kula has spent more than two decades in the room where sport becomes story. In May 2026, Saucony gave her the keys. The Rockford, Michigan running brand named Kula its Chief Marketing Officer, handing her global brand marketing, digital, creative, and go-to-market strategy for a company that has been making performance footwear far longer than most of its competitors have existed.

It is a specific kind of assignment. Saucony is a heritage brand in a running market crowded with newer, louder names. The job is not to shout. It is to make a serious performance brand feel current without pretending it just arrived. Saucony's president, Rob Griffiths, framed the hire in exactly those terms, calling Kula a leader who understands "how to build relevance with today's runner while honoring what makes a performance brand credible."

Kula arrives with a resume that reads like a tour of American consumer culture: Nike, Aerie, and a cooling-technology startup co-founded by two Hall-of-Fame-caliber athletes. But the throughline is not the logos. It is a consistent belief that the best brands make people feel like they belong to something.

20+

Years in brand marketing

4

Iconic brands built

2026

Named Saucony CMO

1

Stanford lacrosse alum

Origins

An athlete first, a marketer second

Before the campaigns and the C-suite titles, Kula played lacrosse at Stanford University. That detail is more than trivia. It is the foundation of how she works. When she talks about building brands for athletes, she is talking about a world she lived in, not one she studied from the outside.

That athlete's instinct - the mix of discipline, competitiveness, and understanding what it actually feels like to train - runs through her career. It is the reason her marketing has tended to land as genuine rather than borrowed. She has built a reputation for consumer-led strategy: start with the person, not the product.

Over 20-plus years she has specialized in a particular skill that sounds simple and is not - making a brand feel like it belongs to its community. Inclusive storytelling. Community engagement. The unglamorous work of listening before broadcasting.

It is a philosophy that translates cleanly to running, a sport built almost entirely on community, routine, and personal milestones. At Saucony, that background becomes the strategy itself.

A passionate commitment to building brands that empower athletes, elevate women's sport, and create lasting cultural impact. — How Kula describes her own north star

The Career

Aerie to Nike to Saucony

EARLY CAREER

MISSION

Kula helped scale MISSION, the cooling-technology company co-founded by tennis champion Serena Williams and NBA star Dwyane Wade - an early lesson in building a brand around athlete founders.

2010s

Aerie · American Eagle Outfitters

She led marketing for Aerie, one of American Eagle's fastest-growing brands, building deep relevance with Gen Z through inclusive, community-led campaigns.

NIKE ERA

Digital Strategy, Nike

She helped drive Nike's global digital marketing across the Nike App, Nike Running Club, and Nike Training Club - the platforms where millions of runners and trainers meet the brand every day.

MOST RECENT

VP, Women's Brand Marketing, North America · Nike

She led high-impact campaigns including Nike's return to the Super Bowl with the "So Win" campaign and the launch of A'ja Wilson's signature shoe - work that pushed women's sport into the cultural mainstream.

MAY 2026

Chief Marketing Officer · Saucony

She takes the top marketing seat at Saucony, overseeing global brand marketing, digital, creative, and go-to-market strategy across performance and lifestyle running.

Signature Work

The campaigns that defined her Nike years

"So Win"

Kula helped lead Nike's return to the Super Bowl stage with the "So Win" campaign - a statement moment aimed at a new generation of athletes.

A'ja Wilson's Shoe

She directed the launch of A'ja Wilson's signature shoe, a milestone in the rising commercial power of women's basketball and women's sport.

Nike's Apps & Clubs

Earlier, she shaped digital strategy across the Nike App, Nike Run Club, and Nike Training Club - meeting athletes where they actually train.

By the Angle

Where Wendy Kula's playbook is strongest

Illustrative emphasis across her career · based on public reporting

Women's Sport

95

Digital & DTC

88

Community

90

Gen Z Relevance

85

Performance Cred

80

The Assignment

Making a heritage brand matter again

Saucony's challenge is one many legacy brands face. The performance credibility is real - the technology, the franchises, the decades of running history. What a modern brand needs on top of that is cultural clarity: a reason for a new runner to care.

That is the balance Griffiths pointed to, and it is precisely the seam Kula has worked her whole career. She spent years making women's sport impossible to ignore. She built Gen Z loyalty at Aerie by leading with community rather than product specs. She grew Nike's digital ecosystem where the relationship with the runner is ongoing, not transactional.

At Saucony she partners closely with product, sales, and direct-to-consumer teams. The mandate is to strengthen brand clarity, elevate storytelling, and support growth across performance and lifestyle franchises. In plain terms: keep the brand honest to serious runners while giving everyone else a reason to pay attention.

If her track record holds, the work will not look like a reinvention. It will look like a heritage brand finally telling its story the way runners already feel it.

A modern brand leader who understands how to build relevance with today's runner while honoring what makes a performance brand credible. — Rob Griffiths, President, Saucony

Good to Know

Four things about Wendy Kula

She played D1 lacrosse

A former Stanford University lacrosse player, she markets to athletes as one of them.

Super Bowl credentials

She helped bring Nike back to the Super Bowl with the "So Win" campaign.

Founder-athlete builds

She scaled MISSION, a startup co-founded by Serena Williams and Dwyane Wade.

Three iconic brands

Aerie, Nike, and now Saucony - each a different lesson in cultural relevance.

FAQ

Questions people ask

Who is Wendy Kula?

She is a sports and consumer-brand marketing executive named Chief Marketing Officer of Saucony in May 2026, joining from Nike.

What did she do at Nike?

She served as vice president of women's brand marketing for North America, leading campaigns including Nike's "So Win" Super Bowl return and A'ja Wilson's signature shoe launch, and helping shape Nike's digital strategy across its apps and clubs.

Where did she go to college?

She attended Stanford University, where she played lacrosse.

What other companies has she worked for?

Saucony, Nike, Aerie (American Eagle Outfitters), and MISSION, the cooling-technology company co-founded by Serena Williams and Dwyane Wade.

What is her role at Saucony?

As Chief Marketing Officer she oversees global brand marketing, digital marketing, creative, and go-to-market strategy across performance and lifestyle running.

Signals

sauconychief marketing officernike alumwomen's sportbrand marketingrunningstanford lacrosseaeriemissiondigital marketingso wincommunity

WendyKula