Greg Dutter | Plus Awards, September 2024 | September 3, 2024

The Burton snowboard reps thought Tarek Hassan was nuts—at first. It was 1996 when the early twentysomething, had reached out to the Vermont-based company to visit his new retail concept (fittingly dubbed CNCPTS and pronounced as Concepts), housed inside The Tannery in Cambridge’s, Harvard Square. It’s where Hassan and his brother worked since arriving in the United States about a decade earlier from war-torn Lebanon. Hassan desperately wanted to add the hottest snowboarding brand to CNCPTS’ eclectic mix of skate, snowboard, streetwear, and luxury brands, but he had some major hurdles to overcome—starting with getting the reps to agree to visit his store-within-a-store.

As shoe industry lore goes, Hassan arranged a meeting for the reps to see the new, 500-square-foot space which was located all the way in the back of the 10,000-square-foot store located below street level. To experience this space, one would have to meander through a maze of brown shoes from the likes of Dansko, Rockport, Ecco, Clarks, and Mephisto, to name a few. In fact, The Tannery was so antithetical to Burton’s edgy snowboard vibe that the reps did a 180 and left. They dismissed the store as a place that the parents of Burton’s target audience were likely to shop. “They literally made it halfway through and headed back out,” Hassan recalls, admitting to a brief crisis of confidence. “The first thoughts that came to my mind were, ‘This was a huge mistake! What in the hell was I thinking?’”

Hassan, though, quickly regrouped. He believed in his vision and he was determined to have the reps experience CNCPTS the way he intended. He wanted them to become immersed in the vibe and format he had worked so diligently to create. Above all, he hoped they might see what he envisioned—a revolutionary retail “concept” that Hassan believed would attract legions of trend-setting consumers. Back then, if you wanted to buy a snowboard or skateboard, you went to a ski, skate, or sporting goods store. To purchase luxury brands, you went to specialty boutiques, chains, and flagships. CNCPTS was a first, and a testament to Hassan’s visionary approach.

Flash forward to today and Hassan’s vision has been realized. Over the past 30 years, CNCPTS outgrew its repurposed stockroom space and has become a worldwide retail chain with locations in Boston, New York, Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing, and, in fall 2025, Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, not to mention its booming online business. Along the way, Hassan achieved his dream of building a standalone brand widely lauded as a purveyor of cool. CNCPTS has helped trailblaze the sneaker boutique channel. It has been at the forefront of the collab craze, transformed sneaker drops into rock concert–like events, and helped fuel a resale market where coveted styles go for thousands of dollars. The brand has also introduced groundbreaking retail concepts—like pop-up shops built entirely around a specific collab and a co-curated Adidas/CNCPTS boutique in Boston. CNCPTS has also introduced and helped establish brands that have come to define what is now a macro sneaker-meets-streetwear-meets-luxury movement. Hassan is one of the godfathers of this entire culture, a culture he sensed was coming in the mid-’90s. He was not nuts.

“CNCPTS was one of the first independent sneaker boutiques. But even more important, Tarek was the first to bring a luxury mentality to the category,” says David Kahan, president of Birkenstock Americas. “He brought a level of innovation and storytelling no one else has.”

Bob Mullaney, CEO of RG Barry Brands and fellow New England shoe mafia capo, singles out Hassan’s relentless drive to be at the tip of the spear, all while making it look effortless. “He epitomizes cool and sees the future while making it look easy, which it isn’t,” he says. “Tarek moves forward with organic consumer research and doesn’t pay homage to yesteryear. His authentic passion, competitiveness, and willingness to take risks in his work stand out.”

Indeed, CNCPTS has come a long way, driven by Hassan’s relentless quest to push boundaries and serve as a curator, tastemaker, and confidant for generations of discerning customers who look to the brand for what’s next. As for those Burton reps, Hassan convinced them to take a closer look at CNCPTS and they came away impressed. The store began carrying the brand’s snowboards a few months later. Hassan’s vision and determination paid off that day—as it has ever since.

Scott Schaefer, CEO of Zappos, an investor in CNCPTS as of 2018, says Hassan defines the streetwear/luxury culture. For him, it’s not just a profession but a passion. “Tarek is unique in terms of being the whole package as a retailer,” he says. “He’s got both business and brand savvy, is always a step ahead of what’s next, and his intuition is spot on when it comes to his brand’s best interests.” Schaefer adds, “Tarek has great insights, relationships, and overall style that can’t be replicated. He’s been a great partner in all aspects of our two brands’ relationship.”

Hassan appreciates the accolades, but that’s not why he’s in this game. Back in 1994, when Tarek first took up snowboarding, he fell in love with the culture. He desperately wanted in. Becoming a professional snowboarder wasn’t a likely option. But his retail and branding skills could give him access to this exciting world. To paraphrase the tagline of one of CNCPTS’ longtime collab partners, Tarek just did it. “When you believe in something and you have a vision, you go for it,” Hassan says. “And while the odds of succeeding back then were very small, I believed in myself. I was super-passionate about it all and I knew I’d do anything to make it work. And nothing’s changed as I’m the exact same way today.”

Born This Way

One might assume that Hassan is a born merchant. His love for retail, brand building, product, and consumer research seems baked into his DNA. It’s who he is and what he does 24-7. He’s constantly learning, adapting, evolving, planning, dreaming, risking, and seeking to break new ground in footwear and fashion retailing and brand building.

That said, Hassan had no visions of becoming a retailer while growing up in Beirut. It was the early ’80s and he was a typical teenager, playing goalkeeper for his local soccer team and attending school. What wasn’t typical, though, was his daily struggle to survive. “The only thing I did know is that I wanted out of Lebanon and away from a raging Civil War,” he says.

Fortunately, Hassan had family living in Belgium and Boston. His first stop, at age 15, was Europe. He stayed for a brief period with his family. He then obtained a U.S. visa and moved to Boston to live with his brother, Talal, who had moved there a couple of years earlier and was working at The Tannery, then a two-store business. The day Hassan set foot on American soil his retail career began. Basically, he landed in a shoe store.

“I remember being picked up from the airport and driving straight to the store where my brother was working.” Hassan says. “Forty-five minutes in America and I was standing behind a cash wrap, learning the ropes of retail.”

The fact that Hassan only spoke French and Arabic at the time was just one of many hurdles he’d overcome as he took on more responsibilities in the store. For example, there was the three-month intensive English course he enrolled in at Boston University. On his lunch breaks, he’d take the train back to the store located on Boylston Street to help with the mid-day rush. “This was the pre-online era; our store would be jam packed with customers pouring in on their lunch breaks,” he says.

Hassan went on to finish high school and then enrolled in college, all while working at the shop as much as possible. A trip to the FFANY show in New York is when Hassan officially caught the shoe bug. “I fell in love with the showrooms, the product, the branding, engaging with the energy of the business…I wanted to be part of it all,” he says. “I knew 100 percent then that this was my passion.”

Around this time, Hassan began doing deep dives into various shoe brands. He learned everything he could about their histories, approaches to design, and branding strategies. He also pondered on what he might do different. “I became obsessed with the entire business,” he says. “I felt like I could make a meaningful difference with some brands, and that’s when I realized I wanted to have my own brand and stores one day.”

The Salad Days

First up: shop-in-shops, which The Tannery introduced in the late ’80s and were a first of its kind in independent shoe retailing. Hassan wanted to make shopping experiential and not just transactional by conveying individual brand stories in an immersive and exclusive way. “Before that, it was just showing product generically; there was no emotion between the brands and the customers,” he says. “We created tailored experiences for each brand.” The shops were a huge hit. The brands and customers loved them. The first was with Bass. Timberland, Reebok, Dan Post, Ecco, Birkenstock, Zodiac, Sebago, Rockport, and others followed. “At 10,000 square feet, we had the room to create beautiful shops, which we updated seasonally and as the brands evolved,” Hassan says. Sales spiked, too. “We saw a jump in success,” he says. “We were passionate about it, and we connected with customers on a much deeper level. It was way ahead of its time, and it also fed my vision to do so much more.”

Next up: Special Make-ups (SMUs), later known as collabs and now a multi-billion-dollar industry. This is when the young retailer began to make a name for himself. Hassan had a talent for transforming run-of-the-line styles into something special. First off, he did the homework. “I lived these brands, and I figured if I knew as much, or more than they did, I’d see something that they might have missed,” he explains, adding, “We came at the shoes with a different lens and understanding of what our customers wanted, and I loved figuring out ways these brands could break out of their comfort zones.”

These exclusive styles blew out of stores and would often rank as the brands’ top sellers for that season. In fact, they’d often create a halo effect, boosting sales of the entire brand. Meanwhile, Hassan relished his burgeoning role as brand whisperer. “It came from a passion to create” he says.

Hassan understood the power of exclusivity and its power to create consumer demand. When Hassan debuted CNCPTS in 1996 it quickly became the busiest part of The Tannery. Hundreds of kids would wait in line to get first dibs on the latest collabs. “We carried exclusive styles, like Clarks Originals and Nike SB, just to cite a couple,” he says. “They were coming to find the color and/or silhouette that they couldn’t get anywhere else. That’s when I realized that CNCPTS could be its own brand.”

Word quickly spread beyond Boston. People came in from around the world looking for this store in the back of a traditional shoe store where they’d find sneakers, skateboards, snowboards, streetwear, and luxury items from brands like A Bathing Ape, Nike, Gucci, Prada, Canada, Goose, and New Balance. But Hassan didn’t just rely on word of mouth in those early years. He capitalized on Harvard Square’s appeal as a tourist destination, making deals with tour bus operators to drop off their busloads so they could shop the store. “It was an incredible amount of business; we became one of the largest dealers for Coach handbags in the country,” he says. The strategy also taught him about the shopping preferences of people from far beyond Boston. “I learned what brands they sought, what colors and styles they liked, how they expected merchandise to be displayed, how they interacted with our staff, and what type of shopping experience they preferred.” Hassan adds, “I was on the floor every day and was experiencing every piece of the business. I did the marketing by handing out flyers on the sidewalk, I worked in the stockroom, I did the buying…I wanted to experience everything I could in order to create my own brand.”

Kahan considers Hassan in a class by himself as a retailer. “He has vision. Most retailers think day to day, week to week, even season to season,” he says. “Tarek thinks in terms of generational shifts in consumer interests and brings a creative energy and taste level unlike anyone else. Also, he has 100 percent trust from brands that everything he does will be respectful and maintain the highest equity of the brand. He won’t try to make it what it isn’t or shouldn’t be.”

Kahan cites the Birkenstock Americas division’s first-ever collab, the Birkenstock/CNCPTS Felt, released in late 2013, as an example. At the time, very few pairs of Boston clogs were sold in the U.S. It was considered a niche shoe. “The orange felt version sold out in a day and created buzz that still reverberates today,” Kahan says. “It’s hard to believe that 10 years before the Boston became so popular, Tarek had it as his key style. He planted the seeds for the broad success Birkenstock now enjoys.”

Rusty Hall, CEO of Mephisto USA, cites two CNCPTS collabs, the Match and Rainbow, for having a similar halo effect on the brand. Like Birkenstock at the time, Mephisto was hardly the first brand to spring to mind for a cool streetwear collab in 2017. But CNCPTS was the ultimate curator of cool. Its bold mint and magenta takes on the Match, Mephisto’s best-selling walking shoe, turned heads. They followed up in 2019 with the Apple sneaker, a premium update of the iconic Rainbow style, which Steve Jobs wore. “Tarek was the first to introduce other materials (mesh) to the Match, which has since led to a greater resurgence of that style in the U.S.,” Hall reports, adding that the relationship stretches back 25 years. “Tarek has a very creative mind and sees trends earlier than most do. He also knows which brands will meet his objective with the trends he sees.”

Beantown and Beyond

CNCPTS had been in business less than a year when Hassan realized it needed to graduate to a stand-alone location. Eight years later it finally did—near The Tannery’s Cambridge location. Though the store quickly proved itself financially able to stand on its own, there was a much bigger reason for the delay in moving into its own digs: being part of a family business. Sometimes internal decisions move like molasses. Hassan, undeterred, continued to build the CNCPTS brand one killer collab at a time. Meanwhile, brands regularly urged him to expand beyond Boston. “They wanted to continue to grow with us because they trusted us,” he says. “It wasn’t pressure so much as an invitation.”

The Big Apple was the first CNCPTS outpost. Located in Tribeca, the space debuted as a rotating pop-up shop—another shoe retailing first. The entire store was built around one collab and then redesigned for the next. Hassan, now fully on his own, saw it as next level interaction between brands and consumers. The debut exhibit was the New Balance/CNCPTS 997 Rosé. The 6,000-pairs blew out in-store and online in minutes.

The sneaker collab also broke new ground by being “unapologetically pink,” says Deon Point, creative director of CNCPTS. “Back then, a pink shoe was unheard of,” he says. But there was a method to the risk. As luxury was part of the DNA for CNCPTS, it was only right that Moét was brought in as a co-sponsor for the pop-up. “It took a year and a half of planning, but customers and New Balance were blown away,” Point says. That location eventually evolved into a permanent CNCPTS store, which later moved to its current spot on University Place near NYU.

In 2016, CNCPTS opened an outpost in Dubai, followed soon after by stores in Beijing and Shanghai. “We became global, which is a dream I always had,” Hassan says. “The strength of the brand had been established; customers in those cities understood what to expect when they came into our stores.” Hassan believes Riyadh is the natural next step for CNCPTS. “It’s an up-and-coming market, and there’s a huge following in sneakers and streetwear culture.”

There are other cities on Hassan’s radar, so stay tuned. His drive to grow CNCPTS remains as strong as ever, through new locations, collabs, brands, categories…whatever the target consumer craves and, more importantly, doesn’t yet know they will crave. Hassan, the curator in chief, is on the job with the rest of his team assisting in every step of the way. That’s CNCPTS in a nutshell: Never reacting. Always staying ahead of the curve and creating new markets—just as it did when it was the first to merchandise luxury brands like Gucci and Balenciaga alongside Vans, Nike, and snowboards by Burton. Hassan dreamt it and built it, and consumers have been shopping CNCPTS ever since.

“If there’s a will, there’s a way,” Hassan says. “If you believe in yourself and trust your instincts, then nothing is impossible.”

Hit Parade

The roster of CNCPTS collabs is deep and all-star worthy.

In 2006, CNCPTS was one of a few select sneaker boutiques invited to take on New Balance’s Super Team 33 retro jogger—their first collaboration as a brand. It was a real dud.

“It wasn’t our best shoe, for sure,” says CNCPTS Creative Director Deon Point. “It was humbling; we could have done a lot better.”

That first swing (and miss) was a great learning experience, though. It only made the team hungrier to knock it out of the park on the next chance. And, boy, did it ever with the 2008 Nike SB Dunk Low/CNCPTS Red Lobster, considered by many sneaker purists to be one of the greatest collabs ever. (That version in original packaging is priced at $12,000 on StockX; a follow-up Yellow version, of which only 44 pairs were made, was recently priced at $85,000.)

Success, though, wasn’t preordained. The pressure was on the CNCPTS team to prove it had the creative muscle to make a meaningful collab so leading brands would partner with them going forward. Rather than just design a shoe that fused luxury, Boston, and streetwear, Hassan raised the bar with lobster trap-themed packaging complete with claw cracker, fork, bib, and rubber bands around the toe boxes. They also put the word out about an impending sneaker drop, which led to hundreds of kids camping out in front of the store for days waiting to buy this yet unseen shoe. The buzz grew to a boil. This was no longer just a sneaker. This was an event.

“Tarek loved the shoe, but said we had to do something else,” Point recalls. “I suggested a billboard. He came up with the packaging. No one was thinking along those lines back then. All the bells and whistles we put into that collab story left no stone unturned, and when it all came to fruition, it was a massive hit.”

“We lost money on the project, even though we sold out in seconds,” Hassan says. “But the story we created behind that shoe put us on the map. I knew that the world had to see this shoe. It wasn’t about the volume. We were making a statement about what CNCPTS could do.”

The Lobster series, now in its fifth iteration, did just that. The CNCPTS team has been knocking it out of the park on a regular basis for years. A few home runs include: Nike Kyrie 6 Khepri (2019) and Air Max 1 Far Out (2022), Asics Gel Respector Coca and 8-Ball (2015), Birkenstock Boston Felt (2013) and Kyoto City Connection (2023), Vans Old Skool Rat Hunter (2014), New Balance 997 Rosé (2014) and 999 Kennedy (2017), Mephisto Match (2017) and Apple (2019), Sorel Joan of Arctic (2009), Red Wing 8820 (2016), Timberland Black Epi Leather 6-inch (2009), and Sperry Dawn to Dusk (2024). CNCPTS has also collaborated with Canada Goose, Arc’teryx, and New Era on coats, jackets, bags and hats respectively as well as teamed up with Burton on snowboards and Alien Workshop on skateboards. To date, the number of collabs is in the hundreds. But the team, headquartered on two floors on Boylston St., never rests on its laurels. The next collab and activation must be bigger, better, and bolder. The bar must be raised on creativity, uniqueness, and excitement every time. The overriding goal is to outdo itself to keep CNCPTS at the crest of the streetwear wave.

“What I learned the most from Tarek is that when it’s time to swing, we always swing big,” Point says. “We just keep trying to crack the piñata again and again to make the biggest statement for our brand, our partners, and our customers. It’s an insatiable appetite for finding what can we do next to shake the market up.” Adds Hassan, “It’s all about the next one. We never sit back and say we’re done. It’s about what we’re doing next; what can we do differently. CNCPTS as a brand never remains in place for too long.” 

Blood Brothers

Tarek Hassan and Deon Point are a dream team.

There is NO “i” in team. Atop most great business success stories there is a key figurehead (think Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, Tom Ford) and a team of talented people working underneath to help bring the vision to life. Oftentimes, this structure includes a consigliere—a right hand man for the leader to trust and ensure his directions get carried out. It’s that way at CNCPTS. Founder and CEO Tarek Hassan has Deon Point, creative director and 20-year veteran of the company, as his trusted lieutenant.

“I’m usually the voice of reason on expenses and will warn him if we’re in danger of losing money on a collab activation,” Point says. “Whereas Tarek is the one always pushing to take it to the next level, focused on the long-term benefits to the CNCPTS brand. We make a great team.”

Will Campbell, senior director of sales for Converse and previously with Nike, has collaborated with the CNCPTS team for 15 years and pinpoints the chain’s success to Tarek and the entire team. “Tarek is an industry icon, but his legacy is not simply the stores and products he’s sold, it’s the people he has around him,” he says. “A great leader surrounds himself with a great team, and T has built a team of the best of the best.”

How the team of Hassan and Point came together only adds to the chemistry. Hassan hails from Beirut and Point from the gritty streets of Brockton, MA. Point, as a teen, made regular pilgrimages to Harlem to find the latest kicks. Meanwhile, Hassan was building out his destination sneakers-meets-streetwear-meets-luxury emporium. Point became a regular customer at CNCPTS in 2001. The two developed a bond over the latest streetwear trends.

Hassan would often hold sneakers for his preferred customer. Point finally ditched his construction gig to work full-time at CNCPTS.

Hassan can’t recall exactly when Point went full-time. It just evolved organically. “We got along, we had similar tastes in fashion, and he understood the sneaker world very well,” he says.

Point says he and Hassan had a sit-down. While construction paid the bills and he was fortunate to be in the union, Point had a genuine passion for sneakers and fashion. And he could learn a lot from Tarek about retailing, marketing, and branding.

“If I was changing out of filthy construction clothes and washing up in the back to work there part-time, clearly I liked something about this business,” Point says.

In the years since, the two have held a running discourse on what to do next and, whatever the decision, to make it a memorable one. Hassan and Point, the visionary and the streetwear purist, balance each other well. For example, when Hassan said CNCPTS was going to do a collab with Birkenstock in 2013, Point initially thought the idea was way off-brand. “We argued for a while like brothers do. I thought we’d get a ton of flak from our core customers,” he recalls. “But Tarek has that vision. He was way ahead on that trend. People just want comfortable shoes.”

Tecnica Moon boots was another example. In 2002, Hassan saw that classic boot as an ultimate statement in Italian ski luxury. But from Point’s perspective, it didn’t exist on the streets where he came from. Same goes for Ugg and Red Wing boots. Again, Hassan was ahead of the curve on what would become huge trends. “He’d wear it, then start selling it, and then everyone would be wearing it,” Point says. “I realized early on that Tarek really knew what he was doing. That’s why CNCPTS is so unique.”

The partnership and friendship have grown stronger over the years. Both are perfectionists and workaholics, in a good way. “We’re family now. I’m the one who can give him advice he might not want to hear, and vice-versa, but that’s ultimately better for the CNCPTS brand and product,” Point says.

The duo continues to write the sneakers-meets-streetwear-meets-luxury playbook. “There was no job description for a collaborator for a sneaker boutique, nor were there social media execs, and agencies didn’t get what we were trying to do,” Point says. “So we did a lot of it ourselves, building the CNCPTS brand every step of the way.” He has no regrets. “It’s been a fun and wild ride,” he says. “Do right by the brands we partner with and our consumers, and we know the CNCPTS brand will only grow stronger.”

Hassan isn’t about to take his foot off the gas pedal now. “I’m very competitive,” he says. “It’s my nature to be distinctive and ever-changing. I’m just blessed to have a team of very talented people to help me get us there.”

Talking Tarek

What makes Tarek Hassan one-of-a-kind.

Tarek Hassan is an icon in the sneaker and comfort segments after 40 years of retailing, advising, and partnering with leading brands. His name is also widely known in the luxury tier and, increasingly, the apparel world. As much as CNCPTS is a brand, so is Tarek.

And for good reason. Tarek knows his stuff. But he’s the furthest thing from a know-it-all. He never forces his opinion on anyone. In fact, he often finishes statements with his favorite turn of phrase, “Correct?” He’s not saying he’s right. He’s asking if you agree. It’s classic Tarek. A fashion retailer, by definition, is a curator. And Tarek is that to a T. He is a perpetual student of retail and fashion. He’s always learning, always eager see what’s next on the horizon, always on the hunt for the next big trend. And that’s fine with him.

RG Barry Brands CEO Bob Mullaney, who first got to know Tarek in the mid ’90s and is now a close friend, has attended many conferences with him over the years. These events often feature a lot of “experts” espousing their wisdom, particularly on what brands need to do. “Tarek mostly stays quiet, not having to advocate,” he says. “He focuses on what he needs to do, and the rest takes care of itself.”

Gary Champion, president of Clarks Americas, wholeheartedly agrees. “Tarek has quietly become one of the leading voices in the fashion industry. He is humble in the way that he operates, but confident in his abilities to attract his target consumer.” Champion, whose working relationship with Tarek dates back to the late ’80s, adds, “It’s been a pleasure watching Tarek grow as a person and see him transform his retail visions into successful endeavors.”

Tarek is very balanced, says Felix Zahn, director of merchandising for Ecco Americas. “He’s never forgot where he came from, recognizes the past, has as a great understanding of the present, and a clear vision of the future,” he says, noting that such an all-around bundle is extremely rare. “Having this great gift allows him to constantly find and pick the next winner.” Speaking of which, Zahn says his all-time favorite Ecco/CNCPTS collab was the exclusive U.S. launch of the Exostrike boot in 2018. “It was very progressive at the time, featuring a highly futuristic look, Dyneema-fused leathers, and our latest Fluidform platform innovation,” he says. “I knew that Tarek was the right partner for this and would help us reach consumers who typically didn’t interact with Ecco. We sold out within days and, shortly after, followed up on the next version with CNCPTS.”

Will Campbell, senior director of sales for Converse and previously with Nike, cites a number of “incredible” collabs over the 15 years he has been involved in with CNCPTS. A few personal favorites include the Nike Lobster series, Converse Southern Flame series, which paid homage to the history of basketball in New England, and Nike SB Dunk High When Pigs Fly, which he believes was “ahead of its time and exemplified a wonderful sense of humor and a depth of storytelling.” The one constant through all the collabs: Tarek’s magic touch. “He and the team have done an incredible job amplifying brand stories, whether it’s through in-person retail experiences, brand activations, and collabs,” he says. “They stand out like no other in that regard.”

That distinction applies to CNCPTS physical stores, as well. Alex Ditmas, a designer of several CNCPTS stores, including the latest on Boston’s Newbury St., says much of that stems from Tarek’s steadfast belief in brick-and-mortar—something increasingly rare in the “fast-food digital era.” Tarek, in contrast, believes in the human connection that a store can foster. “No one cares for the community like Tarek does,” he says. “This is why the spaces we’ve designed together aren’t traditional stores. They always seek to bring the community together through spaces to sit and discuss, to share the passion for sneakers and music, to share a coffee…to share a moment. This is why he’s a retailer like no other; his approach is from the heart.”

Tarek possesses immense industry knowledge. Call him the Oracle of Boston. “When I first joined Birkenstock (2013), Tarek was one of the first I engaged to really determine how much bandwidth this brand may have beyond our heritage consumer,” says David Kahan, president of Birkenstock Americas, noting their relationship begins years before during his Rockport days. “He knew Birkenstock better than I did at that time, and his guidance and insight helped shape the path to where we are today.”

Similarly, Mullaney recalls the time he was studying for his MBA degree while working as a sales manager at Timberland. Watching Tarek launch CNCPTS inside the back of The Tannery was like earning a PhD in retail. “I learned quite a lot observing his actions and lessons,” he says. “It encouraged me to be a student of consumer behavior.”    

Kahan considers himself and Tarek enteral students of branding. “We both share a real dedication to doing what’s right, serving the customer by exciting them with innovative product,” he says. “More than anything, we’re brand people. We share the same belief that brands have equity and must be nurtured at all times.” 

What's In a Name?

When people are asked about Tarek Hassan, the answer is a whole lot.

“Cool, organic, consumer research, and savvy.”
—Bob Mullaney, CEO, RG Barry Brands

“Pioneer.”
—Scott Shaefer, CEO, Zappos

“Sage. He’s a kind, humble, creative, and visionary person with a deep understanding of the world.”
—Felix Zahn, director of merchandising, Ecco Americas

“Creative!”
—Rusty Hall, CEO, Mephisto USA

“Taste. Creativity. Vision. Trust. Brother.”
—David Kahan, president, Birkenstock Americas

“Kind, creative, passionate, thoughtful, committed.
—Gary Champion, president, Clarks Americas

“Legendary, passionate, and fun. Correct?”
—Will Campbell, senior director of sales, Converse

Read the Original Article Here: https://footwearplusmagazine.com/plus-awards/vision-quest/