Changing of the guard for Sports Authority’s merchandising leadership

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Sports Authority has named Stephen Binkley as the company’s new CMO. He replaces EVP, chief merchant and CMO Greg Waters, who has decided to resign his position to pursue personal interests after 24 years at the company.

During his tenure at Sports Authority, Waters held several leadership roles, including EVP, marketing and merchandising, COO and SVP of store operations.

“Greg has been a great asset to Sports Authority and we thank him for his contributions to the company,” commented Michael Foss, CEO for Sports Authority. “He has played an important role in strengthening company operations and in our brand’s evolution overall. Greg will be spending the next several months aiding in the transition and we thank him for that. We wish Greg the best in all of his future endeavors.”

In his new role, Binkley will be responsible for managing merchandising and private brands for Sports Authority. He was previously SVP of merchandising and softlines. He possesses more than 25 years of retail, apparel, sportswear, footwear and hard goods experience. Prior to the position of SVP of merchandising, he held positions as SVP, misses sportswear at Kohl’s, and VP, home store at Macy’s.

“Stephen possesses significant expertise in merchandising and has shown great leadership in his time at Sports Authority,” added Foss. “Stephen is an industry veteran with a proven ability to make strategic decisions and execute to drive business results and we are excited to have him in this new role.”

Binkley, along with chief marketing officer Paul M. Okimoto will report directly to Foss.

Headquartered in Englewood, Colo., Sports Authority is one of the nation’s largest full-line sporting goods retailers with more than 475 locations across 43 states. Sports Authority offers a broad range of sporting goods from leading brands.