Genesco Inc. announced the appointment of Chris Santaella as executive vice president and chief merchandising officer of the Journeys Group, effective February 5, 2024. Santaella replaces Pete Hicks who retired in October 2023. An accomplished and diversified global merchant, Santaella will lead Journeys?

buying, merchandising, planning and product strategies, building on Journeys foundation as a leader in teen fashion footwear retail and its brand mission of ?an attitude you can wear? self-expression inspired by youth culture. Santaella joins Journeys from Foot Locker, where he served more than three decades in successive roles, most recently as senior vice president and chief merchandising officer responsible for Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker and Champs Sports.

He led a 125-person global product organization which included divisional buying teams, global product development and product strategy teams. In this role he developed and implemented global product strategies to drive and diversify Foot Locker?s business model, including successfully expanding Foot Locker?s brand portfolio through a curated consumer focused approach. Santaella will report to Andy Gray, Journeys president. Santaella joins Genesco from Foot Locker where he served in a variety of senior leadership positions.

From his early career as a buyer and merchandiser, he rose through the ranks to vice president of footwear, responsible for buying for men?s Foot Locker and Lady Foot Locker, and subsequently to vice president and general merchandise manager for Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker and Footaction. He later took on the more senior roles of vice president and general manager North America for Kids Foot Locker, where he led the team across all functions including product, planning, allocation, marketing and finance, followed by vice president and chief product strategist for Foot Locker North America, where he was responsible for developing and leading a new merchant organization to transform a legacy product organization. Santaella rounded out his career at Foot Locker as senior vice president and chief product officer, and finally chief merchandising officer.