Bob Mullaney, CEO of RG Barry Brands
Ask Bob Mullaney what he is most hopeful for and in addition to world peace, a cure for cancer, and all four of Boston’s major sports teams winning championships, the CEO of RG Barry Brands (RGB) cites the enormous opportunities that lie ahead for the Columbus, OH-based company. But it’s not just the game-changing size and revenue growth that he sees the multi-branded conglomerate (led by Dearfoams, Gola, and Baggallini as well as slipper licenses for Clarks and Timberland) reaching over the coming decade. His expectations are much bigger in scope and rooted firmly in strategy.
“We want RGB to be where exceptional brands and people want to join because they know they will grow further here,” Mullaney says, noting it’s all about the platform. “We’re building an organization capable of repeatedly growing great consumer brands that are consistent with the executive competencies we’re establishing internally, be it vision, strategic action, using culture as a lever, developing leaders, and aligning people around shared values. It’s not about any individual product or brand; it’s building an organization that can adapt to whatever comes next—sustaining quality growth for the next generation.”
This mission kicked into high gear last November with RGB’s acquisition of longtime slippers manufacturer Green Market Services, led by its Timberland and Clarks licenses. Then, in January, RGB’s parent company, Marubeni Corporation, acquired Britain’s Jacobson Group, owner of Gola, Ravel, Lotus, and Frank Wright, and licensee of Lonsdale and Dunlop. RGB’s brand portfolio not only mushroomed in size, but it also includes new categories as well as a much broader international footprint. RGB is thinking and acting big.
“RGB is deliberately transforming an almost 80-year-old American company into a broader global consumer platform, focused on quality growth by preserving and strengthening the capabilities and values that have made us endure, while stimulating progress through new brands, categories, and geographies,” Mullaney explains, adding, “We’re choosing strategic boldness rather than allowing uncertainty to paralyze us, and investing most importantly in the organization itself.”
Mullaney describes 2026 as an onboarding year. His primary focus has involved making sure these acquisitions are absorbed seamlessly and that the cultures align as the two acquisitions have brought new people, brands, geographies, and capabilities into the fold. Much of the work has involved getting everyone to think less in terms of “us and them” and increasingly as one company with shared capabilities, values, processes, and ambitions. It’s a lot synchronize but it’s the linchpin to sustained success. “There’s an old saying that culture eats strategy for breakfast, and acquisitions are where you really discover that,” Mullaney offers. “So, for example, we want to preserve what made Jacobson successful while bringing the best capabilities of RGB to them and vice versa. The objective isn’t for Jacobson to become RGB or RGB to become Jacobson. Eventually, we want people thinking as one organization.”
Mullaney’s working mantra is to “preserve the core, stimulate progress, generate quality growth, and build the platform.” The core is led by Dearfoams (who is also celebrating its 80th anniversary next year) and overall slipper expertise; Baggallini’s bag/travel prowess; consumer understanding; retailer relationships; sourcing; and operational excellence. “Green Market Services strengthens our core by adding Timberland and Clarks slippers to a capability where RGB already has decades of expertise,” he says, noting that stimulating progress is where Jacobsen, led by the 121-year-old Gola brand, comes into play. “That takes RGB somewhere meaningfully new—athletic/sport lifestyle footwear, international markets, new consumers and retailers, and a global organization. Both create growth, but they create it differently.”
At a time when many in the industry are playing it safe amid extremely turbulent conditions, RGB’s approach might appear to be aggressive. Mullaney, however, sees it as ambitious, disciplined, and strategically bold. It’s a big difference, he says. “We’ve been talking internally for the last year or so about ‘Choosing Strategic Boldness Over Fear.’ Fear naturally focuses you on what you might lose. Strategic leadership has to acknowledge those risks but also focus the organization on what you have the opportunity to build.” Take tariffs, inflation, supply-chain disruption, and geopolitical uncertainty as examples. “You can respond by protecting everything you have and waiting for the world to become predictable again. But waiting for certainty isn’t a strategy,” Mullaney says. “For us, strategic boldness isn’t recklessness. It’s thoughtful action with a clear understanding of the risks and returns. That’s why our philosophy is quality growth—preserve and strengthen the aspects that make RGB special while continuing to stimulate progress. You can’t control uncertainty, but you can control whether you allow it to define your strategy.”
Mullaney says there are risks to this approach. The biggest internal one currently is complexity. RGB has more brands, countries, categories, customers, and people than it did 12 months ago. Growth can outrun an organization. “That’s why I’m spending so much time on building the RGB platform,” he says. “Do we have the right people, leaders, systems, processes, culture, decision rights, and data? The organization has to become more capable faster than the business becomes more complex.”
Another risk that companies often underestimate: becoming so focused on protecting what you have that you stop building what comes next. “That’s where strategic boldness comes into play,” Mullaney says. “We want to manage the downside intelligently while continuing to invest in the future. The rewards, if we get that balance right, are significant: a stronger, more diversified, and resilient global consumer platform with multiple engines of quality growth.”
So far, so good as Mullaney reports this year has been strong overall for RGB structurally and financially. Equally important, he says RGB is considerably stronger strategically than a year ago. “The exciting aspect of RGB today is it’s multiple growth engines rather than asking one brand to carry the company,” he says, adding that this is just the beginning. “If we do our jobs right, we’ll add two to four more brands over the next three to five years, if not sooner. We’re a nearly 80-year-old company that still has tremendous curiosity about what we can become.”
How’s the Jacobson integration going?
Really well. Jacobson brings us aspects we didn’t have at the same scale, which includes terrific footwear expertise, international capabilities, strong retailer relationships, and Gola. The acquisition goes back to wanting to stimulate progress. For example, it makes us much more international and takes us into athletic footwear category. Gola puts us into the sport-lifestyle space with an authentic brand that dates to 1905. It isn’t diversification simply for diversification’s sake. It extends capabilities we already had into Europe and other markets—categories and geographies where we see substantial opportunity. We believe there’s quality growth here for RGB.
How does the expanded portfolio make RGB a better retail partner?
We can solve more problems for our retail partners today. We have more tools to be a value-creating partner. We’ve got enormous expertise in slippers and comfort. We’ve got Baggallini in bags and travel. We now have Gola and the rest of the Jacobson portfolio. We have Timberland and Clarks in slippers. And we have international capabilities that allow us to think beyond the U.S. But breadth by itself isn’t a strategy. Retailers don’t need another big vendor. They need great product, consumer insight, reliability, speed, and people who understand their business. So our aspiration is to combine the capabilities and resources of a larger platform with the entrepreneurial accountability of a smaller company.
Gola headlines the Jacobson acquisition. What can retailers expect to see from that brand going forward?
We’re still in the early innings with Gola. First off, what attracts me is something that’s very difficult to manufacture: authenticity. Gola has genuine British sporting heritage, but the product feels completely relevant today because of a tremendous archive that’s deserving to be modernized. Our job isn’t to manufacture demand; we’re already seeing tremendous enthusiasm from consumers and retailers. Our job is to build the brand responsibly. Elevate it. Respect it. So you’ll see continued product innovation, stronger storytelling, thoughtful expansion in the U.S., and continued international development. I emphasize thoughtful. We’re not interested in putting Gola everywhere because we can. The quickest way to destroy a great brand is to confuse short-term distribution with long-term brand building. We’re building Gola for the next decade and beyond, not the next season.
How’s the Green Market Services integration going?
This is the other side of our Built to Last equation: preserve and strengthen the core. RGB has been in slippers for nearly 80 years. We understand comfort, construction, sourcing, merchandising, gifting, seasonality, and that consumer extraordinarily well. Green Market Services isn’t taking RGB somewhere unfamiliar. It has allowed us to leverage one of our greatest existing competencies across two extraordinary global brands: Timberland and Clarks. Our Timberland relationship is going exceedingly well. When the deal was first announced they told us they weren’t sure they would renew the license long term. I told them to just give us a year and let us show you what we can do and we’ll develop your trust. Well, they just renewed for 10 years. They’re actually bringing their design team into our organization.
Join the experts, so to speak.
Yes. Slippers is our wheelhouse. Some brands have one slipper wonders. Others think they can do it, and then they’re out of it quickly when it goes wrong. It’s not their priority and they move on to their higher priority items. In the meantime, they wasted capital, like on inventory. They don’t know the market nuances like we do. For example, with slippers its half buying for yourself and the other half is buying them as a gift. So understanding that purchase criteria—the decision-making of why they’re buying and where that is in the value equation—is critical to being successful. Then there’s a small thing called seasonality. That’s another market nuance that needs to be understood. Slippers are just a different animal than shoes. So, if you already know where to make them, how to make them, how and when to ship them, and at the right cost to make a profit, it’s a much safer bet.
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Yes. A lot of it is ego. That’s easy, I can do that… I find this sentiment often in private equity boardrooms and with consultants. They all have the answers to everything, but they’ve never actually done it. Then it goes astray because they make the wrong decisions. We’ve seen a lot of acquisitions in this industry go the wrong way. So it’s a two-way street. Any acquisition we make, we’ll listen to them closely and we expect the same. We can learn a lot from each other.
What’s the reasoning behind Dearfoams’ expansion into additional lifestyle categories?
Because Dearfoams’ equity isn’t just “slippers.” The equity is comfort. Slippers are where Dearfoams has expressed that promise extraordinarily well for generations. But consumers don’t compartmentalize their lives that way anymore. Home, work, travel, wellness, active, and leisure increasingly overlap. People expect comfort throughout their day. So the question isn’t: What else can we put the Dearfoams logo on? The question is: Where else does Dearfoams have the credibility to make someone’s life more comfortable? Comfort has moved from being an attribute to being an expectation. That’s a much higher bar, and that’s how we’re approaching the expansion. That includes sleepwear, hosiery and legwear, cold-weather and fashion accessories, base layers, casual activewear, women’s intimates, family-
oriented throws, and pet products. We’re following the consumer rather than forcing an extension. Similarly, distribution has to follow the consumer and these categories. Some extensions belong with existing Dearfoams partners, while others may open new doors. But quality growth matters more to us than simply maximizing doors.
Tariffs, inflation, wars…how is it all impacting RGB?
The environment is unquestionably difficult. But I’ve come to believe that complexity isn’t temporary anymore. It’s just the environment in which we now live. We’ve stopped asking when things will return to normal. Instead, we’re asking how do we build RGB to win when volatility is normal? That’s what we mean by Choosing Strategic Boldness Over Fear. We can’t control tariffs, currencies, freight, and geopolitics. But we’re not powerless either. We can diversify sourcing, improve forecasting, maintain disciplined inventory, price intelligently, deepen retailer partnerships, and create more optionality throughout the business. Strategic boldness is about concentrating less on predicting the future and more on building an organization capable of adapting to it. Resilience becomes a competitive capability. We’re not building a strategy that requires calm seas. We’re building a better ship.
Still, it’s not easy to stay the course when so much of the volatility is beyond your control.
The key is to know what doesn’t change and be incredibly adaptable about everything else. That’s another reason Built to Last resonates with me. Our values and our consumer orientation haven’t changed, nor has our commitment to product and our partners. But sourcing, technology, and distribution changes. Organizational structures and strategies can also change. So preserve the core and stimulate progress. That’s how you stay on course without standing still.
Might the consumer be reaching a breaking point on price increases—for everything?
There’s unquestionably a limit to what any brand can pass through on costs. And our responsibility isn’t simply to pass on cost increases to the consumer. We have to attack the entire value chain—sourcing, engineering, materials, logistics, inventory, assortment, and only then pricing. Ultimately the consumer decides whether we’ve created enough value to justify the price. Value matters enormously, but value and cheap are not synonyms. Consumers are asking is this worth it? That’s a healthy question for brands to ask. Across our portfolio, we need to earn that purchase through product, quality, functionality, design, and trust. Dearfoams is a great example because it provides an accessible, everyday comfort product from a brand consumers know. In a pressured environment, trusted brands matter.
How would you assess the current market overall?
Competitive, selective, and pretty exciting. The consumer isn’t necessarily saying, “I’m not buying.” She’s saying, “Convince me.” So is the product distinctive? Is the brand authentic? Is the value there? That’s tough for undifferentiated brands and commodity product. But it’s a great environment for brands that have authenticity, product relevance, and offer a genuine point of view. That’s one reason why I’m so enthusiastic about Gola, Baggallini, and Dearfoams Fireside Collection, for starters. Clarks also allows us to take the wellness and longevity trend to a new level with whitespace we see in the category, and Timberland allows for a premium slipper brand giving the consumer alternatives.
What’s your general take on AI?
I’m fascinated by it. I think we’re at the beginning of something even more transformational as the internet and bigger than ecommerce. We’re already using AI to analyze information, improve productivity, and accelerate decision-making. But that’s table stakes. The really interesting question isn’t how can AI help us do today’s work faster? It’s what can we do now that wasn’t economically or practically possible before? Consumer insight, forecasting, merchandising, product creation, marketing personalization, supply-chain decisions…we’re going to see extraordinary changes. And we’re encouraging our organization to experiment.
What about AI-related drawbacks?
The biggest danger may be intellectual laziness. Obviously there are also issues around privacy, accuracy, IP, and security. But I don’t want someone bringing me an AI-generated answer and assuming the thinking is finished. AI should make us more curious and more capable, not less thoughtful. Our philosophy is human plus technology. Judgment still matters. Taste matters. Experience matters. Relationships matter.
What are RGB’s biggest challenges near and long term?
Near term, it’s execution. Longer term, it’s organizational capability. We’ve created enormous opportunity. Now we have to deliver against it. The longer-term challenge is making sure RGB itself evolves as rapidly as the portfolio. The most important thing I can build is the company. Brands go through cycles. Products change. Consumer trends change. So it’s about building an exceptional platform (people, culture, capabilities, values, systems) that can repeatedly create and grow successful brands. RGB as a platform creates a performance framework that spans developing talent, translating vision into execution, and building a team-based culture.
What’s your take on the current state of retail—the good, the bad, and the ugly?
The good: great brands and retailers are getting better. They’re consumer-focused, data-driven, creative, and increasingly interested in true partnerships. The bad: mistakes are expensive. Inventory, pricing, and product mistakes get punished quickly. The ugly: everybody is dealing with about six different forms of uncertainty simultaneously. Still, I’m fundamentally bullish. Consumers haven’t stopped wanting great products. We’ve just got to give them a reason to buy ours.
Are you eying more acquisitions soon?
That’s absolutely part of our strategy, but we don’t have an acquisition quota. That’s how you make bad deals. We’re looking for strong brands, consumer equity, product credibility, good economics, cultural fit, and a reason RGB should be the owner. What capabilities can we bring that makes that business better? What does that business bring that makes RGB better? If we can’t answer both questions convincingly, we probably shouldn’t own it.
What are your top goals for 2027?
Next year needs to increasingly build platform potential and attain quality growth. Strengthen Dearfoams. Accelerate Baggallini. Build Gola thoughtfully. Scale Timberland and Clarks slippers. Capture the international capabilities that came with Jacobson. Build a roadmap to tap into the potential of the Lotus brand into the U.S. And, most importantly, continue bringing these organizations together so we’re leveraging one RGB platform rather than operating as a collection of separate companies. It’s also our 80th anniversary. There’s something wonderful about that, which is preserve the core and stimulate progress. We should celebrate the 80 years but spend even more time building the next 80.
Where do you envision RGB in three years?
I see a meaningfully larger, more global, and more diversified RGB. But size isn’t how I define the ambition. I want us to become one of the best homes in the consumer industry for great brands and great people. A place where an entrepreneur says, “If I’m going to entrust my brand to somebody, RGB can take it somewhere I can’t take it myself.” Where a licensor says, “Those people will care for my brand like it’s their own.” Where retailers say, “RGB makes us better.” And where talented people say, “That’s a place where I can build something and have a great career.” If we accomplish all that, we’ll certainly be much larger. We’ll probably have added more brands and be much more international. But the greatest thing we’ll have built is RGB itself.
If I say RG Barry Brands, what words comes to mind first?
Consumer-driven. Data-driven. Entrepreneurial. Ambitious. Global.
What do you love most about your job, and has it changed over the years?
I love building, and what’s changed is what I’m building. Earlier in my career, I thought building meant creating great products, brands, and businesses, and I still love all of that. But as my career progressed, I’ve realized the bigger opportunity is building people, teams, culture, and, ultimately, an organization capable of doing extraordinary things. That’s the biggest evolution in how I think about my contribution. A great product can have an incredible season. A great brand can have an incredible decade. But if you build a truly great organization, it can keep creating those things generation after generation. That’s what makes this stage at RGB so exciting.
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