American Apparel Hires Chief Sales Officer

American Apparel (Los Angeles) has hired Marty Staff as chief sales development officer. Staff is a former ceo of JA Apparel Corp. and Hugo Boss USA, reports Women’s Wear Daily.

“His first mission will be, how do we get more dollars through the existing assets and systems that we have,” Dov Charney, chairman and ceo of American Apparel, told WWD. The company has been plagued by mounting debt and declining sales, in addition to controversy generated by Charney.

Staff says one of the first sales initiatives will be to explore the possibility of wholesaling American Apparel product to other retailers. The company now wholesales to the imprintable T-shirt industry. It also leases two shop-in-shops, in Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Selfridges in London, which have been performing well.

Staff joins other recent American Apparel hires, including former Old Navy and Wet Seal executive John Luttrell as executive vp and chief financial officer, and Tom Casey, formerly cfo of Blockbuster, as acting president.