ECCO CEO Thomas Gogsig Steps Down After 14 Years as Danish Shoemaker Searches for Successor

ECCO, the family-owned Danish footwear and leather group, has confirmed that Thomas Gogsig has resigned as chief executive after 14 years with the company, a tenure that began on the factory floor and ended in the corner office during one of the most turbulent periods in the brand’s recent history. The board will look for an external candidate, a signal that ECCO wants fresh perspective as it restructures manufacturing and confronts a difficult earnings picture.

The departure was first reported by Danish news agency Ritzau, which received an email from ECCO confirming the decision. In that message, the board said it would continue working with the remaining management team until a replacement is appointed and expressed “sincere gratitude to Thomas Gogsig for his significant efforts, personal commitment and contribution to ECCO over 14 years, most recently as CEO.” It is a gracious exit line, but the context is anything but comfortable.

Gogsig’s career at ECCO reads like a case study in internal mobility. He joined in 2012 as a chemical engineer at ECCO Leather in Dongen, moved through research management, ran the innovation lab from 2014, and became Head of Applied Research in 2015. By 2021 he was Chief Operating and Data Officer, briefly served as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, and took the CEO role in November 2024. That he rose from leather chemistry to the top job speaks to a company that values operational depth — but it also means the incoming leader inherits a business in transition.

The numbers frame the challenge. ECCO’s 2025 annual report shows revenue of 1.41 billion euros, down 5.2% from 1.49 billion a year earlier. Profit before tax actually improved to 24.8 million euros from 5.1 million, yet the group still posted a net loss of 24 million euros, an improvement on the 37.6 million loss of 2024 but a loss nonetheless. For a brand that built its reputation on comfortable shoes and vertically integrated leather, a second consecutive year in the red is a clear mandate for change.

The bigger structural shift is in production. Following a fire accident, ECCO decided to discontinue leather operations at its Dongen tannery, choosing instead to supply its footwear business and selected external customers through its Asian tanneries. The company also closed its footwear factory in Martin, Slovakia, as part of broader restructuring and cost reduction. Those moves redraw ECCO’s manufacturing map and concentrate leathermaking in Asia at precisely the moment when supply-chain resilience and regional diversification are top of mind across the industry.

For tanneries, suppliers and retail partners, the leadership change raises immediate questions about strategy. Will ECCO double down on its direct-to-consumer push, accelerate the Asian leather integration, or rebuild its European manufacturing footprint? An external CEO brings no inherited assumptions, which can be exactly what a restructuring brand needs — or, if the search drags, a source of uncertainty for the very partners ECCO depends on.

What is unlikely to change is the brand’s commitment to owning its leather. ECCO has long been unusual among footwear makers for controlling tanning in-house, a capability that supports quality and margins. Whoever takes the helm will inherit that asset along with the losses, and the market will be watching whether the next CEO can convert ECCO’s manufacturing strength into the profitability its rivals in the premium segment take for granted.

For the leather supply chain, Gogsig’s exit arrives at an inflection point. ECCO has long been a rare example of a footwear brand that owns its tanning, and that vertically integrated model is now being tested by the shift of leathermaking to Asia and the closure of European capacity. The incoming CEO will inherit not just the losses but a manufacturing footprint in flux, and the market will judge the appointment on whether it can convert ECCO’s operational strengths into the profitability its premium positioning promises.

Source: Leather News — “ECCO CEO Thomas Gogsig resigns after 14 years with the company” (26 Oct 2026), https://leathernews.org/ecco-ceo-thomas-gogsig-resigns-after-14-years-with-the-company/