Tony Melillo has brought in some business back-up to help him grow his elevated essentials line ATM, which is getting new life under the ownership of Steven Madden.
Jim Kuerschner recently joined the brand as president, bringing with him experience from Kule, where he was also president, as well as Inditex and Carolina Herrera.
Melillo has been working to reboot the business since Madden bought it in late 2024.
“I really spent a lot of time making it visually look the way it needs to look,” he said. “The next step is to make sure we execute.”
Enter Kuerschner, who Melillo said could help the brand grow its direct-to-consumer presence and work with wholesale accounts.
“I needed someone to execute, someone next to me to make those deals,” he said. “That ain’t me. I don’t want to be part of that. I want to be part of making sure we look right. I’m super excited to see how he can move the needle here.”
Kuerschner is ready.
“The brand was typically very wholesale-driven and an incredible T resource for a lot of stores,” Kuerschner said. “Our vision moving forward is to continue with that product, but to layer in some additional products to just round out that world.
“Tony has true authority and style and fashion in a way that a lot of brands simply don’t have,” he said. “My job is to leverage that and frankly to widen the aperture of the people who know the brand. We have a very, very loyal customer base and I think we’re also known for our signature slub jersey. But the strategy moving forward is to elevate some other categories and to get our current customers into more than just that slub jersey.”
