Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/121906
VIEW FROM THE TOP The Converse store on Newbury Street is a hipster style mecca. continued from page 51 V-neck sweater, with either neutral-colored Chucks or Jack Purcell sneakers. A Weymouth native, he grew up in Dedham in an Irish Catholic family with lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles close by. He attended Noble and Greenough School on a partial scholarship and played basketball and baseball. He describes himself as "an immensely average" student and athlete. "The family business, so to speak, was not part of my DNA." He spent his freshman year at Northeastern, but when his father got the head coaching job at the University of Connecticut, Calhoun transferred there. He recalls his college years as a "fun and flourishing" time for him. It was also where he met his wife, Jennifer, a petite blonde BELOW: Amy who happened to be the student manager of the Huskies Poehler and Tina Fey at the basketball team. They have been married for 20 years 2013 Golden and have three children. Globes. After graduating with a degree in psychology, Calhoun felt the tug to leave the region and step out from his father's shadow. "I got to see my dad on a national stage being very successful at something; very few kids get to do that," he says with a tinge of wistfulness. (He still talks to his father a couple of times a day.) "My dad is a self-made guy. The reason I left New England was to become a self-made person. I did it as a tribute to, and in honor of, my dad." Calhoun did a brief stint at Wilson in Chicago but got his first big break at Nike. He worked at the company's home office in Beaverton, Oregon, as a product manager for college basketball apparel. He loved the job and was good at it, but 52 "Boston is a very youthful, international, cosmopolitan place. It's a natural home for us."—JIM CALHOUN as his father continued winning national championships and became a household name, Calhoun wanted to succeed or fail on his own merits. He left Nike and took a job with Nautica in New York City, and from there he went to The Walt Disney Company, first as the London-based vice president of consumer products for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and then as executive vice president of global consumer products in Southern California. He later moved to San Francisco to work for Levi Strauss & Co. as president of Dockers. And then Nike called again: The company wanted him back. Calhoun was hired to be vice president and CEO of Hurley, Nike's surf brand, based in Costa Mesa, California. But about a month later, the company announced a series of executive shuffles that placed Calhoun in the position he holds today. It's good to be home, he says, and he expects it will be even better once Converse is ensconced in its new city digs. The 187,000-square-foot space in the North End will retain many of the characteristics of the company's location in North Andover, celebrating Converse history while looking to the future. The company is also seriously considering installing a second state-of-the-art music studio, which would offer free recording sessions for emerging artists. Its first studio, Converse Rubber Tracks, is in Brooklyn, New York. "If you ask me where I'm from, I'm from Boston— LEFT: Calhoun's even though I have lived outside of Boston for most father was an esteemed college of my life," Calhoun says. "Professionally, I am from basketball coach, Nike. I came of age there. I identify with the culture. seen here in a pair of Chuck Taylors. But this is where I'm from." BC PHOTOGRAPHY BY J.J. MILLER (JIM CALHOUN SR.); PAUL MAROTTA/GETTY IMAGES (STORE); GAVIN BOND/NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK (POEHLER AND FEY) RIGHT: BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 050-052_BC_SP_VFT_LATESPRING_13.indd 52 4/10/13 11:29 AM