Just one day into his new role as global marketing and creative director for Warrior Sports, Sacha Ouimet received a phone call from the agent of a high-profile NHL player welcoming him to the organization.
For a Montreal guy who grew up aspiring to be a pro hockey player, that phone call felt like the ultimate validation of his new role said Ouimet, who called the role a “key milestone” in his career in a LinkedIn post.
Ouimet has spent the past two years as executive creative director of The Hive, but his new role with Warrior marks a return to the world of sports marketing—where he spent nearly three years as global creative director for CCM Hockey from 2019 to 2022. His time with CCM coincided with the launch of its “All Out” brand platform, which he led.
While he will continue to work out of Montreal, Ouimet’s job will also take him to Warrior’s headquarters in Detroit, as well as the Boston offices of its parent company, New Balance. He will also oversee a team based out of Munich.
The Hive won the global remit for Warrior last year, which ultimately led to the company recruiting Ouimet to join its ranks. While marketing and creativity fall under his purview, he will also play a role in everything from its products to the selection of sports ambassadors.
While at The Hive, he became accustomed to speaking with the CMO and CEO of clients like BRP to gain a better understanding of how their business works, skills that will benefit him in his new role with Warrior. “I like to talk creativity, but I also like to talk about Excel spreadsheets and numbers,” he said.
And while Warrior is a challenger brand to the likes of CCM and Bauer, it does have deals in place with several prominent NHL stars, including the Boston Bruins’ Brad Marchand, the Detroit Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin, and the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl.
Ouimet said he relishes Warrior’s “underdog” role, but noted that the company has been putting significant investment behind its marketing as it looks to evolve its brand. “To be an underdog is always good because you can [take risks] and surprise the market,” he said.
His first objective is to firmly establish the brand’s identity. “Right now, Warrior has a good personality, but we make sure we have a clear identity, a clear vision and a brand purpose,” he said.
“So that when people go to the store and look at a rack of sticks, instead of saying ‘I’ll take the one that’s cheapest,’ they say, ‘I’m choosing Warrior because it’s the [brand] that relates to me.’ It’s easier said than done, but that’s my main goal for the coming year.”
For inspiration, he looks to New Balance’s evolution from a maker of “dad-shoes” into a $5 billion brand that has earned significant cultural cachet through its collaborations with the likes of streetwear brand Aimé Leon Dore and Chicago artist Joe Freshgoods.
"New Balance broke through from being primarily a running brand, into one that is also culturally relevent," he said.
"The first question [Warrior] asked was ‘How are we going to be relevant to culture, and this is something that’s key for me,” said Ouimet. “We can be something different that when people see our brand, they say ‘Did you see what they did?’
The good news for Warrior, he said, is that those kinds of brand traits don’t currently exist within the current framework of hockey and lacrosse.
“My idea is to make the needle move to the position [where people say] ‘Oh, something is happening.”
The Hive’s chief strategy officer, Dustin Rideout, told Campaign that a search for Ouimet’s replacement is currently underway.
“We’re incredibly proud of Sacha and thrilled for his new appointment,” he said via email. “He went from a co-worker to a friend, and now he becomes our client with his new role at Warrior. Sacha is obviously a talented marketer, but his contributions are felt even more on the human side. Empathy and kindness are his superpowers and that’s the impact he’s made on us as a company.”
