Represent Appoints Priya De Souza CMO After Adidas, Casablanca Stints

Represent, the Manchester-founded fashion brand straddling streetwear and emerging luxury, named Priya De Souza its first Chief Marketing Officer. De Souza arrives from Casablanca, where she led marketing strategy, and previously spent five years across performance and brand marketing roles at Adidas. The appointment arrives as Represent crosses £100 million in annual revenue and expands physical retail footprint in Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo.

De Souza joins a brand that operates without traditional wholesale distribution, selling direct-to-consumer through owned e-commerce and seven physical stores. Represent generates roughly 65 percent of revenue through digital channels, with the remainder from retail locations opened since 2021. The company raised £8.5 million from Pembroke VCT and Raptor Group in 2022, deploying capital primarily into retail expansion and supply chain verticalization. De Souza reports directly to co-founders George and Michael Heaton, who retain majority ownership and operational control.

The CMO appointment signals infrastructure build-out ahead of a likely Series A raise in late 2025 or early 2026. Represent competes in the $12 billion global premium streetwear category, a segment adjacent to but distinct from traditional luxury fashion. The brand's average transaction value sits near £180, positioning it between mass streetwear labels and heritage luxury houses. De Souza's Adidas tenure included launching regional collaboration capsules and managing performance marketing budgets exceeding €15 million annually. Her Casablanca experience, though brief, offered exposure to a direct competitor operating at similar scale with comparable hybrid positioning. The hire suggests Represent is professionalizing marketing operations that have historically relied on founder taste and influencer seeding rather than structured channel strategy.

Operators should monitor Represent's retail expansion velocity through 2025. The brand currently operates stores in Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, and Manchester, with reported plans for New York and Paris openings by year-end 2025. Each location costs between £800,000 and £1.2 million to launch, including build-out and first-year operating expenses. Physical retail generates 18 to 22 percent higher average order values than e-commerce, according to comparable direct-to-consumer fashion brands, making store economics central to margin expansion. De Souza's remit likely includes unifying messaging across channels and reducing customer acquisition costs, which industry participants estimate run between £45 and £65 for Represent's core demographic of men aged 22 to 35. Any shift toward institutional advertising or traditional media spend would mark a departure from performance-only budgets and indicate preparation for broader consumer reach ahead of a capital event.

Represent has not disclosed hiring a Chief Financial Officer or Chief Revenue Officer, roles typically filled before or alongside CMO in venture-backed consumer brands approaching £150 million revenue. The company's cap table remains concentrated with founders holding majority stake, limiting liquidity pressure but also restricting access to strategic expertise from institutional investors. De Souza's ability to scale marketing without proportional budget increases will determine whether Represent sustains 40 percent-plus year-over-year growth or plateaus near current revenue levels.