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Thalmic Labs hires former Apple retail lead

The team leader that transformed Apple Inc.’s retail stores into a gadget tutorial workshop is now going to be the director of retail at Waterloo, Ont.-based Thalmic Labs.

The wearable technology company is the maker of the Myo armband, which detects the electrical activity of arm muscles and translates them into computer input, so users can control technology using gestures. Thalmic was founded in 2012 and is currently selling its Myo Armband for $199 USD on its website. It’s had a consumer version available since 2015.

Eng worked at Apple for nearly 10 years, and led the team that created the Genius Bar, the Today at Apple classes, and youth programming initiatives such as Apple Field Trip and Apple Camp.

“As we look to create new categories of consumer technology devices, it’s no longer enough to put products on the shelf of a store and hope that customers show up and fall in love with them,” writes Thalmic co-founder Stephen Lake in a Medium blog post. “To succeed, we need to build a great customer experience around the product that covers all customer ttouch points retail, e-commerce, support, etc.”

Eng will be leading Thalmic’s retail team out of its San Francisco office. Thalmic expanded to the California office in September 2016, when it hired chief marketing officer Tara Kriese, a former Samsung marketing executive.

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