Fila kicks off brand revamp with Haider Ackermann collab

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On Thursday night in Manchester, England, droves of young people crowded outside Mayfield Depot to get a glimpse of the action surrounding Fila’s presentation with cult luxury designer Haider Ackermann.

The collection marks Ackermann’s first foray into sportswear, complete with pastels, neons, racing stripe leggings and windbreakers. The Colombian designer unlocked a new design language for Fila and surprised industry fans who are used to his own brand of experimental tailoring, with looks spanning swimwear, running gear and athleisure. When Fila and Ackermann announced the collaboration in September, both sides acknowledged it was an unlikely tie-in. The Paris-based designer is known for his avant-garde, technical and sophisticated approach to fashion.

“In the beginning we thought it was never going to happen because Haider is so far from Fila,” says Luca Bertolino, Fila’s head of global strategic marketing. “But, from the very first call we knew there was interest. The good thing with collaborations in general is that you explore ideas that are not in your comfort zone, which create magic.” Fila’s collaboration with Fendi in 2018 formed the blueprint for the brand’s luxury tie-ins, he adds.

Fila collabs are temporary “marriages”, where the identities of both brands are respected, says Fila Holdings CEO Kevin Yoon. “When this translates into higher brand positioning and can also be conveyed into commercially successful stories, it means we have a perfect match. This is what happened with Fendi or Y/Project and we will now see it with the Haider Ackermann capsule.”

After a challenging pandemic, supply chain delays and retail closures, Fila Holdings Group revenues reached 3.8 trillion Korean won ($2.8 billion) in 2021, up 21.3 per cent on the previous year and up 10 per cent on pre-pandemic levels in 2019, signalling a rebound for the sportswear label. The company has set ambitious goals to reposition itself globally and elevate its apparel to be closer to the premium segment. Currently, it’s stocked in mass market stores like Dick's Sporting Goods in the US and JD Sports in the UK, with price points comparable to sportswear giants like Adidas or Nike. Luxury collaborations like the Ackermann collection are a central tenet of the plan to elevate and refresh the label, putting it more in line with its biggest competitors.

“Collaborations are a key part of our strategy to build a stronger, bigger and more loyal brand tribe,” says Yoon. “It is definitely our ambition to create an ongoing consistent presence in the upper distribution tier, at selected multi-brand stores.”

“Designer collaborations bring brand equity to Fila,” echoes Bertolino. “It shows that the brand can stand that test of time. Redefining and elevating the brand happens with collaborations first.”

Ackermann’s own label launched in 2002 has stalled over the last few years — though he doesn’t disclose sales figures, the website closed last year. Save for frequently dressing megastars Timothée Chalamet and Tilda Swinton on the red carpet, it’s predominantly available to buy at outlet Yoox, with a handful of pieces available on Farfetch. In January, Ackermann will release a couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier, as part of its guest designer programme. Ackermann was also appointed creative consultant for Belgian brand Maison Ullens last year. “I came to this collaboration from a moment that was quite silent,” Ackermann says, “so it was nice to find the electricity and the speed and the energy in this collection. That was all I needed.”

Bertolino is now on the hunt for a new global creative director to bring more design acumen to Fila on a long-term basis. “We want to create a consistent, elevated image of Fila globally, which currently varies across markets,” he says. The brand was interested in extending the partnership with Ackermann but it didn’t work out due to “different agendas”. “We're looking for someone that has the credibility that we need to stay consistently in the highest tiers of distribution. We want to be in the stores where Nike exclusive products are.”

Fila wants to win young consumers by playing with nostalgia in its collaborations. “When external designers come to our archive, they find some sort of a magic that comes from the era, the 1970s, when the brand was born,” he says. (Fila was originally launched in 1911 as a textile shop but the brand moved into sportswear in the 70s.)

From 2017-2019, Fila saw an uplift in sales due to a resurgence of the Disruptor 2 shoe, a chunky sneaker style reissued from the brand’s archive that became popular with young consumers. This was a springboard to redefining the label, says Bertolino, however, it was a short-lived opportunity that the brand had to build on. “It’s tough to benefit from a trend for longer than 18 [or] 24 months, of course,” Bertolino says. “I think long term that was more of a brand booster than a product booster in itself. Because it really brought Fila back to the attention of a younger consumer.”

Sportswear brands do luxury collaborations for two reasons: press mentions and the hope that fans of the luxury house become fans of the brand, says Matt Powell, vice president and senior industry advisor on sports for market research firm The NPD Group. However, collaborations are often fraught with risk, he adds. “We’ve seen in recent weeks that collaborations, particularly on the celebrity side, can be fraught with peril for brands,” he says, in a nod to Ye’s firing from Adidas and Balenciaga.

The challenge is not to fall into the trap of going after the latest TikTok phenomenon, Bertolino says. “That changes overnight. We are really looking into hiring someone that can recreate and refresh that brand image through products that were created 50 years ago that were so defining for the era, for the market and for the brand.” That said, social media reach is one of the key metrics for success for the Ackermann collaboration. “We’re going to do some social media listening over the next few days to understand what people think,” he says. The Fila hashtag has over 740 million views on TikTok. Ackermann consulted the Fila archive to inspire the collection, the designer says, which is evident in some of the technical silhouettes.

China is a blueprint for success in repositioning Fila, Bertolino adds, as the brand launched in the market around 10 years ago and could redefine itself completely. “It’s a fantastic success story — they had the luxurious position where they could choose where to start from. And obviously they decided to go for the very top,” Bertolino says. In China, the average price of Fila goods is higher than Nike and Adidas and closer to premium labels, he says. And Fila is now stocked in 2,500 mono-brand stores with sports retailer Anta.

Looking ahead, Fila will work on further collaborations with designer brands that are not necessarily big names, to build brand authority, Bertolino says. “Slightly more niche names can help us expand our knowledge and our experience and allow us to go out of our comfort zone,” he says. “Fila has a very defined brand identity and a rich archive. We want to leverage that strength.”

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