How Did 90S Restore Fila And Champion To "Turn Red"?

Fashion is falling into a nostalgic fashion. Although Mommy jeans, thick bottom sneakers and other popular styles in 90s were once considered out of date, they are now back at the forefront of fashion. For example, Italy sports brand Fila and American sports brand Champion are enjoying this new Renaissance.

With the rapid increase of the demand for nostalgic logo design, Fila's symbolic red, blue, white three tone and Champion embroidery "C" have attracted the public's attention.

"The retro wind is very popular in 90s, and Fila and Champion are the core," Matt Powell, senior sports analyst at NPD Group, a New York research company, said.

From 2016 to 2018, Fila's sales increased from $821 million to $2 billion 510 million, an increase of 205%. After acquiring all the shares of Fila from the American Sporting Goods Corp Sports Brands International, Fila Korea took over the brand that was born in Italy in 2017 and moved its headquarters to Seoul, Korea.

Excluding Champion sales in the US, sales in 2018 amounted to US $1 billion 360 million, up from around us $1 billion in 2017. The CEO of its parent company Hanesbrands also acknowledged in 2018 Q4 earnings conference call that the brand's performance was "stronger than expected".

In an interview with CNBC (US financial media), Matt Powell said that compared with Nike and Adidas, these two companies are small but unique brands, which are now winning and growing faster than the whole industry.

　　 Maintain brand characteristics

Neither Champion nor Fila have been changing rapidly with the market trend. Instead, they focus on their fashion concepts in the past century by taking advantage of the 90s fashion trend and improving their brand strategy.

Champion Susan Hennike, President of North America, said that for Champion, this includes digging deep into its history and picking out classic iconic styles, such as its very popular Reverse Weave series sweater, and then making some improvements for contemporary consumers.

In an interview with CNBC, Susan Hennike said: "in order to meet the needs of consumers for new functions, new styles and new processes, we have tried various kinds of graphic printing, dyestuffs and colors, trying to update them in a modern and reserved brand style."

Similarly, a spokesman for Fila Korea attributed the success of the company to its reinterpretation of brand history and tradition. The brand that led the brand revival is the Disruptor 2 launched by Fila, the upgraded version of its old shoes introduced in 1996. This shoe was named "best shoe model" (Shoe of the Year) in 2018 by Footwear News, the US footwear information website. Because the new sports shoes incorporate some modern elements to cater for the needs of contemporary consumers.

Kayla Marci, a market analyst at Edited, a retail analytics company, said that Fila's boots and Champion sportswear were very eye-catching under the influence of social media influence and the 90s trend.

　　 Rise of street clothes

Kayla Marci said in an interview with CNBC that the rise of street clothing has played a crucial role in the "reddling" of these brands.

The 2018 holiday outlook report released by consulting firm PwC (2018 Holiday Outlook) shows that the value of street clothing has exceeded 100 billion dollars, and nearly 71% of the millennial generation and 74% of Z generation consumers will wear this style.

In fact, the two sports brands have noticed this trend and have made cooperation with the famous street clothing brands. Champion and Supreme and Off-White all cooperate, Fila chose to join hands with BAPE.

Kayla Marci pointed out that these cooperation helped them reach different audiences and expanded their influence in the lucrative Street apparel market. She added: "this strategy provides the Z generation Street apparel consumers with the opportunity to buy these high-end brand products, which in turn has played a plus role in their fashion."

Can this momentum continue?

At present, Fila operates in more than 70 countries around the world. On the other hand, Champion has more than 150 stores in the world, most of which are located in Europe.

Kayla Marci points out that if you want to maintain your popularity and compete with major sports brands, Fila and Champion need to pay close attention to the changing needs and environment of consumers and make use of technology. She added: "the two brands have a long history and a wide range of customers, but they need to maintain the correlation between them. Although the retro trend is now in the pipeline, with the changing tastes of consumers, the brand must keep pace with the times and innovate.