What New Features Will Designers Bring To Moncler?

Moncler is working with two brands under LVMH to prepare for its Genius project. This project will continue to invite guest designers, and will issue a series of cooperation during the Milan fashion week in February, which will be sold in batches in the coming months.

The success of this model has inspired other companies in the industry and started trying similar strategies, so Moncler faces enormous pressure every year in developing new cooperation. In this case, JW Anderson and Rimowa are joined by Mate.bike, a Copenhagen based E-bike start-up company, and together with Veronica Leoni and Sergio Zambon 1952, Sandro Mandrino Grenoble, Sandro, Mate.bike, 1017, and Teng Yuan Hao together. These fashion series will be officially released on fashion week February 19th in Milan.

With the project running into its third year, Moncler CEO Remo Ruffini believes that the key to keeping the pattern fresh is not limited to clothing category. Although the past cooperation series also includes accessories, Rimowa and Moncler's luggage and suitcase series will be the first Genius series focusing on accessories, and cooperation with Mate.bike is a sign of expanding the scope of the project.

Ruffini said that suitcases and bicycles will be designed to be more interactive accessories. "We want consumers to express themselves more and talk to other people on the street," he said.

In recent years, the surge in Moncler revenue has been partly due to the heat generated by the Genius cooperation program, which has attracted many curious customers for the brand. Since the beginning of 2017, Moncler's share price has more than doubled, and the Italian company's market value has reached 10 billion euros, roughly equal to that of Burberry and Prada.

The success of the brand sparked rumors that it might be bought. Last December, it was reported that Moncler may be negotiating with the French luxury group. At that time, executives from both companies said that although there were frequent exchanges between the two parties, no deal or agreement was reached.

"I took everything into consideration, but we didn't reach an agreement," Ruffini told BoF. "I talked to many people in the past three to five years, but... No result. "

Ruffini, who joined Moncler as chairman and chief executive officer in 2003, has been the driving force behind the transformation of the brand. He has revived a legendary but struggling brand and has developed into an enterprise with annual sales exceeding 1 billion 400 million euros.

The company announced the Genius strategy in February 2018 to attract new customers and provide consumers with a constant sense of freshness.

Mate.bike founder, Rimowa advertising and designer Anderson photo source: BoF

"We are not part of a large group and are not part of the traditional fashion system, so we are a very unique brand in this luxury industry," Ruffini said. "We need more creativity, uniqueness and energy to compete with other brands that are much larger than us."

Facts have proved that this is a great success. Although only 10% of Moncler's sales came from the Genius series, the strategy introduced the brand to younger consumers. Now 40% of the brand consumers are Z generation and millennial generation. In addition, 50% of the consumers in the Genius series are the first buyers of the brand, and 40% of consumers buy other products of the brand. As a result, the company's revenue has maintained an upward trend.

Many brands including Tod's, Calvin Klein and Pucci are trying to imitate this practice. But Ruffini is not worried about that. He says that when your peers try to imitate a practice, it shows that this idea is very good.

This is not an easy implementation project. For brands, copying this mode is not easy.

"Replanning companies, adjusting design ideas and improving corporate culture will take a lot of time," he said. "It's not easy to keep the heat in this industry. We are really moving forward every month. This is not only a project, but also a journey. "

Ruffini believes that for Jonathan Anderson, joining the Genius project "does not need to hesitate at all", because this allows his brand to learn how to work in Moncler.

Anderson, who worked with UNIQLO, Converse and Topshop, said he had found new inspiration for the next men's clothing series from his previous design experience, something he never did in any other collaborative project.

"In this industry, the advantage of cooperation lies in sharing information and creativity. We can create new ideas, "Anderson said." the world has changed. Moncler is an incredible platform that can be fully utilized. "