Breaking News & Insights From Sports And Fashion!
Welcome back to Virtua Weekly, where we break down the biggest stories emerging from the sports, fashion & outdoor industries each week!
Here's what you need to know:
Juventus Football Club and Fanatics have announced a wide-ranging partnership across ecommerce, retail, manufacturing and licensing that will see Fanatics manage all aspects of Juventus’ merchandise offering worldwide.
The newly formed partnership, one of the most extensive and ambitious agreements in sports merchandising, will last until the end of the 2034/2035 season. Fanatics will collaborate with Juventus to expand the club's brand and merchandise offerings to fans throughout Italy and globally.
Fanatics, which as part of the deal will become the master licensee for the Juventus merchandise portfolio, will operate the business from its Fanatics Italy headquarters, utilising both its local expertise and its global capabilities to deliver a world-class experience and access to products for Juventus fans all over the world.
Juventus, Italy's most successful football club and globally recognized for its iconic black and white striped jersey, will leverage Fanatics' vast expertise in product manufacturing, distribution, ecommerce operations, physical retail excellence, and an extensive licensee network.
Fanatics, known for partnering with leading sports entities, helps teams engage existing fans and attract new ones through exciting product collaborations, locally relevant designs, and a wide range of options for all supporters.
“The world of merchandising has undergone an incredible evolution over the last ten or so years thanks to the entry of a player like Fanatics, which has revolutionised the industry across the world,” said Francesco Calvo, Managing Director Revenue & Football Development at Juventus.“We are proud to join forces with a global leader like Fanatics for the development of such a strategic and fundamental part of our business.
“Juventus is one of the iconic clubs in world football” said Stephen Dowling, President of International at Fanatics. “The club is recognised and supported across the globe, it leads the way both on and off the pitch, and we are honoured to be working with it to revolutionise the experience for its fans both in-store and online, through new product designs and better availability worldwide."
Flynn will report directly to Athleta CEO Chris Blakeslee, according to the Business of Fashion.
Flynn comes to Athleta from Nike , where she held the role of Vice President and Creative Director of Apparel Design, managing product design across women's, men's, kids', and accessories categories. During her 19-year tenure at the U.S. sportswear giant, Flynn also contributed to the global sport, footwear, and innovation departments and played a key role in developing external collaborations.
“Welcoming Tania as our head of design sends a clear statement about how we’re reinvigorating the brand and solidifying Athleta’s position as the leader in performance and design innovation,” said Blakelsee, who as appointed CEO at the brand in July, 2023.
“Her deep expertise across performance, lifestyle, and collaborations will enable us to double down on Athleta’s commitment to delivering unparalleled product designed specifically for women, by women.”
In its most recent trading update in May, parent company Gap raised its annual sales forecast as its first-quarter results beat market expectations, boosted by strength in its Old Navy and Gap brands. Likewise, Comparable sales at Athleta rose 5% year-on-year for the quarter.
Nike has reported financial results for its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter and full year ended May 31, 2024.
Key figures:
"We are taking our near-term challenges head-on, while making continued progress in the areas that matter most to NIKE's future – serving the athlete through performance innovation, moving at the pace of the consumer and growing the complete marketplace," said John Donahoe, President & CEO, NIKE, Inc. "I'm confident that our teams are lining up our competitive advantages to create greater impact for our business.
Matthew Friend, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, NIKE, Inc. said, "We are driving better balance across our portfolio. While we are encouraged by our progress, our fourth quarter results highlighted challenges that have led us to update our Fiscal '25 outlook. We are taking actions to reposition NIKE to be more competitive, and to drive sustainable, profitable long-term growth.
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Salomon is reaching new heights. In just a few weeks, the French sports apparel and equipment brand has launched an impressive flagship store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris and another standout store in the heart of the Marais district, at the corner of rue des Francs Bourgeois and rue Vieille du Temple.
Since its NYSE listing earlier this year, Amer Sports , majority-owned by Chinese group Anta since 2019, has accelerated its retail growth. The company is particularly focused on expanding its Canadian brand Arc'teryx Equipment and Salomon, which Amer Sports acquired from adidas in 2005.
Salomon is thriving under the ambitious plans of Jie Zheng, CEO of Amer Sports, who has also been appointed interim CEO of the French brand following Franco Fogliato’s departure. Zheng aims to elevate Salomon’s positioning, with the team working diligently to transform its product range and identity into that of a mountain sports specialist with a growing lifestyle appeal.
This retail expansion increases Salomon’s Parisian stores to four, marking the brand’s continued momentum and strategic growth within the region.
In recent years, Annecy-based Salomon has , has emerged as the preferred footwear brand for many urban consumers, forging a strong link with the fashion industry, particularly through its XT6 model.
To bolster its positioning, Salomon has enlisted ambassadors, a new strategy to attract fashion and culture communities. The brand has partnered with British singer-songwriter Ama Lou and Colombian-born US musician Feid to target the US market. Despite this, maintaining a strong connection to its performance roots is essential for its sportstyle approach.
French couture house LANVIN has announced the appointment of Peter Copping as Artistic Director, a role he will take on from September 2024 and in which he will then assume the creative lead of womenswear and menswear collections.
The British designer, who graduated from Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, started out in the industry under the French designer Sonia Rykiel before moving to Louis Vuitton where he spent over a decade.
At the LVMH-owned fashion giant, he served under its then-creative director Marc Jacobs as the head of womenswear, before becoming creative director of Nina Ricci in Paris and later Oscar de la Renta in New York.
Copping then moved on to become head of couture at BALENCIAGA , where he was responsible for the reintroduction of the couture collection while directing the brand’s ateliers. He also held the position of head of VIP and special projects during his time at the fashion house.
Through his experience, Lanvin is hoping to capture Copping’s technical expertise and apply such perspectives to its ongoing brand transformation, which has been ongoing for the past two years.
Deputy CEO of Lanvin, Siddhartha Shukla, said: “Peter Copping’s arrival at Lanvin is an important milestone in the renaissance of one of the great French maisons. I am confident that with Peter’s vision and technical rigour and the continued perseverance of our teams globally, we will identify a new frontier in fashion and deliver beauty and results in equal measure.”
Virtua's live roles:
We have recently been retained by a new client in the Luxury Fashion space who are continuing to expand their brand presence worldwide. We are seeking a visionary Head of Technology Stack to add to an exceptional new management team and support aggressive growth plans for the future.
We are looking for a talented Experiential Production Coordinator & Experiential Producer to lead the production and execution of events for clients in the fashion, beauty, lifestyle industries. This role involves organizing various events, including launch events, fashion events, brand activations, pop-ups & consumer activations.