Arena, traditionally deeply rooted in competitive swimming, is venturing into the broader lifestyle segment. In this interview, CEO Peter Graschi explains how the new beachwear collection is building bridges to get more people excited about swimming. He talks about the evolution of the brand with the claim “Planet Water,” the importance of innovation and communities, and Arena’s clear commitment to sustainability and active environmental protection.
SGI Europe: Arena has always been firmly rooted in water sports. How do you see beachwear as a bridge to a broader lifestyle segment?
Peter Graschi: Arena has three core segments: competitive swimming, where we’ve been successful for 50 years; fitness swimming, for athletic swimmers outside the competitive environment; and beachwear. With the beachwear collection, we want to inspire as many people as possible to take up the sport of swimming. This fits in with the general change in tourism.
Vacations have become more sporty and active in recent years. Sport is associated with health and a positive lifestyle. Instead of a place where you lie on a sun lounger for hours on end, the beach has become a sports ground. People want to swim and need swimwear that looks good and works optimally in the water. So we’re building a bridge between performance, fitness and beach – a natural evolution from the pool to the people, if you like.
Arena wants to move beyond pure sportswear into the lifestyle sector. What role does the beachwear collection play here?
The beachwear collection is our third major pillar, after fitness and competition, and is intended to be a source of inspiration for the sport of swimming. Two hearts beat in Arena’s corporate chest: one for the competitive sport, in which our athletes swim for medals, and the other for the inspiration to encourage people to lead an active lifestyle and get them excited about swimming.
Unfortunately, we all move far too little, even though sport is increasingly associated with health. It is important to raise awareness here. More exercise not only has a positive effect on body weight and perception, but also on mental health – this has been scientifically proven. The trend is moving in the right direction.
How is the Arena brand developing? Which strategic pillars will be particularly important here?
Two years ago, we dropped our “Water Instinct” slogan after more than 20 years. The time was ripe for a new direction: “Planet Water.” These two words say a lot without us having to give any further explanations. We want to consciously embrace the entire sport of swimming – in and out of the pool – and place a clear focus on our sustainability measures. In future, the aim is to appeal to all people who are attracted to water. Our focus will be on innovation, particularly in fabrics and fit, as well as our Italian design. As a third focus, we are increasingly working in the area of communities.
Communities are playing an increasingly important role for both brands and sports retailers.
Yes, we see that, too. In swimming, it’s specifically about the open water area. We’ve recognized that more and more people want to swim in open water, but that they face major obstacles here. If only because you can’t just stand on the beach and find people to swim with in the open water. We’ll push this type of community work, support it as a brand and find our role.
The Arena athletes also form a close-knit community. With a view to the upcoming Olympic cycle, can you already tell us something about the composition of the new arena team?
The majority of the team has already been decided on. We‘ve renewed Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass, Sarah Sjöström, Thomas Ceccon, David Popovici and Nicolò Martinenghi, to name just some of the Olympic champions. We’re already working closely with the Olympic team and have already had our first campaign shoot in Turkey.
We have an excellent team, but we’re always on the lookout for new talent. To this end, our sports marketing department is in contact with federations and coaches. Some coaches also approach us and draw our attention to exceptional young talent. This gives us the opportunity to get in touch with good swimmers at an early stage.
Speaking of talent factory. The World Swimming Championships, which will be held in Singapore this year from July 11 to Aug. 5, will certainly be a highlight of the competition year. How is Arena planning to present this major sporting event?
Firstly, Arena will have a team on site to support the competitions and our athletes. We’ve also designed a special collection for Singapore, called Indomitus, together with our Japanese colleagues. The collection has strong Asian influences and features the lion, which symbolizes Singapore as the Lion City.
In addition to innovation, design and community, sustainability is also playing an increasingly important role, right?
Absolutely. Let’s just take the issue of microplastics. Here we’re working closely with our partner and jointly developing solutions for the recyclability of our materials.
Microplastics and marine pollution unfortunately go hand in hand. Does Arena want to draw particular attention to this environmental sin?
It’s one thing to generate attention and another to take action. For me, action is more important; at best, attention and action go hand in hand.
We have a program for this called “Learn, love and protect.” We want to get as many people as possible to learn how to swim, which has to do with safety. The next step is to get people excited about swimming, because we only protect what we love. If we enjoy swimming in the sea, we have a different awareness of it and are more willing to fight for its protection.
Arena is working together with the Healthy Seas Foundation in the area of protection. They retrieve so-called ghost nets from the sea. These in turn form part of our beachwear collection, in the form of Econyl.
Is this already a complete cycle?
Unfortunately, not yet. We can produce swimsuits from Econyl in our fabrics, but since we need elasticity also, we need to combine it with elastomer fiber, and this mix, at the moment, makes difficult to close the loop. It will be another two to five years before we’re ready and can really talk about a closed loop. However, I would like to mention that 100% of the beachwear collection is made with yarns obtained from responsible processes.
Are end consumers demanding this, or does Arena want to draw attention to the issue of sustainability in water sports?
I think both are right. End consumers are attaching more and more importance to sustainability, both in terms of the materials used and the projects that a company supports. However, sustainability also comes from within, from us as a company and from our employees.
Arena got fully involved in sustainability three years ago. We drew up a roadmap for this and brought in an external partner. Ultimately, like all other brands, we have to generate profit in order to keep the business running. This is why arena became a Società Benefit, which means a double purpose company. And yet we have to commit to sustainability goals and also implement and live by them.
The topic of sustainability is also important for recruiting employees – young people in particular want to work for a company that is committed to sustainability.
And here we are in the B2B sector… Let’s talk about the challenges and opportunities in the current B2B market.
The biggest challenge is uncertainty. Nobody knows what the right thing to do is. No one can say what the right procurement strategy is. Restrictions, customs duties and tariff discussions also lead to uncertainty in companies, and the same applies to end consumers.
I think Arena has two big advantages here. We have a very flexible supply chain and parallel sourcing structures. This allows us to act flexibly for the most important product groups. That helps us massively. And we offer our consumers secure values.
Is there a message for the B2B world from Arena?
Swimming is totally underestimated in retail. There are so many people who swim, and then you go to the sports retailers and see how much space they give to swimming….
