Dosenbach-Ochsner, the Swiss subsidiary of Deichmann, the huge German shoe retailer, took the opportunity of Ispo Munich to relaunch Fila, the originally Italian brand for which Dosenbach has held the European license for nearly two years, excluding the British Isles and Russia where the rights are held by JD Sports Fashion and Sportmaster, respectively.
Fila's booth at the show was by no means set up to present Fila as a retro brand. Instead, the famous brand is on a quest to gain lost ground as a true performance brand. To meet this goal, Dosenbach, which also runs the big Ochsner Sport chain in Switzerland, has decided to concentrate its distribution policy on specialty stores devoted to sporting goods and fashion. The directive is to kill any type of distribution that allows Fila-branded products to end up on the shelves of food retailers, for example.
Product-wise, the concentration of the autumn/winter 2013/14 range is limited to fitness, snow and casual for apparel, and tennis, fitness, running and lifestyle for footwear. Additionally, the brand offers accessories such as bags, socks and gear for foot and shoe care. Some marketing activities, with a focus on Germany, aim to highlight Fila as an authentic functional brand. The marketing package includes a sponsoring agreement with the Injoy network of fitness gyms in the country as well as Germany's most important WTA tennis tournament, the Porsche Cup. Additionally, Fila has just inked a sponsoring deal with Julia Görges, the German tennis player.
As already announced when Dosenbach took on the Fila license for the region described above, Fila now relies on a few sub-licensees for the region: the Premium Sport company for the tennis category, Medico for apparel excluding tennis, Unlimited Sports Group for sneakers and athletic footwear, Mansocks Italia for socks, BBUK for accessories, and Nanogate for shoe and foot care solutions.
