H&M will release a Lotto menswear collection on May 21, built around football archetypes and archive graphics. Lotto is owned by WHP Global, whose licensing model underpins the deal — one timed to Lotto’s broader FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign.
H&M will release a menswear collection developed with Lotto, the Italian sportswear brand founded in Montebelluna in 1973, on May 21 in select stores and on hm.com. The range draws directly on Lotto’s design archive and uses football culture as its organizing concept.
Heritage brand licensing drives the deal’s commercial logic
The announcement adds Lotto to the long roster of heritage and designer names the Swedish fast-fashion retailer has worked with since launching its collaboration program in the early 2000s — a strategy H&M has consistently deployed to generate cultural traction and foot traffic.
Lotto is owned by WHP Global, the New York-based brand management group that holds the Lotto mark. WHP’s business model is built on acquiring heritage-brand intellectual property and monetizing it through licensing partnerships. Alongside Lotto, its portfolio includes Toys”R”Us, Dressbarn and Anne Klein. The H&M deal is, in that sense, a textbook licensing play — a fast-fashion retailer accessing archive credibility via a brand management platform that since 2019 has been conducting a careful relaunch of the Italian brand, crowned this year by a global campaign for the FIFA World Cup 2026. This football-inspired collection closely matches the broader brand strategy.
Archive codes anchor a football-themed menswear range
The collection is organized around football archetypes: the player, the manager, the referee, the team and the supporters. Brightly colored jersey sets, polos, shorts and high socks carry graphic stripes and Lotto’s double diamond jacquard pattern drawn from the original archive. Off-pitch pieces include oversized faux-leather shorts, a tailored blazer, logo caps, scarves and sneakers.
