Numerous Italian retailers carry both sports and fashion products, and regional commission agents play a key role in the Italian sporting goods market, as outlined in an extensive country report that we plan to put out in a few weeks’ time. These two patterns are illustrated by the establishment of two strong new agents’ associations in Northern Italy in the past few weeks.
Both called Moda & Sport, they group the fashion agents that cover the boutiques and the sports agents that cover the sports stores in the regions of Piedmont around Turin and of Lombardy around Milan. In Lombardy, the new Moda & Sport Associazione started off with about 200 members and with a goal to double its membership in the next couple of years.
Maurizio Governa was named vice president of the association, in charge of the sports segment. Giulio di Sabato was elected president. Their election is regarded as a preliminary step toward the likely establishment of a national association of sports and fashion agents. Governa is the president of AAISS, a national association that grouped sports and sportswear agents in 2000. Di Sabato is president of the national association of fashion agents, Assomoda.
Such a move would mirror the recent merger of Federadas, the former Italian association of sporting goods retailers, into Federmoda, the association of fashion retailers.
