Fila Holdings Corp. is a

sportswear Sportswear or activewear is clothing, including footwear, worn for sport or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Typical sport-specific garments ...

brand of shoes and apparel. The company was founded by Ettore and Giansevero Fila in 1911 in

Coggiola Coggiola is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northeast of Biella. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,285 and an area of .All demographic ...

, near

Biella Biella (; pms, Biela; la, Bugella) is a city and ''comune'' in the northern Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of Turin an ...

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. In 2003, it was sold to

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

-based Sports Brand International. Subsequently, in 2007, Fila Korea acquired the brand. In September 2010, it launched its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

on the

Korea Exchange Korea Exchange (KRX) is the sole securities exchange operator in South Korea. It is headquartered in Busan, and has an office for cash markets and market oversight in Seoul. History The Korea Exchange was created through the integration of Ko ...

. Through its subsidiary Magnus Holdings Co., Ltd, Fila Holdings owns a 52% stake in

Acushnet Company The Acushnet Company is an American company focused on the golf market. The company operates a series of brands that manufacture golf equipment, clothing and accessories. The principal brands operated by Acushnet are Titleist, best known for bal ...

. Fila Holdings' largest shareholders include Piemonte Co., Ltd at around 20%, Fila Holdings at 20%, and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

National Pension Service The National Pension Service of Korea (NPS; ) is a public pension fund in South Korea. It is the third largest in the world with $800 billion in assets, and is the largest investor in South Korea. South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS), wh ...

at around 13%.

Gene Yoon Yoon Yoon-su, commonly known in English as Gene Yoon (Korean 윤윤수; Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, Hwaseong, 9 September 1945) is a South Korean business man. He is the current chairman of the sportswear company Fila (company), Fila. Biography Yoon g ...

(Yoon Yoon-su), who owns a 75% stake in Piemonte, serves as the chairman of Fila Holdings. The

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

is Yoon Keun-chang.

History

In 1906, brothers Ettore and Giansevero Fila joined the Giuseppe Regis and Figli di Coggiola wool mill in

, Italy. In 1911, the Regis brothers withdrew from the company and the wool mill took the name Fratelli Fila S.p.A; Fila was officially established in 1923. It originally made clothing for the people of the

Italian Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

, primarily

underwear Undergarments, underclothing, or underwear are items of clothing worn beneath outer clothes, usually in direct contact with the skin, although they may comprise more than a single layer. They serve to keep outer garments from being soiled o ...

. In the 1970s it moved into

, with an endorsement deal with tennis player

Björn Borg Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at Wimb ...

; the brand became more popular after the transition. In 1988, Fila changed ownership from Italian chemical company

SNIA S.p.A. SNIA S.p.A. was an Italian firm located in Milan that manufactured defence products, textiles, chemicals, perfumes, and corrugated paper among other products. History The ''Società di Navigazione Italo-Americana'' (SNIA) was founded as a shippi ...

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

-controlled

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

Gemina, later restructured as Holding di Partecipazioni. In 1991, Fila shifted focus from clothing in Europe to footwear in the US, and completed a buyout of its US license. High-profile sponsorships, including basketball players

Grant Hill Grant Henry Hill (born October 5, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player who is a co-owner and executive of the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He attended Duke University and is widely considere ...

and

Jerry Stackhouse Jerry Darnell Stackhouse (born November 5, 1974) is an American basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores men's team. He played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and ...

, helped make Fila America's fastest-growing footwear brand by 1995. In 2003, Holding di Partecipazioni sold the company to

Cerberus Capital Management Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm,Leaders Magazine"Providing Economic Opportunity: An Interview with The Honorable Dan Quayle, Chairman, Cerberus Global Investments, LLC". specializing in distressed investing. ...

, a US-based hedge fund, after the company over-committed itself to expensive athletic endorsements at a time when margins were under pressure. Cerberus owned Fila through holding company Sports Brands International, which owned and operated all Fila businesses around the world with the exception of Fila Korea, which was a separate company operating the brand under licence. In January 2007, the brand and all its international subsidiaries were acquired by Fila Korea. Ducati 999R Fila

In 2009,

Anta Sports Anta Sports Products Limited is a Chinese sports equipment multinational corporation headquartered in Jinjiang. It is the world's largest purely sports equipment company by revenue and third-largest manufacturer of sporting goods overall, behind ...

acquired the rights to the brand in China, Hong Kong, and Macao from then Fila company's Chinese joint venture partner Belle International. Fila Korea still owned 15% shares of the joint venture company "Full Prospect". In May 2011, Fila Korea Ltd. acquired global golf equipment maker

, becoming the new owner of golf brands such as

Titleist Titleist (pronounced "title-ist") is an American brand name of golf equipment produced by the Acushnet Company, headquartered in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, United States. The Titleist brand, established in 1932 by Phillip E. Young, focuses on gol ...

and FootJoy, for $1.23 billion. In October 2019, South Korean boy group

BTS BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010 and debuting in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. The septet—consisting of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook—co-writes and co-produ ...

became the global brand ambassadors of Fila. In March 2021, Fila China stated that it would continue to source cotton from

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

despite public criticism that such cotton had been produced with forced Uyghur labor in the region.

Sponsorships

Baseball teams

Doosan Bears The Doosan Bears ( ko, 두산 베어스) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. Founded in 1982, they are a member of the KBO League. The Bears have won six Korean Series titles (1982, 1995, 2001, 2015, 2016, and 2019) and ...

Tennis players

Diego Schwartzman Diego Sebastián Schwartzman (, ; born 16 August 1992) is an Argentine professional tennis player. He has won four ATP singles titles and reached his career-high singles ranking of world 8 in October 2020. As a clay court specialist, his be ...

Ashleigh Barty Ashleigh is the feminine form of the Old English name Ashley (given name), Ashley, which means "dweller near the ash tree forest". It is most common in the United States and United Kingdom. Notable people B *Ashleigh Ball (born 1983), Canadian ...

Alexei Popyrin Alexei Popyrin (born 5 August 1999) is an Australian professional tennis player. Popyrin has a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 59 achieved on 8 November 2021. He also has a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 235 achieved in June 20 ...

Barbora Krejcikova Barbora (; ) is a Czech and Slovak female given name. It was derived from the Greek word ''barbaros'' ( el, βαρβαρος) meaning "foreign", a variant of " Barbara". It is the 36th most popular given name in the Czech Republic (as of 2007). ...

Karolina Pliskova Karolina may refer to: People *Karolina (name) Karolina, Karolína or Karolīna is a feminine given name. Karolina is a Croatian language, Croatian, Danish language, Danish, Faroese language, Faroese, Finnish language, Finnish, German language, Ge ...

Tommy Haas Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in May ...

Laura Siegemund Laura Natalie Siegemund (born 4 March 1988, in Filderstadt) is a German professional tennis player. She is a two-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2020 US Open in women's doubles with Vera Zvonareva, as well as the 2016 US Open in mixed ...

Ekaterina Alexandrova Ekaterina Evgenyevna Alexandrova ( rus, Екатери́на Евге́ньевна Александро́ва, links=no; ; born 15 November 1994) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has won three WTA singles titles, three WTA 125 titl ...

* Soonwoo Kwon *

John Isner John Robert Isner (born April 26, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Considered one of the best servers e ...

Ann Li Ann Louie Li (born January 17, 1995 in Bangkok, Thailand), popularly known as Ann Li, is a Filipino–Taiwanese businesswoman, fashion influencer, former actress, model, photographer, and television personality. She splits her time between Ma ...

Robin Montgomery Robin Montgomery (; born September 5, 2004) is an American tennis player. She has a career-high WTA doubles ranking of 165, achieved on 7 March 2022. She has won two singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. A product of the Junior Te ...

Brandon Nakashima Brandon Nakashima (born August 3, 2001) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 43 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved on 17 October 2022. On the same day, he ...

Reilly Opelka Reilly Opelka (born August 28, 1997) is an American professional tennis player. At 6 feet 11 inches tall, he is tied (with Ivo Karlović) for the tallest-ever ATP-ranked player, and can produce serves that measure over 140 mph. He has been ran ...

Sam Querrey Samuel Austin Querrey (; born October 7, 1987) is an American former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 achieved on February 26, 2018, and won ten ATP singles titles. Known for his powerful serve ...

Shelby Rogers Shelby Rogers (born October 13, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of world No. 30 in singles achieved August 2022 and No. 40 in doubles, achieved February 2022, and has won six singles and two doub ...

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, tennis, South Korea, Company Italian companies established in 1911 1980s fashion 1990s fashion 2000s fashion 2010s fashion 2020s fashion Athletic shoe brands Clothing companies established in 1911 Shoe brands Sportswear brands 2007 mergers and acquisitions Clothing brands of South Korea