FILA: From the Court to the Runway

From Textiles to Undergarments to Sportswear
FILA may be closely associated with the tennis court, but the brand actually goes back significantly further than Bjorn Borg’s mid-to late-1970s heyday.
Long before the Italian sportswear giant was dressing the world’s tennis icons, the brand was established by the Fila brothers way back in 1911 as a textile maker in the tiny town of Biella, which is situated in the northern Italian region of Piedmont. After initially focusing on high-quality textiles for the local townspeople, the brand broke out and became a knitwear manufacturing company in 1923. A focus on undergarments followed shortly thereafter, and FILA continued to mainly produce underwear up until the early 1940s.
Then, after merging with another company in 1942, things really began to kick into gear, especially when Enrico Frachey was hired as the company’s Managing Director in 1968. Alongside Giansevero Fila, Frachey began to transform FILA into a sportswear company in order to capitalise on the changing lifestyles of the Italian populace, who were taking up the sporting pastimes once dominated by the elite.

Tennis Takes FILA to New Heights
Fast forward to 1972 and FILA’s move to activewear had worked wonders; sales were booming and it had grown into a company that was over 250 people strong. That same year, Frachey hired artist and designer Pier Luigi Rolando, as well as engineer Alessandro Galliano, to further build on the company’s athletic prowess.
In 1976, the brand was catapulted to arguably its greatest heights when Bjorn Borg rocked the ‘White Line’ collection in England on the way to the first of his five consecutive Wimbledon championships.

To the Streets and Hardwood
Naturally, FILA continued to dominate the tennis court during–and after–Borg’s unprecedented five-year run at Wimbledon. However, as sportswear went mainstream in the early 1980s, FILA made the most of the boom, producing tracksuits – once reserved solely for pre-competition attire – in droves as young football fans began rocking the comfy ensembles (especially the jackets) away from the pitch.
Soccer enthusiasts aside, FILA had another sub-culture to thank for its continued rise in the 1980s: the booming growth of hip-hop. Hip-hop fashion was dominated by the tracksuit during the 80s, as artists like Run DMC and LL Cool J launched the aesthetic into near ubiquity.
FILA then tried to build on that popularity by bringing its tennis court-and street-approved cred to the hardwood, signing then former Duke star and third overall 1994 NBA draft pick Grant Hill to a four-year deal. For a while, it worked. Hill’s signature kicks helped to make FILA number two in basketball shoe sales by 1996 – right behind Nike.
Sadly, however, the success would be short-lived. Hill’s star power never reached its full potential, due to a series of nagging injuries, and the Pistons star was already packing his bags for Orlando by 2000. Just three years later, FILA’s US interests were sold to a private equity firm. Then, in 2007, South Korean businessman Yoon Yoon-su – better known as Gene Yoon – engineered a full buyout of the brand.

Yoon Returns the Brand to Prominence
Thankfully, Yoon’s buyout was the start of a major turnaround for FILA. After a few minor hiccups – like signing Paris Hilton to an endorsement deal – FILA capitalised on the rising popularity of retro sneakers by resurrecting and quickly selling out of Hill’s old signature kicks.
As a Brooklyn-based vintage fashion collector and stylist explained to The New Yorker, ‘I started noticing younger kids not being so caught up in caring about a handful of shoe brands that remain popular, like Nike. They liked what they saw in other brands, and it allowed for them to be individuals.’ According to writer David Turner, ‘FILA had become unfamiliar, and so it became new again’.
That newness was then maximised to its full potential when FILA tapped Gosha Rubchinskiy for a collaboration in 2015. The then up-and-coming Russian designer, known for his retro-inspired nods to the fashionable sportswear leanings of post-Soviet youths, expertly put his spin on FILA classics while flanking the iconic F-box with his own Cyrillic branding.

FILA Becomes a Fashion Go-To
For the past few seasons, everything that was old has been new again, as designers and customers have continued to flock to the retro-inspired designs of old.
Since that Rubchinskiy collaboration, nobody has ridden the retro wave quite like FILA.
Following that drop, FILA have worked with a wide variety of fashion brands, genuinely elevating their collaborative clout along the way.