Fila (company)

FILA

Type	Private
Industry	Sportswear Sports goods
Founded	Biella, Italy 1911 (1911)
Headquarters	Seoul, South Korea
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Yoon-Soo Yoon, Chairman & CEO, Global Leading Brands House Holdings & Fila Korea Ltd. Young-Chan Cho, President of Global Leading Brands House Holdings, CFO of Fila U.S.A., Inc. Jon Epstein, President of Fila U.S.A., Inc.[1] Lee Dong Shik, Director of Fila Sport
Products	Athletic shoes Clothing Accessories
Parent	Fila Korea
Website	www.fila.com

Fila, Inc. is an Italian-South Korean sporting goods company. It was founded in 1911 in Italy, and is one of the world's largest sportswear manufacturing companies.

Since a takeover in 2007 by Fila Korea, Fila is now owned and operated from South Korea. Headed by chairman and CEO Yoon-Soo Yoon, Fila has offices in 11 countries worldwide.

History

Fila was created in Biella, Piedmont, by the Fila brothers in 1909. It originally started by making clothing for the people of the Italian Alps, now manufacturing sportswear for men, women, kids and athletes.

The company's primary product was originally underwear, before moving into sportswear in the 1970s, initially with the endorsement of tennis player Björn Borg. The brand got more popular after moving into sportswear.

The original Italian ownership shop Holding di Partecipazioni sold the company to US hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management in 2003, 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 global Fila brand and all its international subsidiaries were acquired by Fila Korea from SBI, which made it the largest South Korean sportswear company. Fila Korea currently holds all of the rights to the worldwide use of footwear and clothing brands of the parent firm.

In 2009, ANTA Sports acquired the rights to use the brand in China (the company "Full Prospect"), from Belle International, Fila Korea still owned 15% shares of the joint venture company "Full Prospect".^[2]

On May 2011, Fila Korea Ltd. acquired global golf equipment maker Acushnet Company, becoming the new owner of leading golf brands such as Titleist for $1.23 billion.^[3][4]

Clothing

A Fila store.

Women

The women's Fila line of sportswear includes clothing for such sports as tennis, running, cross training, golf, swimming, and Fila's own line of vintage clothing.

Kids

Fila has everyday footwear for children of all ages, from infants to youth.

Shoes

Fila has a range of different sneakers and trainers, but some are rarer to find than others. For example, the Foggia Hi LTD range is a popular high-top trainer that is hard to acquire in some countries.

Branding

The corporate logo of Fila features the company name using snakelike letters.^[5]

Past and present sponsorships

These include:

Spokesperson

• Robert Smith
• Hurricane Chris
• Diamond
• Nas^[9]
• Percee P
• Big Bang (Korean pop group)
• Beast (Korean pop group)
• 2NE1 (Korean pop group)
• Jung Il-woo (2012 F/W collection)^[10]
• Infinite (Korean pop group)^[11]
• Son Yeon-jae
• B1A4 (Korean pop group)^[12]
• Kim Soo-hyun^[13]

In popular culture

• The brand Fila was heavily featured in the 1986 film Soul Man.
• Ben Horne was wearing a Fila tracksuit in the 16° episode of second season of Twin Peaks.
• The brand Fila was heavily featured throughout the entire run of HBO crime series The Sopranos.
• The Fila logo is presented in the Super Famicom video games Super Final Match Tennis^[14] and Dream Basketball: Dunk & Hoop.
• The Fila Store is one of the drop off points in the video game Crazy Taxi.
• Fila Decathlon (2002) is a European-exclusive title published by THQ for the Game Boy Advance. Fila World Tour Tennis (2002) was released for the Xbox and Windows, while Fila Tennis Champions (2003) was released for the Windows.
• Toji Suzahara from Neon Genesis Evangelion wears a track jacket with the word FILA stitched on the front.
• Fila clothing was also very popular in the 1980s rap scene (today often called Old school hip hop). Examples are the song "Do the Fila" by Steady B, "Put your Fila's on" by Schoolly D or even a whole group labeled Fila Fresh Crew. Also the cover of Just-Ice's first album makes use of Fila signs.
• On the other hand, in their 1989 song "The Sounds of Science", the Beastie Boys exhorted listeners to "Rock my Adidas; never rock Fila."^[15]
• However, in a dramatic reversal five years later, Mike D tried to mount a Fila revival, only to encounter considerable resistance: "Step into the party with the Fila fresh gear, people looking at me like I was David Koresh here" ("The Scoop", Ill Communication, 1994).
• In (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!) by the same, Mike D wears a FILA T-shirt throughout.
• Lisa Left Eye Lopes raps a line about Fila shoes in the group TLCs song No Scrubs "T-Boz and all my senoritas, are steppin' on your Filas, but you don't hear me, though"
• Luke Wilson in "The Royal Tenenbaums" is seen wearing Fila tennis apparel throughout the film, most notably the headband.
• Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover II is seen wearing a white Fila tennis vest in the scene that takes place in his bedroom.

See also

Excludes articles found in Category:Sporting goods manufacturers of Italy.

• Sergio Tacchini

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fila (company).