MILAN — Farfetch on Wednesday is launching its European partnership with Reebok, following the agreement last year with the brand’s owner, Authentic Brands Group.
New Guards Group has created a new division, NGG++, now home to Reebok as its operating partner in Europe. Reebok’s luxury collections and collaborations developed by NGG++, instead, will be distributed globally.
Cristiano Fagnani has been promoted chief executive officer of NGG++. A Nike veteran for two decades, Fagnani joined New Guards Group in January 2020 as chief marketing officer.
While it will have a focus on Reebok, the division is expected to accelerate business growth of all New Guards Group brands, and potentially outside brands looking to expand into the sportswear and sneaker business.
NGG is home to 11 international brands: Marcelo Burlon County of Milan, Palm Angels, Unravel Project, Heron Preston, Alanui, Kirin Peggy Gou, Ambush and There Was One. It is also the licensee of Off-White.
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NGG++ is taking on the Reebok-branded retail stores and e-commerce operations and will drive wholesale distribution for footwear, sportswear and activewear for men, women and children.
It is conceived to create opportunities for Reebok through luxury collaborations and new high-end product designed in Milan and produced in Italy.
Adidas sold Reebok to Authentic Brands Group in 2021 for 2.1 billion euros, and NGG owner Farfetch Ltd. inked a deal that would make it the core operating partner for Reebok across Europe. Farfetch also secured global rights to make a premium line for Reebok of apparel and sneakers and collaborations.
“We are delighted to be working with Authentic to reboot such a beloved heritage brand,” said José Neves, Farfetch founder, chairman and CEO. “Reebok has great potential to expand into the luxury space, reigniting its loyal customer base and capturing the imagination of a new luxury global audience.”
Neves praised the “astute and energetic guidance” of Fagnani and his team, touting that “this partnership will unlock huge value for the brand and for Farfetch. Launching the partnership with Reebok is an important execution milestone in Farfetch’s plans for 2023.”
Together, NGG++ and the Farfetch Platform Solutions teams “have ensured Reebok’s wholesale and e-commerce operations are up and running on time and on budget. We look forward to delivering on further milestones for Reebok throughout our partnership,” concluded Neves.
Farfetch is expecting the brand to add $250 million to $300 million in business this year.
In an interview at NGG’s offices in Milan, Fagnani recalled that Virgil Abloh connected him to the group and that he has been fast friends with Burlon for two decades. Fagnani has rubbed shoulders with designers for most of his professional life, from Jerry Lorenzo to Riccardo Tisci, Matthew Williams and Kim Jones, back in the days at Nike. It is a familiarity that is helping him in this new phase of his career, as he raises the fashion content and positioning of Reebok, after building the marketing team for NGG, hiring about 70 people in three years, working across the different brands, and accelerating the direct-to-consumer business.
“A year and a half ago trying to envision the future of the platform, sitting with [NGG cofounder] Davide [De Giglio], we discussed how the group, after growing and becoming a corporation, could maintain its energy, continue to be open, receptive and free, beyond the pressure of daily business,” Fagnani recalled.
“We realized that some areas and categories had a lot of equity but that there was slow growth in sneakers and sportswear and we thought we should reclaim them for us with a more precise point of view and commitment, investing to capitalize on them and to remain current rather than leaving equity to others,” said Fagnani, who cautioned against collaborations per se, which can be “traps if you don’t leave room for anything else.”
The group realized that there was an interesting opportunity to grow the business of sneakers and sportswear, relying on the expansive data of Farfetch, “which interacts with millions of fashion consumers,” noted Fagnani.
He underscored that NGG++ was set up before the arrival of Reebok. “If you open up to the future, the future arrives,” he contended. “We created space for newness, opened up in uncharted territory.”
Fagnani believes NGG++ “has the vision to redefine the space between sport and culture to empower movement and create new expressions of style. Sportswear and luxury are not in juxtaposition, they can and should be one and the same. At NGG++ we have the vision and know-how to generate and push this mindset in our consumers and community that goes beyond anything that has ever been done in the industry.”
The conversation with Authentic was initiated because the latter was “seeking a partnership to manage the pinnacle of Reebok, the high-end fashion and collaborations,” Fagnani explained.
By the end of the year, Fagnani will build a team of around 200 people in Milan and he is “replatforming” the back end of operations.
Fifty percent of Reebok’s sales are derived from digital channels and the rest from wholesale. The brand is available at around 2,000 doors in Europe and through more than 500 luxury distributors.
Fagnani said that “the NGG++ label was supposed to be a working title, but Neves, who is an engineer, liked it as ‘++’ is used in coding when you increase the size of something, sort of like a fractal and it remained the name of the project.”
“Helping streetwear brands evolve into new luxury and lifestyle houses is part of our core skill set,” said De Giglio, CEO of NGG. In addition to generating significant revenues, this partnership will help us further support our existing brands and nurture new talent.…Under Cristiano, NGG++ will create something unexpected, inspirational and profitable, while also promoting diversity, inclusion and sustainability.”
Todd Krinsky, CEO of Reebok, said he has been “incredibly impressed with the energy, passion and opportunities” the NGG and Farfetch teams “have already brought to the table. Our concept sneakers with Botter x HP that debuted at Paris Fashion Week earlier this year were a great indicator of all that’s to come and we can’t wait to be able to introduce more game-changing collaborations and innovations that will further Reebok’s global appeal and elevate the brand’s legacy.”
This story was reported by WWD and originally appeared on WWD.com.
