The History of Fila

Fila was founded in 1911 by the brothers Fila in Biella (Piemont, Italy). Until 1973, the company`s focus was on manufacturing undergarment. That year marked the transition from a traditional pants maker to a high-quality, innovative and globally successful major manufacturer of athletic apparel. It was the dawn a of new age not only in Fila`s own history, but also in sports fashion history in general. Two people were responsible for Fila`s new business alignment: General manager Enrico Franchey and fashion designer Pier Luigi Rolando. Their strategic analysis yielded that tennis offered particularly big creative potentials for the newly aligned sportswear manufacturer. Tennis was still "all white" back then, but potentially open to colours, perfect for establishing new design concepts that would easily attract public attention.

So Fila started to produce tennis wear. Being aware that successful marketing of their new fashion line involved contracting prominent athletes, Fila began its sponsorship of tennis players in 1974. The first to sign a players contract with Fila were Italian players Adriano Panatta and Paolo Bertolucci who introduced Fila's slim fit polo shirts on the courts, featuring big coloured collars and a big "F" logo on the chest. These were part of Fila's new "White Line" collection, a somewhat misleading, purely mythical name that had nothing to do with tennis associated as the "white sport". In fact, the White Line fashion items soon proved to become more and more colourful ­ and also more and more successful: 1975 was the historic year Bjorn Borg signed with Fila, the begin of an unique, unprecedented success story of athlete sponsorship.

Fila was created in Biella, Piedmont, by the Fila brothers in 1911. 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 original Italian ownership 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 was acquired by Fila Korea, Ltd. from SBI, becoming South Korea's largest sportswear company. Fila Korea currently holds the rights to the worldwide use of footwear and apparel brands of the parent firm. With a refreshed management team in the United States, Fila is poised for a comeback.

Apparel

Men
The men's Fila line of sportswear include apparel for such sports as tennis, running, men's training, basketball, golf, swimming, and Fila's own line of vintage apparel.

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

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

Athletes
Athletes that have used, or are currently using, Fila apparel include:

Kim Clijsters >>>
Björn Borg >>>
Svetlana Kuznetsova >>>
Rainer Schüttler >>>
Akiko Morigami >>>
Barry Bonds >>>
Grant Hill >>>
Jerry Stackhouse >>>
Lars Burgsmüller >>>
Tatiana Perebiynis >>>
Andreas Seppi >>>
Michael Schumacher >>>
Thierry Ascione >>>
Michael Green >>>
Liza Galvan >>>
Reinhold Messner >>>
Janko Tipsarevic >>>
Alberto Tomba >>>
Tom Watson >>>
Mark Philippoussis >>>
Ryoma Echizen >>>
Agnes Szávay >>>
Steve Krulevitz >>>

Other prominent 70s/80s players sponsored by Fila

In addition to Bjorn Borg and Guillermo Vilas, Fila contracted a lot of other prominent tennis players. Talking about Vilas, one automatically thinks of Ion Tiriac, his long-time coach and guru. With Tiriac also dressed in Fila, the two occasionally formed a doubles team when Tiriac was still on the ATP tour in the '70s, often wearing the same Fila White Line clothes, presenting a real partner look.

In the second half of the '70s, Fila became huge not only in the field of tennis, but also conquered the ski market and expanded into other sports sectors, dressing champions such as Ingemar Stenmark, Alberto Tomba, Deborah Compagnoni, Grant Hill, Fiona May, Paul Tergat and Mike Powell. The first big tennis player names contracted by Fila were Italian players Adriano Panatta and Paolo Bertolucci who introduced Fila's slim fit polo shirts on the courts, featuring big coloured collars and a big "F" logo on the chest. Especially Panatta, a handsome Italian "casanova" type of guy and one of the world's best players back then, French Open winner 1976, had a big advertising appeal. Also his opponent in the French Open final 1976, American top ten player Harold Solomon, was well-known for wearing finest Fila White Line clothes. The tall monster server Victor Pecci (Paraguay) made a great showing in Fila clothes during the late '70s and '80s as well. One especially remembers his appearance in the French Open final 1979, when he lost to Borg in four sets, but gave a good fight and additionally impressed the audience with his lovely white-blue Fila shirt.

In 1981, the highly expensive Fila WCT fashion line was introduced and all the umpires and ball kids of the WCT tournaments were dressed in Fila WCT tracksuits, shirts, shorts, dresses and socks. The WCT tracksuit had a classic Terrinda style design and were available in dark blue and red. The Fila WCT vest back then, however, was quite a contrast to the tracksuit, looking very modern with its glossy fabrics, made of 100% nylon polyamide. Fila WCT tracktops became available again in the spring of 2008 as a limited edition, in three different colour combinations.

Other prominent tennis players wearing Fila in the '70s and/or '80s for example were Dick Stockton (USA), Bill Scanlon (USA), Bob Hewitt (Australia), John Sadri (USA), Heinz Günthardt (Switzerland), Manuel Orantes (Spain), Nduka Odizor (Nigeria), Michael Chang (USA), Evonne Goolagong (later Cawley), Andrea Jaeger (USA), Pam Shriver (USA) Kathy Horvath and Monica Seles (back then, Yugoslavia). And of course Boris Becker, who switched from Puma to Fila in 1988. After Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker was Fila's next shining mega-star, equipped with a signature "BB" logo (not a badge like Fila Bj, but directly sewn into the garment) and honoured with respective Fila BB fashion lines that came in Fila BB plastic bags. The only thing actually missing compared to Fila Borg lines was a respective Fila BB neck tag. But the actual major difference to the Borg lines ­ my dearest apologies to Fila ­ was the fact that most of the Fila BB shirts and tracktops were a sheer fashion disaster. To my mind, Fila overeagerly strived to be innovative and trendy by using flashy colours and turbulent patterns. But well, on the other hand, this was the typical colourful tennis fashion style of those days, and any fashion company had to keep paste with the trend, or better, get ahead of it, and so Fila did.

"Scream queen" Monica Seles, the world no.1 and 2 respectively in the late '80s and '90s, was Becker's female counterpart at Fila. As Fila's female flagship player, she was equipped with flashy, highly recognisable clothes, just like Boris Becker. But she didn't get an "MS logo" analogous to Becker's BB logo, and accordingly there were no Fila Seles signature fashion lines. After the Becker and Seles era, Fila failed to contract a new superstar, and more or less lived in the shadows of the tennis scene for many years. But this partly also had to do with the fact that the company was sold and reorganised. And in 1984, Fila began a second diversification, the manufacture of sports shoes which, since the '90s, has been its most important business in terms of revenue. In the new millennium, the company tried to re-establish itself in the tennis sector by sponsoring well-known athletes such as Kim Clijsters (Belgium), Mark Philippoussis (Australia) and Rainer Schüttler (Germany), in most recent years followed for example by Svetlana Kusnetsova (Russia), Dimitri Tursunov (Russia) and Andreas Seppi (Italy). Good news: The big F badge has returned meanwhile. Certainly a wise decision by Fila, because this highly traditional logo is so well-known, so easily recognisable and associated with both finest sports fashion and big victories. Since 2005/2006, the company has started to get aware of its valuable '70s/'80s heritage and honour it, regularly releasing reissues or similar versions of traditional Fila White Line and Borg clothes. In 2008, Andreas Seppi even wore a Terrinda vintage style shirt on court. And at the ATP tournament in Rome 2006, there seemed to be some sort of Fila throwback day. The entirety of linesmen and ball kids was wearing that famous Bjorn Borg Fila shirt from the late '70s and early '80s, and the ball girls were even wearing a similar headband to the one that Borg made so famous. Also the chair umpire was no exception to this, dressed with a Guillermo Vilas Fila shirt from the same era. Fila vintage tradition PR at its best!