Ellesse
Re-inventing heritage. Ellesse was founded in Perugia, Italy by ski enthusiast and tailor Leonardo Servadio in 1959. Born into a family of textiles merchants, Servadio identified a gap in the market for stylish, flattering sportswear on the slopes and when he couldn't find the skiwear he wanted, the only solution was to design and manufacture his own.
In the 70’s Ellesse started to design tennis outfits which ultimately the brand became most famous for. Over the years the brand was bought and sold finally becoming part of a stable of sports/lifestyle brands owned by the Pentland Group in 1994. In recent years the brand was licensed out multiple times. It’s identity had become diluted.
The brief
In 2023 we started work with the new brand director at Ellesse to re-set, the product offer.
The brand wanted to bring Ellesse back to it’s roots focusing first on tennis. Ellesse was a highly credible tennis brand throughout the 1970’s and 80’s. Know both for innovation and for it’s bold and fashionable approach to on-court dressing.
Working over a 24 month period we set about overhauling every aspect of the brand’s product, from the product pillars, to the brand codes, through to look and feel, fabrication guidance, colour usage and branding, and restoring the balance between performance and lifestyle
Authentic Positioning
Over the years the brand had drifted from it’s purpose and lost connection with it’s target audience. Bringing the brand back to it’s roots in tennis was an obvious solution but the real challenge was how to do that for a modern audience that could appreciate the authenticity but needed much more than straight forward re-issues and basic sportswear to pique their interest. We took a deep dive into the archive, carefully re-defining the Ellesse brand codes, hero products, and branding applications . We focused on the vibe of the Italian lust for life and style, channeling this attutude as the brand’s north star. We created a product direction playbook for licensee partners, centred around effortless, Italian sports style.
Meaningful Direction
Together with the global licensee teams and the internal brand team at Ellesse , we invented a new direction for the brand. Focused on sports and style, leaning into the brand’s Italian heritage in a youthful and fresh way. Updating silhouettes, modernising brand codes and cleaning up the on-product branding to appeal to today’s consumer and finally, wrapping the package together with the new brand direction created by Sunshine.
Talk to us to hear more.
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