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 and it’s brand cache devalued.

In 2023 we started work with the new brand director at Ellesse to re-set, alongside the brand identity, the product offer. Working over an 18 month period we set about overhauling every aspect of the brand from the product pillars, to the balance between performance and lifestyle through to look and feel, fabrications, colour and branding. Starting with the brand DNA, rooted in tennis and ski, we took a deep dive into the archive and returned the brand back to it’s Italian roots, referencing and re-defining the Ellesse brand codes, hero products, branding applications and product pillars. We created a product direction playbook for licensee partners, centred around effortless, Italian sports style and a seasonal creative direction for the internal teams to use as a building block going forward.

Launching to the market in 2025/26, an edited cross section of that work is represented over the following pages…