Dee Wells @DeeWellsOSD on Twitter, shared the Brooks Brothers x Fila collab and began a dialogue that eventually led to the question, exactly who is this collection built for? Brooks Brothers hasn’t been performing very well lately as the athleisure trend has hindered the brands reach and Covid has taken the focus off of suits. The price is prohibitive for almost every demographic, and remains a brand for the C-Suite. The irony is the brand was the brunt of a joke in the film Tenet. The alignment with Fila only happens, as they explain, because of the shared history in tennis.
In our discussion on Twitter, I shared with him that Fila in the international market is considered on par with adidas in some instances. The brand has a more premium appeal outside of the U.S; but in the the U.S., that isn’t the case. Fila misses the mark here with BB and the strategy is confusing; unless these type of relationships in the picture below are about to be phased out. This is a picture through a store window in a mall with FootLocker, City Gear, Footaction, Kids FootLocker, Finish Line and Hibbett Sports. This type of display is common and because of this, the brand is constantly on promo.
In the copy on their site, the collab is explained as only being “…available for a limited time on BrooksBrothers.com, FILA.com and at select Brooks Brothers locations including New York City, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Milan.” That’s important because in the U.S., the picture below is how the brand is merchandised:
Fila in the U.S is frustrating. They develop the Renno, Fila Tennis LX and Centa for the high end, but above is who they are selling too. You can’t sell a premium product with wholesale accounts like this.
Brooks Brothers and FILA each boast a rich and storied history, steeped in tradition and innovation, and a commitment to designs that deliver on quality, performance and style. Both brands are long-term partners of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, and with their shared connection to the sport, this was a natural progression. The collaboration marries Brooks Brothers’ authentic American style with FILA’s iconic tennis heritage, as two classic brand legacies are reimagined for this collection.
Source: Fila
I’ve been following Fila closely this year. They are a brand that has the heritage to capture the retro trend, but they also have the tech and performance to inspire fitness interest. The problem is the brand is trapped between attempting to convey cool and class, but is really champagne in a box by association. The runaway hit show “Snowfall” provided the brand with additional marketing and the product I’ve admired here on the site, but if you took a moment and you could stand watching the video at the lead for the entire 2 minutes, you have to ask, who is their audience? It seems that they haven’t figured that out themselves.
I think brands are all becoming victims of Instagram and they’ve created campaigns based on the engagement they attain on that platform. It’s a consistent issue for almost every brand, except Nike. Fila has 2.3 Million followers on IG. I’ve long utilized a concept in marketing I label as the 10% rule: 10 percent of followers will see your content, 10% of those followers will Click Through, and 10% of the followers will generate real value or sales for the brand. I’ve been stating this for over ten years and the numbers almost never fail to ring true. While it seems that this would work in Fila’s favor with an average of 2300 reactions to each item of content on their posts (Take a quick browse through their IG and note that the numbers for their engagement match with the 10% rule, except when they run a campaign on the content), this is problematic because IG still requires too many additional clicks to get a person into the sales funnel.
What’s even worse is that the brand isn’t investing nearly enough energy into YouTube. Sneaker culture is driven by YouTube content today. Their “Scandal” video hasn’t even hit 50 views in the first 24 hours. Not having a YouTube strategy hurts the brand considerably. YT allows for cards and direct links to products. A real combination of social and native marketing solutions is required to deliver the right amount of eyes to new product.
Dee Wells offered a solution on Twitter and I added additional suggestions, but those won’t go anywhere. What does a brand do when they are sitting in purgatory? Fila isn’t prime real estate, but they aren’t slumlords. They are obviously working hard to capture and maintain their share of the market, but does this collab benefit Fila? I don’t think so. Remember, Brooks Brothers has been reduced to offering promo and marketing via Facebook and social media. They don’t have any athleisure and brands like Taylor Stitch, Alex Mills, and a host of smaller more sustainable brands have encroached on the consumer who traditionally would become the Brooks Brothers consumer. This capsule could find its way to the elite tennis crowd, but as nice as it is, a lot of these parts aren’t coming together to create magic.
What do you think about this collection and about Fila?