Source: Falling in Love Again (fila.com)
In the last year, I’ve taken a real interest in watching how Fila is entering the market. It’s a project which doesn’t deliver the site a considerable amount of traffic, so why would I look so deeply into a brand that hit for a small amount of time three years ago when The Disruptor became a resale beast? What is there to gain in analyzing the brand I associated with dope boys back in the 80s?
FILA’s Original Tennis LX & Centa Attempts to Move the Brand from Discount to Luxury – ARCH-USA
Marketing Matters: Brooks Brothers x FILA + Short Film ‘Scandal’ – ARCH-USA
In the two posts above, I took the time to include pictures of retail locations carrying Fila. I explained that the brand is creating beautiful campaigns. Some of those feature an array of cultures, but are aimed towards an entirely different market than how the footwear is presented in black and brown demographic stores.
What do I mean by the above statement? The brand has delivered some incredible campaigns with Brooks Brothers, Chris Bevans, Whaffle and now this Falling In Love Again drop shows that Fila is capable of elevating its brand. However, when I walk into dying malls to do retail dives, or when I visit standalone small chains like Village Mart, it seems that Fila wants to remain a discount bargain brand. I’ve asked the question continuously if a brand can straddle the line of being a hood brand and a high end brand. My answer is a resounding no. Purchasing tends to find the path of least resistance. If a brand is treated as discount, even if it’s not in the same area, that brand will find itself struggling to resonate at the bar it aspires to reach.
In the Falling In Love Again campaign, the marketing team built a quirky, concept around a fictional ex tennis pro turned professor:
Jean-Pierre Montague, best known for his prowess on the tennis court and his impeccable FILA style, presents his true life’s passion: Emotional Color Theory. Believing that the truth of emotional stability can be found in the hues of the world around us, he authored the groundbreaking book, The Dress Code of Human Nature.
Think about the campaign as a style of found footage. Jean, played by Luke Wilson, is as funny as he always is, and watching and reading the material feels like it’s a real story.
The video above isn’t a quick watch, but it’s engaging and funny. the clothing delivered is from the archives and from the 110th anniversary celebration collection. What I have to remember is that Fila is an international brand and in other parts of the world they are still considered a high end tennis company. Here in the U.S., the brand owns no cache with the premium market at all. While this video is funny, the clothing throughout, the retro activewear and modern takes on performance, are on par with anything delivered from streetwear companies collaborating with luxe brands. Fila is in the awkward position of being one thing in the U.S. and another internationally. I think the company should pull back from its retail relationships with mainstream sneaker stores like Foot Locker, and smaller retail like Village Mart and the random “back to school” hood stores currently carrying the brand. Being all things low to premium is a very difficult task and the brand may be undermining its own growth in the U.S.
Note: Fila ran YouTube ads for the trailers of this video and they racked up 10K- 30K in views over a week. They didn’t run an ad on the film and it only has 100 views after 4 days. That’s very problematic.