It might be a challenging macroeconomic environment, but Hugo Boss CEO Daniel Grieder and SVP of global marketing Nadia Kokni are still investing heavily in sports marketing. Here they break down the strategy before the SS25 show
This morning, Boss will return to the Milan runway after two seasons of pared-back presentations. For the brand, it culminates a major summer of sports marketing, which saw it activate across Formula One, tennis, boxing, skiing, cycling, horse riding and the NFL, with athlete sponsorships and product collaborations — and even its own-branded sporting events. As luxury demand slows, the company is hoping it’ll boost business.
“A runway show is an important brand-building initiative for us,” says Hugo Boss CEO Daniel Grieder, who joined the company in 2021 and staged a successful rebrand, dividing the business into millennial, more classic brand Boss and Gen Z-focused casual label Hugo. After several see-now, buy-now events in recent years, Boss will switch back to the traditional calendar, Grieder adds, “in order to better align with the shift in the consumer habits”.
From its baseball-inspired show, in collaboration with Russell Athletic, starring Boss ambassador and TikTok star Khaby Lame (pre-spring 2022), to boxer Anthony Joshua on the runway alongside supermodels Ashley Graham and Gigi Hadid (AW23), Boss’s shows are known for packing star power. And this season promises to be no different.
“There is no ‘traditional’ Boss show, each season we explore the themes and topics we feel inspired by and that we feel would be of interest to our consumers,” says Hugo Boss global SVP of marketing Nadia Kokni, who remains tight-lipped on the details. “What I can say is that with the SS25 collection, Boss breaks out of the corporate structure, expanding the narrative and taking the brand out of office to empower true ‘Bosses’ with more freedom of self-expression.”
This is a contrast to Boss’s AW23 corpcore show, which doubles as a crucial moment to stoke demand for the brand’s other collections. Performance has been strong under Grieder. But for Q2 2024, Hugo Boss witnessed its weakest quarter since the rebrand in 2022, with sales down 1 per cent to €1.02 billion, according to the company’s preliminary results, following an industry-wide slowdown. At the time, Citi analyst Thomas Chauvet attributed the headwinds to a weakened demand for casualwear in a note to Vogue Business.
“The economic environment is difficult and extremely volatile at the moment, as macroeconomic uncertainties continue to weigh on consumer sentiment,” says Grieder. “We are currently introducing several additional measures to increase efficiency and effectiveness across the business and will also deploy our marketing budget in an even more focused manner, but without compromising our investments in brand-building initiatives.”
Nadia Kokni, SVP of global marketing and Daniel Grieder, CEO, Hugo Boss. Photo: Courtesy of Hugo Boss. Photo: Courtesy of Hugo Boss
The show and the brand’s recent sporting activations are partly to help drive the casualwear category, particularly in the US, Grieder says. “With our involvement in sport, we are also strengthening our 24-7 lifestyle positioning. Our collaboration with the NFL and the partnerships with football player Patrick Mahomes or baseball player Shohei Ohtani, for example, established Boss more strongly in the casualwear segment of the US market. Up to now, we have mainly been perceived there as a suit brand. It is about positioning the brand in a different area and attracting attention.”
Hugo Boss may have been activating in sport for some time, but there’s fresh competition as more and more brands invest in sports marketing — from LVMH’s Olympics sponsorship to Prada’s investment in sailing and skiing. How can the brand continue to set itself apart now that luxury and sport have become so synonymous?
“We were one of the first fashion brands to be active in this area, so it is indeed an important part of our brand,” Kokni says. (Hugo Boss has been investing in motorsports for over 50 years.) “Across media and social, we’ve seen a huge growth in interest around sports and athletes as brand ambassadors versus other types of talent (from other industries),” she says. “Athletes represent a positive message that perfectly represents what we wish to convey; they strive with passion, drive and resilience to excel in their field.”
A sports marketing summer
Today’s show will culminate a major summer of sports marketing for the Hugo and Boss brands. Formula One, which has surged in popularity in recent years since the release of Netflix’s Drive to Survive, is a key focus. Hugo sponsors the RB Formula One team, while Boss sponsors the Aston Martin team across all Grands Prix, including driver Fernando Alonso, for whom the brand designed a custom helmet ahead of the Silverstone Grand Prix. The season starts up again this month with races in Las Vegas and Singapore. Hugo Boss also sponsors the golf open (this year in Royal Troon, Scotland) and partners with golfers including Henrik Stenson, Byeong-Hun An and Martin Kaymer, the latter of whom has created a golf collection with the brand featuring polos and caps.
Boss designed F1 star Fernando Alonso's helmet, revealed at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. . Photo: Courtesy of Hugo Boss
In tennis, Boss sponsors high-ranking players Matteo Berrettini and Taylor Fritz. In 2022, the brand launched a tennis capsule collection with Berrettini, including polos, hoodies and accessories, rereleased each year since, in line with tennis season — which has been a “great success”, per the brand.
“We choose our ambassadors carefully. It is important that they match the messages of our brands, and that they have a high level of relevance and credibility in our target groups,” says Grieder. “Many of our brand ambassadors are athletes. They go the extra mile, are likeable and have the right mindset. Formula One driver Fernando Alonso, tennis players Matteo Berrettini and Taylor Fritz, ski racer Aleksander Kilde, or runner Alica Schmidt, for example, perfectly embody what Boss stands for today. They have the right attitude, energy and passion, and they are an inspiration for others.”
Boss also hosts its own tennis tournament, the Boss Open ATP 250, in the brand’s native Metzingen, Germany (near the well-known tennis open court Stuttgart) each June. Now in its third year, the tournament attracts high-profile players like Berrettini, Fritz and Frances Tiafoe; the latter even entered the top 10 using his score from the Boss ATP. “He was the third Black man ever to enter the top 10 by winning at the Boss Open, allowing us to be part of tennis and sporting history,” Kokni says. The tournament also features a pop-up shop selling Boss clothing, including the brand’s performance wear collaboration with Berrettini. “The event performs from a brand perspective really well, but also from a commercial perspective really, really well, Kokni says. “It was the right moment with the right product in the right way.”
For Gen Z-focused Hugo, the brand creates more light-hearted, youthful activations like the Hugo Garage at the Miami Grand Prix. “The Hugo brand is more for the rebellious digital native versus Boss, which is a little more about curated style,” Kokni says. So the brand brought this energy to the artsy Wynwood area with DJs and a miniature motor racing track. “It was really successful in bringing new audiences to the Hugo brand,” she says.
“This year is a magical culmination. Everything is happening. But I think we’ve seen over time that sports personalities are the ones that people are watching these days,” adds Kokni. “Media wise, through their impact, through their influence, and through the growing influence of sport, today’s athletes are the answer to movie and music stars.”
AW24 Boss x NFL featuring NFL player Braxton Berrios. Photo: Courtesy of Hugo Boss
Working with playing athletes can make it tricky to plan events and activities based on sporting schedules, which often clash with the fashion calendar, Kokni says. “Of course their club, their tournaments, their training, that takes precedence. So sometimes that can be a challenge,” she says.
Boss also works with sporting legends, who are perhaps on less of a tight training schedule. In August, Boss announced David Beckham as a “strategic multi-year ambassador”, revealing the sporting icon in its campaign. The strategic partnership will include capsule and seasonal collections designed and curated by Beckham, says Boss, with the football megastar involved at every stage of the design process. Beckham’s collection won’t feature in the upcoming show, according to the brand, and it remains to be seen whether he will make an appearance.
David Beckham was announced as a long term Boss partner in August. He will co-design collections for the brand in seasons to come. Photo: Courtesy of Hugo Boss
But it would be a strong move. “From a marketing perspective, the key objective of the show is to create excitement and desirability around the collection, enhancing our fashion credibility authentically for consumers, buyers and the fashion industry,” Kokni says. The brand will track reviews and reactions in the media — reach and engagement — particularly buzz on social platforms generated by top fashion insiders and culturally relevant talent attending the event, Kokni explains. “We will deliver engagement through social content captured before and after the show behind the scenes to draw traffic to our broadcast channel and live stream. In the longer term, we will evaluate how the show has impacted brand sentiment and whether it has increased the traffic towards Boss touchpoints.”
With athlete sponsorships and the show, the aim is to present an around-the-clock wardrobe to Boss customers. “We have to keep a fresh eye on what’s out there and what’s really cutting through,” Kokni says. “So for us, it’s about what we can deliver that is new. What will push us as a brand? Daniel [Grieder] has huge ambition and appetite for our brands. And of course, we want to make sure we’re running as fast as we can towards these things because we want to excite our consumers.”