Fila Korea to build new apparel development centre in China

Fila Korea Ltd is planning to build a new apparel development center in China and bolster its “Fila Heritage Line” as part of efforts to improve its brand awareness in the global fashion market.

It is time to focus to enhance Fila’s 105-year “heritage,” Fila Korea Chairman and chief executive Yoon Yoon-soo said during the two-day global branding enhancement meeting “Fila 20th GCM 2016” that ended Tuesday in Seoul. To further increase its brand awareness in the global market, Yoon urged the company’s global operations scattered across 20 countries to collaborate from the beginning of new product development to launching marketing strategies to improve its heritage line and asked Fila U.S.A. to spearhead such efforts.

The company held the “Fila 20th GCM 2016” in Seoul and over 100 executives and officials from its overseas operations across over 20 countries attended the meeting. At the event, Fila Korea Chairman, chief executive and Co-Rep Director Yoon Yoon-soo, Fila Korea Co-Rep Director Kim Jin-myeon, Fila U.S.A., Inc. President John Epstein, Fila U.S.A. Executive Vice-President Jennifer Estabrook, Fila China & Hong Kong chief executive Brian Yiu, and Fila Argentina S.A. chief executive Brian Hendley were present.

During the meeting, the fashion giant also announced that it will set up an additional apparel development center in Jinjang, China, where its footwear sourcing center is located. The new center is expected to help boost efficiency and competitiveness in terms of quality, cost and time of manufacturing and mass sourcing, the company said. It also vowed to improve the competitiveness of its footwear research & development center in Busan, Korea, as well as the design center in New York.

Fila will also launch group-wide collaborations once or twice a year and market the collaborated products simultaneously across the globe. Smaller collaborations will be also arranged to target each local market.

Fila Korea owns the worldwide rights to the Fila brand after it purchased the global Fila brand and all its international subsidiaries in 2007. The North American operation is its subsidiary, while Chinese branch is operated in a joint venture. Other regional offices are run under long-term partnership with local companies.