Superga, K-Way Gearing Up for Milestone Anniversaries

MILAN — “This is the moment to celebrate the history of our brands, and the reason why these brands continue to be appreciated is because of their history.”

Lorenzo Boglione was speaking of K-Way, which next year marks 65 years in business, and the 2750 Superga sneaker, which celebrates a century in 2025. But the vice president of BasicNet Group and chief executive officer of K-Way and Sebago said their history should not overcloud how contemporary they are.

“Sure, these brands are iconic and classic, and people remember them, but not everyone in every country knows their history, so it’s up to us to tell it. This is fundamental,” he said.

Indeed, with their unique heritage, each brand in BasicNet’s portfolio does have a story to tell and the group continues to evolve the labels through a contemporary lens with collaborations, sports sponsorships and cultural initiatives. For example, K-Way, founded in 1965 by Léon-Claude Duhamel in Paris and known for its packable windbreaker, is the official supplier of the uniforms — technical regatta gear and leisurewear — for the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez crew of French challenger Orient Express Racing Team. The team will compete in the 37th edition of the America’s Cup that will take place in Barcelona between Aug. 22 and Oct. 27.

The crew’s lead skipper, Quentin Delapierre, has been a K-Way brand ambassador since 2023. 

K-Way was acquired by BasicNet in 2004 and since then it has forged links with designer brands including Saint Laurent, Fendi and Comme des Garçons, to name a few, and introduced runway collections presented at its Milan BasicVillage, unveiled in 2022. It has also kicked off art partnerships and activations at Art Basel in Miami and Artissima in Turin, Italy.

To mark K-Way’s anniversary, Boglione is “thinking of an itinerant exhibition. The brand created a product category that did not exist. To celebrate ourselves is not easy, we must be credible artistically and culturally.”

The young executive is the son of BasicNet founder Marco Boglione, who conceived the group in 1994 as a marketplace and publicly listed it on the Milan Stock Exchange in 1999. In addition to K-Way and Superga, the group controls the Kappa, Robe di Kappa, Sebago, Jesus Jeans, Sabelt and Briko brands.

Stemming from the storied traditional clothing company Maglificio Calzificio Torinese, which was founded in 1916, BasicNet doesn’t produce or distribute the collections of its brands. Billing itself as a “fully web-integrated company” through a digitally advanced platform, it acts as a marketplace where manufacturers and distributors meet to do business. In particular, BasicNet, whose headquarters are in Turin, designs and develops its labels’ collections, then the company signs licensing agreements with international producers and distributors, which receive from BasicNet all they need to manufacture and sell the products, from research and development to global marketing.

Asked about the marketplace model in this economy, Boglione said it “remains current and it’s flexible,” but admitted “now the scenario is more complicated.” Europe, which is the group’s main market representing 60 percent of sales, is “one and not a group of single markets, so to have 10 or 20 licenses has become more complicated, leading to alternative structures. For this reason, we took control of distribution in France for K-Way with the spring 2024 season and in Spain for Sebago with the spring 2025 collection.”

At a moment when companies are delisting, Tod’s for example, or postponing their initial public offering (Golden Goose), he also touted the value of the Bourse. “It’s better to have many shareholders rather than one, and to have the market judging the company,” he contended.

BasicNet’s aggregate sales in 2023 amounted to 1.14 billion euros. Consolidated revenues last year totaled 396.8 million euros, up 2.7 percent compared with 386.1 million euros in 2022.

Direct sales amounted to 332.8 million euros, a 6.4 percent increase on 312.7 million euros the year before and royalties totaled 62.3 million euros.

On the trend, Boglione conceded “March, April and the first half of May were tough, but from the second half of May, June and early July improved considerably.”

The brands of the BasicNet Group are present in 140 markets in the world, and Boglione believes an added asset is the products’ “reasonable price and their credibility. These are popular and democratic products and we try to do the best product at the best price.” Outside of Europe, while business in the U.S. is difficult now, it is especially strong in Africa, the Middle East, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.

Lorenzo Boglione’s brother Alessandro is executive vice president of BasicNet and CEO of Superga, also sharing the role of CEO of K-Way.