Born in Italy in 1911, the sports firm Fila had one of its best moments in the 1990s for its large-format sneakers with thick soles that were baptized as ‘father’s sneakers’. However, its heyday ended in the 2000s, when the brand suffered a significant decline in sales and the new owner of Fila, the US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management who bought it in 2003, overinvested. Fila’s luck changes in 2007 when Korean businessman Yoon Yoon-soo buys it and applies the revival strategy: recover the iconic products of the 90s.
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Yoon Yoon-soo started at Fila in 1991 as director of the company’s business in South Korea, earning an annual salary of $1.5 million. However, he had bigger goals. Thus, in January 2007, he spearheaded a $400 million leveraged buyout of the global Fila brand and all of its subsidiaries. And in 2010, he took the company public in South Korea.
Another important key to Yoon’s business strategy was building a majority stake, starting in 2011, in the company now called Acushnet Holdings Corp., the maker of Titleist golf balls. Acushnet listed its shares in New York in 2016. Fila Korea reported revenue of 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) in 2018, of which 61% came from Acushnet, according to Fila Korea.
Fila’s success strategy
Central to Fila’s comeback was its move to bring back iconic products from the ’90s, targeting shoppers looking for vintage styles. Ella’s Disruptor 2 sneakers, for example, reintroduced in 2017, were among the most popular women’s sneakers at some point last year, according to fashion search platform Lyst. Row estimates that more than 10 million pairs were sold as of January.
Fila also got help from celebrities who started wearing their products. Both the American model Kendall Jenner and the singer Rihanna have been seen with clothing from the firm. Another of the successes was to start a price drop. “Fila shifted its target from people in their 30s and 40s to younger clients while cutting prices,” said Na Eun-chae, an analyst at Seoul-based brokerage Korea Investment & Securities Co. “That worked out well, along with their focus on the shoe segment.”
Fila Korea shares have risen 400% from the start of last year through Friday, increasing its market value to $4.3 billion. The stock rose as much as 0.4% in early trading on Monday. Yoon and his family own about 20% of the company.
Fila now operates in more than 70 countries. The brand is experiencing rapid growth in markets such as China, where Fila Korea has a 15% stake in a joint venture with Anta Sports Products Ltd.
Yoon’s profile
Yoon never imagined a professional career running a sports brand. In fact, he had always dreamed of being a doctor, influenced by the death of his mother, due to typhus, and his father, due to cancer. However, he failed three times in his attempt to enter medical school and ended up graduating in Political Science and Diplomacy.
His age made him an unattractive candidate for entry-level jobs at most companies. After many attempts, Yoon landed at JC Penney Co., buying Korean products to sell in the US. Later, he met Fila in the US and convinced the firm to make shoes in South Korea. South. After that, Yoon was asked to establish and run the company’s Korean business, which he later purchased before acquiring the global brand.
Yoon, who once said that he would like his epitaph to be that he “worked hard,” is unlikely to judge his success on his net worth alone. “The accumulation of wealth that is not morally justified is meaningless,” she once told the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo. “We have to remember how we made our fortune.” About Fila, Yoon stated that the label is more than just a sports brand for him: “It’s more like a baby I had at the age of 45,” he said.
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