Italian sportswear brand Lotto expands in USA, grows across Europe

On the opening day of the Pitti Uomo 105 menswear show, FashionNetwork.com met the president and CEO of Italian sportswear brand Lotto, Andrea Tomat, who outlined the main projects in the pipeline for the brand founded in 1973 in Italy’s Veneto region.

In 2022, Lotto started a strong expansion drive on the US market, after inking a deal with investment fund WHP to distribute its products via Dick’s Sporting Goods, one of the USA’s leading sport apparel and equipment omni-channel retailers. Lotto has become a primary partner of Dick’s Sporting Goods for the football and tennis shoes categories.

“In the USA, football [as in soccer] is extremely popular and widely practised. It’s the country’s fourth most popular sport after American football, basketball and baseball. The United States Soccer Federation has as many registered players as those registered in the whole of Europe!” said Tomat.

“Interestingly, in the USA soccer is regarded as a genuinely unisex sport, and its practice is strongly encouraged because it’s consistent with the essential requirements for an active lifestyle, especially for the very young: it’s an entry-level sport in many schools, a team sport, it’s not dangerous, and it helps optimise the psychomotor development of children. Our range is highly appreciated, to the point that we can compete with a giant like Nike,” he added proudly. The Dick’s Sporting Goods deal means that Lotto, besides supplying Italian-designed and manufactured products, is also licensed to develop a range of soccer-related accessories that will enable the brand to further boost its market presence. Lotto’s soccer range was first introduced in the USA with the summer 2023 collection, and the tennis range will follow in summer 2024.

From an initial 250 addresses, Lotto’s retail footprint is expected to reach 800 in a matter of a few seasons, and the 2026 Football World Cup, which will be hosted by the USA together with Canada and Mexico, will be the ideal opportunity to tap the brand’s great potential on this key market. In the USA, Lotto is also planning to deploy the Leggenda (legend) project, a contemporary take on some of the brand’s iconic sneakers worn by sporting greats in the 1970s and 80s. Lotto is planning to introduce the line on the US market in the second half of 2024.

Lotto is also about to launch ‘Ooh!’, its first ecological sneakers model, on the Italian market. These tennis-inspired shoes feature brand-new, sustainably developed materials: the sole is made using recycled tennis and padel balls, while the upper utilises waste derived from the processing of apples. Tomat explained that the model’s name reflects multiple concepts, combining as it does “a feeling of surprise with two circles referring to the rounded shape of tennis balls and apples, the project’s key underlying elements.” Lotto’s new sustainability efforts will be bolstered by ACBC, a leading Milan-based consulting firm specialised in sustainability. ACBC, also a sustainable sneakers brand and the first B Corp-certified footwear company in Italy, was founded by Gio Giacobbe and Edoardo Iannuzzi in 2018.

Lotto is undoubtedly in the midst of a major organisational and distributive transformation. The company’s strategy is to reach a new equilibrium among its various product lines, and between e-tail and traditional retail. Tomat said Lotto is aiming to grow also on the European market, following the signing of two major distribution partnerships in the last 12 months. One with a Danish company that will expand the brand’s retail presence in northern Europe (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland), and another with a German company for the DACH market. Lotto intends to expand globally both with its specialist sportswear business and the lifestyle/leisurewear categories, especially womenswear, which is increasingly important. Men’s products are still Lotto’s main revenue driver, accounting for 60% of the business, but the women’s range (currently with a 20% share, the same as children’s) is growing robustly.

Despite its increasingly international outlook, Lotto still has a strong presence in Italy, where it generates 25% of its revenue and where the design, production and retail operations departments – for EMEA markets and all its directly owned stores – are based.