K-Way focuses on sport, will outfit France’s next America’s Cup team

From fashion week events to the America’s Cup. K-Way will outfit the newly formed Orient Express team which will represent France at the world famous sailing competition to be held in Barcelona waters next year. The vibe of K-Way’s most recent partnership, however, was very different: After K-Way brought Café de la Paix to Milan for the sportswear label’s Fashion Week show in January, K-Way took over the renowned Parisian café with Blick to the Opéra Garnier for a collaboration and gala evening.

The collaboration is a celebration of K-Way’s roots. Founder Léon-Claude Duhamel is said to have developed the K-Way concept in 1965 by looking at the customers of the café. K-Way is now owned by the Italian group BasicNet, which has revived the brand over the last 10 years. Lorenzo Boglione, Group Vice President and Sales Director, spoke to FashionNetwork.com about his vision for K-Way, with the expansive windows of the luxury Parisian café in the background.

“When we bought K-Way, the brand was still very well known. In Europe it had even become a common term to refer to a type of windbreaker. Our goal was to reposition K-Way as a stylish, contemporary functional brand. After 10 years of efforts, I think we have achieved our goal: people like [K-Way], and wear it with pride. We sell many sports jackets and other products in France and many other markets. So we thought it was time to talk about our history. But avoiding banality, which wasn’t so easy. This collaboration with Café de la Paix, a first for them, allowed us to tell our story.”

The collaboration brought a Parisian café vibe to K-Way’s Milan Fashion Week in January. When K-Way first attended a fashion week three years ago, attendance might have come as a surprise, but the label’s outerwear design team was able to develop a clear style positioning that the label skilfully picks up on.

“Ultimately, fashion weeks are like platforms, moments when all eyes are on the same point. A bit like the Super Bowl in the USA. If you’re able to create a small space in the spotlight, whether it’s with a fashion show, an event or something else, you can bring together a lot of prominent people, from buyers to influencers to celebrities and media. We’re not actually a show label, in the sense that 80% of our sales come from products that are variations on the same theme, but we are visible and that’s important given that buyers come to our showrooms in January and February. January Fashion Week is perfect for us.”

Fashion and Sports Marketing

Boglione believes that a fashion week presence is not at odds with sports-related investments. “We are both sporty and fashionable. Ultimately, our customers love our products because they are colorful and easy to wear. We are well on the way to combining a premium sporting image with style and design credibility.”

After a Formula 1 theme line with the Alpine team, K-Way developed a first ski clothing collection for next winter. It is also dedicated to golf and will outfit the members of the French sailing team at the next America’s Cup, with skipper Quentin Delapierre and performance director Franck Cammas at the helm.

K-Way will produce the team’s competition gear as well as their formal outfits. In fact, BasicNet will provide the Orient Express team with their own brands from head to toe: Sebago produces shoes, Briko the athletes’ protective equipment and Kappa takes care of the training clothing.

“The combination of sports marketing with fashion is a powerful one. We are not the first to have walked this path. But we have the perfect legacy for both of us, because K-Way was a sportswear brand long before it was any fashion label,” said Boglione. “We made sailing gear in the 1970s and skiwear in the 1980s, so we’re staying true to our brand’s roots.”

The recent collaborations also marked a new stage in K-Way’s brand development. According to Boglione “[K-Way] plays a critical role in BasicNet’s growth and profitability and is an investment property. We have been able to successfully manage the growth of the label and its sales presence.” Through its involvement in top-level sport, K-Way is gaining visibility at a time when it is launching a new course of international expansion. Last year, the label took direct control of its distribution in France and signed a deal with the Bluebell group to accelerate in Asia.

Retail expansion

“In Europe we have a strong presence in Italy and France. We will open a number of new stores, but above all we will improve existing ones. We need larger stores with a sales area of ​​between 100 and 200 square meters that are able to present our entire range from skiwear to sailing wear and accessories.” With this in mind, K-Way has its store on Rue du Temple in Paris modernized and adopted the new interior concept that was first tested in Verona and Bologna in Italy and later deployed in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Boglione visited the latter store a week ago as part of its partnership with Bluebell, which will open a second K-Way store in the city at Tsin K11 Art mall. In mainland China, BasicNet is working with Translatio, a subsidiary of Bluebell, which operates a store in Shanghai and a concession in the Beijing branch of Galeries Lafayette, and has further plans for the second half of the year.

Plans for 2023? “We’re reasonably optimistic, even though consumers around the world are very reluctant to shop,” Boglione said. “We’ve managed to limit price increases for our products and I think we’re one of the labels that multibrand retailers trust the most. I am confident in our business with them because we have had a positive sales phase. [Direct] Retail will be challenging because we need to get consumers into stores. I’m not going to make a prediction, but I don’t think as a group we’ll repeat the same performance we did in 2022, especially since [last year] we made some acquisitions. However, despite the volatility of the dollar, I hope that our profitability will improve. We are a family business. Our goal is for our business to be healthy and still be there 20 years from now.”

In 2022, BasicNet had a turnover of 1.2 billion euros with a net profit of over 30 million euros and the scope of its activities could well be expanded. “We have the opportunity to acquire a new brand,” said Boglione. “But we need a very special brand that fits well with our portfolio. Some of our brands have very strong heritages and sell products that are categories unto themselves. So far, I haven’t found a target that meets these requirements,” concluded Boglione.