Italian footwear specialist Nice Footwear, which has held the licence for the Ellesse sneakers’ development, production and distribution in Italy for 10 years, has announced it has now added the French market to the licence agreement, strengthening its collaboration with Pentland, the UK holding company that owns the Ellesse brand.

 
Nice Footwear has a solid track record on the French market, and in January 2022 it opened a showroom in Paris, located in the Marais district.
 
“Ellesse is an athleisure brand with a unique heritage that is perfectly consistent with Nice Footwear’s development strategy. Our plan is to consolidate [Nice Footwear’s] position as Italy’s leading centre for footwear design and development, by promoting craftsmanship with an Industry 4.0 approach,” said Bruno Conterno, president and CEO of Nice Footwear. “Relaunching an Italian brand that has made sportswear history is a major opportunity to promote local know-how and manufacturing expertise, while adopting the most advanced technology and industrial innovation,” he added.

The licence deal’s extension is part and parcel of the collaboration between Nice Footwear and Ellesse. In the last few years, the long-established Italian brand, founded in Perugia in 1959, has been relaunched, and its revenue grew by 30% in Italy in the last season. The first Ellesse global project driven by Nice Footwear played a part in this: for the Fall/Winter 2024, Ellesse dropped the LSR capsule collection designed by Till Jagla, a reinterpretation of an archive model from 1978.

 
“Thanks to its knowledge and experience in the footwear sector, and its propensity for cutting-edge innovation, Nice Footwear is the ideal partner to continue the relaunch plan of an Italian brand that has left its mark on athleisure history. Following the positive results we have achieved, we are expanding our collaboration. We recently put Nice Footwear in charge of [Ellesse’s] global strategy, and today we are extending the licence to the French market, a strategic area for Ellesse’s positioning,” said Jack Richardson, global brand director at Pentland Brands.
 
Nice Footwear was founded in 2004 in Padua. Besides the Ellesse license, it manages its own brand Kronos and two licensed brands, Lyle & Scott and Avirex. As of 30 April 2023, Nice Footwear reported a revenue of €46.9 million. Last year, the company bought Favaro Manifattura Calzaturiera Srl and Emmegi Srl, two leading Italian high-end footwear and accessories producers, pursuing its strategy of bringing together under the same umbrella a number of specialist manufacturers.