Jacket Required - hummel: celebrating the underdogs and anti-heroes

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11 December 2018

Hummel: celebrating the underdogs and anti-heroes

Iconic brand Hummel’s identity is deeply rooted in sports, having provided kits for several high-profile football and handball teams over its impressive history.

But there’s far more to this brand than their iconic chevrons and football shirts. Ahead of their first appearance at Jacket Required in January, we spoke to Stephen Mckiernan, Hummel’s Country Sales Manager for Menswear in the UK and Ireland, to find out more.

Stephen, what’s the story behind hummel?

Hummel is one of the oldest sport brands in the business. Established in Germany in 1923, Hummel went on to develop the first football boot studs to improve the game. In the 1950s it fell into the hands of Danish ownership and the iconic chevrons were introduced to enhance its identity in the market.

Today it’s family owned, and we sponsor over 1,000 teams with deep roots in football and handball. We support the underdogs, we celebrate the anti-heroes and never conform. We believe we can help change the world through sport by supporting those that are less fortunate.

How would you describe the brand’s style?

We now introduce two collections to the market across men’s and womenswear. Hummel Sport Style, an easy to wear athleisure collection focusing on sport and comfort. Then we have Hummel HIVE, this offers a contemporary Scandinavian look that’s familiar by adding sport details drawn from our DNA and ties in with our archive. We also use HIVE to make collabs with the likes of Overkill, Hanon, 24 Kilates, Chavarria in NYC, and 424 in LA.

How do you position yourself among the high-profile sportswear mega brands?

We are the authentic alternative to the hyped sportswear mega brands, bringing some Scandinavian style.

In the UK, we are growing our team sponsorships across football and rugby from Glasgow Rangers and Middlesbrough to the England Rugby League team, this will create natural exposure and brand awareness to all ages. The 2019/20 season will see even more teams brought on board and we are also committed to marketing and social media, in which we are ready to work closely with our accounts to help push sell through.

How does Hummel’s heritage play a role in the current collections and designs?

The heritage is a huge thing for us to use and refer to in each collection, the branding of the chevrons and the bee logo are strong and still very relevant to today’s market. Everyone loves a heritage brand, right?

It’s great to see brands engage in wider social issues, can you tell us more about the social projects Hummel is involved in?

We are a karma brand wanting to change the world through sport. We create significant cultural and political statements, we cheer for the underdogs, those who battle injustice. For example, we ran an LGBT rights campaign during the FIFA World Cup in Russia. We also sponsor Rooklyn International FC, a refugee and immigrant football team standing up against the Trump administration.

To tie in with our Sport Style collection, we introduced ‘LOVE ATHLETES’ – four people we selected to support the cause by individually helping behind the scenes. Amalie helps Street Children in Tanzania through boxing, Tupaa runs yoga sessions for war veterans with PTSD, Troels trains the Danish National Homeless team, who was once without a home himself, and Arne runs handball workshops in Rwanda. We will continue to grow new projects like this.

What prompted your decision to exhibit at Jacket Required?

We see this show as a nice introduction for Hummel to the UK market and its buyers, we have appointments booked in and we look forward to seeing everyone drop by our stand for a peek at our collections and a chat.

What can we look forward to seeing from you at Jacket Required AW19?

Athletic Heritage, authenticity and Danishness across both men’s and women’s collections, along with archive footwear.

Join Hummel and many more brands at Jacket Required from 23-24 January 2019 and showcase your AW19 collection to the UK’s leading buyers across menswear, selected womenswear and lifestyle.

Enquire today to find out more about exhibiting.

Enquire now

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