08 July 2019
The Jacket Required SS20 Line Up: Lotto
From emerging names to well-established classics, the Jacket Required line-up features some of the most exciting brands out there. That’s why we’re thrilled to be showcasing the iconic Italian sportswear brand Lotto at this season’s edition. The sportswear specialists have become something of a fixture in tennis, football, cricket and more, with an impressive line-up of sports star sponsors to boot. Ahead of their exciting relaunch at Jacket Required SS20, we spoke to the Lotto team to get the lowdown on what they’ll be bringing.
Tell us the story behind Lotto – how did the brand start?
It all started in 1973 in the shoemaking district of Montebelluna, in northeastern Italy.
Lotto was established as one of the many shoe manufacturers in the area, producing tennis shoes, and later, specialist shoes for basketball, volleyball, and football as well. Seeing such success in a short time, it only seemed natural for the brand to expand into sportswear as well.
Innovation continued and Lotto’s constant commitment to excellence was rewarded by the loyalty of many sporting champions. In the seventies and early eighties, the company worked with international stars such as John Newcombe and Alberto Mancini from the world of tennis, and Dino Zoff, Ruud Gullit and the Dutch National team from that of football. The collaboration with such figures led to the company developing beyond Italy and, within a decade, the Lotto label was being distributed worldwide.
Over the years, the company developed its high-performance sector, particularly in footwear, and in technical wear for football and tennis. Based on the experience gained in manufacturing, styling and the technical area, a line of men’s and women’s footwear and clothing was created with a sport-inspired taste and image.
Today, innovation, design and Italian spirit combined with the philosophy of active well-being are the values on which Lotto bases its strategic positioning, which is increasingly oriented towards growing the "active lifestyle" segment.
The evolution in this area has brought the definition of a new brand architecture, which has involved developing five different brands under the heading of the Lotto mother brand:
Lotto Performance, for the sport professionals, as well as passionate sport participants. Lotto Life is dedicated to wellbeing, leisure and a more casual, athleisure style. Moving onto the more historic side of the brand, Lotto Leggenda, which tells our stories and projects the Lotto past into the present day, with historical products revisited to offer pieces that stand out. Aequiter is our protective and supportive sports footwear line, and last but not least, Lotto Works, which offers high quality technical solutions for the workplace.
What is the story behind the iconic Lotto logo?
From the outset, the Lotto name was associated with its historical logo, the overlapping lozenges of a tennis court and football pitch, representing the company’s passion for sport and fair play, which are still deeply rooted in Lotto’s DNA.
How does Lotto combine the technical aspects of sportswear with its more stylish ranges?
After already chalking up over 45 years of history, the desire to grow and explore new frontiers continues to be one of the distinctive features of Lotto Sport Italia. The company whose products have graced the world’s sports fields and seen extraordinary performances from the greatest players and the most successful teams now seeks new challenges, changing its skin to look increasingly to the worlds of fashion and lifestyle.
Market trends are seeing consumers shifting their attention towards less-competitive sports and more towards the feel-good factor, socialising and sheer enjoyment.
There is now a closer connection between fashion and sport, where sportswear has long since shifted its focus to undermine the tenets of traditional fashion and offer highly desirable, must-have items for a fashion-addicted ‘cool set’. The increasingly marked crossover from sportswear to fashion and from fashion towards sportswear is well under way as is borne out by the many capsule collections and collaborations between sports brands and stylists, where sportswear is the new chic, and variant of contemporary elegance.
This change of skin began a couple of years ago when Lotto embarked on its repositioning driven by an active well-being philosophy as a way of interpreting sport that goes beyond competitiveness and embraces lifestyle. The philosophy, in combination with the expertise developed by Lotto in the high-performance area, has resulted in the brand’s architecture being restructured, with different and highly-focused identities. This has led to the introduction of the new Life's brand and a repositioning from the ‘pure sports’ segment to a wider ‘lifestyle’ concept.
The journey in the direction of fashion is ongoing, with Lotto drawing new energy from diverse fashion collaborations, joining brands with quite different roots, to create exclusive products that enhance the sports heritage of the Lotto and Lotto Leggenda brands, boosting them with the tastes and trends of a fashion world increasingly inspired by sport.
Why are you exhibiting at Jacket Required this season?
As part of our repositioning, we are looking to bring our iconic capsule collections into the fashion mainstream. As the UK market is primed and ready for this, we feel that now is a perfect time for us to relaunch in the UK.
Put simply, Jacket Required is the perfect platform for us to achieve our current goals of re-entering the UK market. Not only is it one of the UK’s leading trade shows, it also attracts some of the key buyers in menswear, activewear and street style – those that we know and those that we are excited to meet at the show! Whilst we haven’t exhibited the Lotto label before at Jacket Required, we have visited, and we know that our collections are the perfect fit for the curated line-up and we’re looking forward to exhibiting alongside like-minded brands.
What will you be bringing to the SS20 edition?
We’ll be bringing both the premium Lotto Leggenda sneaker collection and the Lotto Life’s Athletica collection to Jacket Required this season. Both of these lines represent the history and ethos of Lotto and, we feel, are the best way to remind Jacket Required’s visitors just why the Lotto brand is so well-loved.
The Life's Athletica capsule collection is inspired by our iconic ‘90s styles. We’ll be bringing back the best of Lotto in the ‘90s, and reinventing them to bring a retro yet modern look. Inspired by current fashion trends, visitors can expect to see embroidered maxi logos, shiny fabrics, macro tapes and the super on-trend logo stripes. For men, expect garden greens and acai violet. Meanwhile in the women’s line, we’ve gone with fluoro red and diva blue. There’s no denying it’s a bright collection!
Lotto Leggenda breathes new life into our most iconic designs of yesterday, adding value to them with contemporary design. The SS220 Leggenda collection sees the return of three models, the G. Slam and B. Legend for men and the Sole for women. We have reimagined these styles, staying true to our aesthetic and paying homage to the champions who wore them.
The men’s G. Slam is a classic tennis shoe, which symbolises the elegance of the sport. The new model will be available in three different colours – snow white/ green resin inspired by Wimbledon’s green turf, snow white/ bossa nova red taken from the clay courts at Roland Garros and snow white for the hard courts of the Australian and US Opens.
The men’s B. Legend is also a classic for its sport and is clearly inspired by basketball. The name B. Legend could stand for either “Be Legend” or “Basket Legend” and plays homage to the actual legends of the sport.
Finally, the women’s Sole shoe is the must-have for any sneaker lover. The chunky shoe is available in four versions, the Sole W, with leather and mesh upper and iridescent finishing, the Sole Pastel W, which has a modern charm with summer-y pastels, the Sole Python W, our proudest shoe yet with maximum personality, and finally the Sole Patent, which is the most sporty and versatile of the collection.
Get nostalgic with Lotto this season at Jacket Required. Join us, Lotto and a whole host of iconic and emerging brands at the SS20 edition taking place at the Old Truman Brewery on 24th and 25th July.