Fila opens brand experience centre in home town of Biella, Italy

Fila has come back home. The long-established Italian sportswear brand, founded in Biella in Piedmont in 1911, has opened a new brand experience centre in its home town, inside the building at viale Cesare Battisti 26 that was home to the brand’s headquarters between 1923 and 2004.
 

Fila has bought back and fully renovated the viale Cesare Battisti building, which is now home to the Fila Museum, the brand’s footwear, apparel and document archives, offices, and multipurpose areas for events and meetings.
 
Inside the 8,200-square-metre building, Fila has designed an immersive, engaging exhibition that traces its transformation from its early days as an underwear producer to the 1970s shift towards activewear, under the aegis of Enrico Frachey, who identified tennis as a key sport, linking Fila to iconic names such as Björn Borg, who became an ambassador for the brand.
 

The museum takes visitors time-travelling through Fila’s history, up to the latest innovations in sportswear and fashion. The section dedicated to tennis celebrates a key time for the brand: The introduction in 1974 of the White Line collection, which broke new ground by bringing colour into tennis apparel, with the first pin-striped polos worn by Borg.

The sports section pays tribute to athletes who have accomplished memorable feats wearing Fila, like Reinhold Messner on his 1978 ascent of Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen, or Giovanni Soldini, who has circumnavigated the world wearing Fila sailing gear. The museum’s Sneakers area focuses on another product category, mapping the evolution of footwear and underlining how Fila became a name in 1990s street culture.

 
Finally, the narrative focuses on Fila’s development into a brand able to cross the boundaries between sport and fashion, through collaborations with the likes of Fendi, Y Project, Haider Ackermann, Roksanda and Hailey Bieber, among others.
 
The Fila brand experience centre will be open to the public from November 14.