TESINA : HOW LOTTO ADAPTED ITALIAN DESIGN TO SPORTSWEAR ?

by Jean-François Kantke

NOVEMBRE 2012

INTRODUCTION

Welcome dear reader. In this tésina we are going to analyse how the Italian sportswear

brand called Lotto adapted italian design to the sportwear industry. I choose Lotto company

for my tésina on the « Made in Italy » because Lotto defined its products as « italian sport design »

and I found interesting to unterstand how sportwear, which is stateless and usually less associated to

design than fashion, could be considered as italian and design.

To answer to this question we will firstly present the brand Lotto. Secondly we will define

what is the « Made in Italy » through four major pillars. Then we will analyse how the history, the

strategy and the management of Lotto matche with the definition of the « Made in Italy ». Finally,

we will shortly conclude by presenting the key factors of success of Lotto to be considered as an

italian sport designer.

LOTTO SPORT ITALIA

Lotto Sport Italia is an Italian sportwear manufacturer, its products are now distributed in

more than 60 countries.

Lotto's main strengths is to innovate through design to answer directly to the consumers

needs. To achieve this goal, Lotto rely on dynamism, innovation, quality, Italian design, passion for

sport and being very attentive to the needs of its customers .

According to the fact that Lotto is a sportwear manufacturer, the company want to create

technical clothing that can contribute in increasing the performance of the athletes who were it. That

is why Lotto gives so much importance in innovation and design and especially in order to offer

footwear perfectly adapted to specific sport activity.

As we just said, Lotto design functional products capable of increasing the performance of

atlhetes but Lotto focuses not only on usefulness but also on the aesthetical aspect of the product

using selected materials and colors to express it italian style.

To sum up the DNA of Lotto we could say that it is based on the one hand on beauty of the

sportwear clothing according to the italian style and on the other hand on the functional aspect of

the design to increase performance. Moreover the DNA is also strongly marked by an excellent

manufactural know-how, that we are going to talk about later, that guarantees the quality of Lotto's

products.

HISTORY OF THE BRAND

Lotto was established in 1973 in Montebelluna which was at that time the world centre of

footwear manufacturing. The brand has been created by the Caberlotto family, who were also the

proprietors of the football team of Treviso. At the beginning Lotto was only a sports footwear

manufacturer specialized in Tennis then it extended its range to basketball, volleyball, athletics and

football boot.

In the 1980s, Lotto created its first football boot. It is also at this time that its collaboration

started with great athletes (football players as Dino Zoff and Ruud Gullit) and international football

teams such as AC Milan (1993–98), the Netherlands national football team, Napoli, Juventus,

Chievo Verona, ect...

In 1999, a group of local business people specialize in the sports area took over the company

and renamed it Lotto Sport Italia. Since then the brand focuse on its dynamism, innovation, quality,

Italian design, passion and an extremely effective customer service program.

Nowdays Lotto Sport Italia manages five brands:

Lotto

Lotto Leggenda – upmarket lifestyle products

Lotto Works - online clothing, shoes and safety accessories for working

DD - brand specializing in designed footwear

Etonic – American company producing shoes for the running, golf, bowling and walking

In addition, specialized companies produce and distribute under licence lines of sport

lingerie, stationery, cosmetics and watches bearing the logo Lotto.

MADE IN ITALY

Made in Italy means in the strict sens that a product is design and produce 100% in Italy.

Here we are more talking about the caracteristics of a brand or a product which people associated

directly to Italy. There is four main pillars that a brand has to combined to be seen as offering

« Made in Italy » products. These four pillars are the following one :

A Family Story : In this case the company is created by a person and then managed by its family as Bvlgari, Gucci or Versace. Most of the time the creator give its family name to the brand.

Territorial Know-How : The company exploite a territorial know-how, as for example the

glassmakers of Murano or luthiers of Venise.

Genio italico : The design of product is based on high craft and high technologies to make the product beautiful, functionnal and manufactural.

Humanism : That means that man is at the centre at the design process.

THE FOUNDER : GIOVANNI CABERLOTTO

Married and father of two children, he was only 23

years old when he founded Caber (manufacturer of ski

boots) that he sold to Spalding in 1974. Then, with his two

brothers, Sergio and Albero, he founded in 1973 the Lotto

shoe company in Montebelluna, that he managed as

general director.

In 1993 he acquires 90% of the Treviso Foot-Ball Club.

He assume the presidency of the football club and in 1997

the Treviso Foot-Ball Club return to Serie B, after 42 years

of absence.

Giovanni Caberlotto died the same year (1997) from a heart attack at only 56. Since then,

his wife Adriana, ran the company until its selling.

It is interesting to note that Signore Caberlotto give a part of its familly name to its two

companies ; Caber and Lotto. Moreover we are in a case of family story as refering to the first

pillar of « Made in Italy » defined previously.

THE CITY OF CREATION: MONTEBELLUNA

Montebelluna is a town of

approximately 30.000 inhabitants located

int the italian region of Veneto in the

Province of Treviso.

Montebelluna is a major producer

of shoes worldwide, especially technical

sport shoes as ski boots, climbing shoes or

football shoes. For exemple three quarters

of the world production of ski boots are

produce in the region of Montebelluna.

Many shoe companies are linked to

Montebelluna in a certain way. For

example Fila has research and

development facilities in Montebelluna.

Northwave was created by Gianni Piva in

Montebelluna. Geox is also based in

Montebelluna. The kybun Corporation of

the Swiss engineer Karl Müller produces a

part of its shoes in Montebelluna. Diemme,

Stonefly and the world leader in the

production of mountain shoes Scarpa are

based in Montebelluna.

Why is Montebelluna a world center of shoe making ? From the Middle Ages, Montebelluna

already counted few shoemakers among its population but it is under the Napoleonian Empire that

the shoemaking activity of Montebelluna start to extend in the empire and the city became a well-

known center of production for shoes.

The growth of the number of shoemakers in the city, shows how successful was the selling

of shoes produced in Montebelluna :

In 1808, the city had a dozen of shoemakers

In 1840, the city had 36 shoemakers

In 1873, the city had 55 shoemakers

In the early twentieth century, the city has more than 200 shoemakers

As we can see, the number of shoemakers in Montebelluna grew increasingly between 1808

and the beginning of the twentieth century but especially after 1870's because of the second

industrial revolution. At that time, local shoemakers start producing boots for woodcutters and

mountain people in the area. Montebelluna also became an easy place for boots and shoemakers

thanks to a well-established support sector which includes local tanneries, shoelace makers and

eyelet suppliers.

The winter sports phenomenon appears in the first half of the 20th century, but spending its

holiday in ski stations started to be democratized only after World War II, increasing household

needs in ski equipment. That is why in 1960s, Montebelluna located in the Highland start to be a

main producer of ski boots as well as the town's reputation for "a high standard of craftsmanship,

quality materials and a flexibility to meet new market trends " spread, (said Professor Aldo

Durante, director of Montebelluna's Museo dello Scarpone e della Calzatura Sportiva).

To conclude, we can said that Lotto company exploite the shoemaking know-how

associated to Montebelluna. This was the second pillar we determined for « Made in Italy »

production

GENIO ITALICO

Lotto is a well-known all around the world company because it is associated to italian style

and technological innovation within the heart of Sport. The main strengths of Lotto is to keep

continual attention to innovation. For its leisure clothing as for its footwear range of products,

technology, product design and Italian style are the basic ingredients.

Example : Lotto Zhero Gravity Football Boot

Thanks to its technological innovation as the Lace Less

technology, Lotto Sport Italia has created the first Laceless football

boot in the world called Lotto Zhero Gravity. This high technology

shoe improves the performance of the football players guarantying

the perfect fit to the shape of the foot and maximum sensitivity

when controlling the ball. This aerodynamic pair of shoes as been design to wraps the foot like a

glove, this way it give a feeling of beeing extremely light and comfortable.

The patented ReactiveArch technology design by Lotto Sport

italia is the first dynamic concave shaped sole that flexes, moving in

unison with the natural deformation movement of the transversal

arch in the forefoot, favouring the return of stored energy in the

direction of movement. Thanks to this ReactiveArch

technology the Lotto Zhero Gravity shoes ensure an

improved protection of the ankle and reduces trauma

due to the impact with the ground that the foot

undergoes when runnning.

The Twist'n'Go technology

Lotto Sport created in collaboration with Ergovision

Lab the revolutionary Twist'n'Go technology. It consists in a

pivoting stud positioned in the area of the first metatarsal.

Thanks to the Twist'n'Go and its pivoting stud, the boot allow

to follow the rotational movement of the athlete easier, making

the change in direction more harmonious and natural. It also

reduce the risk of injury as ankle sprain.

« When less is more »

Lotto Sport Italia try to innovate, creating new technologies easy to use and capable to

make life better. For example Lotto Zhero Gravity is based on simple technological innovations that

could be use into everyday life in the most simple and intuitive way.

The motto of Lotto is that one element less means more performance, like with the laceless football

boots. Lotto is not only producing sportwear clothe but sport equipments designed to increase the

performance of the athlete.

To conclude we can say that Lotto is a good example of

the Genio Italico because the company use the creativity of

its designers to create new innovative product facilitating the

life of its users (per una piu bella dolce vita). To put it in a

nutshell, the genio italico is a mix between the idea of the

designer and the know how of the producer.

HUMANISM

The humanism way of designing sport items is based on empathy. That means that behind

products there are designers who create sport clothing for other people : the athletes. Even if these

designers are not professional footballers or tennismen they have to understand their needs and

designs products that can improve or facilitate their sport performance. That is why at the end of the

1970's, Lotto started to collaborate with professionals athletes as John David Newcombe for tennis,

to improve its understanding of the tennis players issues in term of equipment.

Thanks to its humanist way of designing sport clothing and especially shoes, Lotto

manufacture its first models of football boots in the beginning of the 1980's with the collaborations

of famous football players as Dino Zoff, Carlo Ancelotti, Ruud Gullit. In the tennis field it start to

collaborate with Alberto Mancini and Thomas Muster in tennis.

The involvement of athletes in the design and development of products led the company to

become a leader in tennis and football field. In the same period, Lotto started distributing its

products in foreign markets. This worldwide recognition marked the starting point of new

partnerships and sponsoring with national sport teams. The first national sport team to be sponsored

by Lotto company was the National Dutch football in the 1980's.

Since then Lotto company has been using athletes as icons. The main athletes who

represented the company were the following :

1982 For the first time Lotto was in the spotlight of the most important football event : the FIFA World Cup in Spain that the Italian National team won to became Champion of the World. The famous italian football player Dino Zoff was wearing Lotto's football boots which were a proof of excellence for the company.

1990 The World Football Championships took place in Italy and the national team finish at

the third place. Lotto was the official sponsor of the famous italian football palyers Aldo

Serena and Carlo Ancelotti.

1990's Big names of the sport area, such as the legendary Boris Becker (german tennis

player) and Martina Navratilova (Czech tenniswoman), promote the Lotto brand in the world. At that time, Lotto's products start to be highly appreciated by the best professional sports

1998 Lotto is the technical sponsor and official supplier to the National Czech Republic for

the World Cup in France and still collaborate with numerous athletes of excellence,

including the italian football player Demetrio Albertini.

July 9, 2006, Italy was crowned champion of the world for the fourth time in the

Olympiastadion of Berlin. At the foot of Luca Toni, Mauro Camoranesi and Simone Perrotta

people saw the new Lotto Zhero Evolution boots. On the occasion of this World Cup in

Germany, Lotto Sport launched its new Lotto Zhero Gravity: boots, the first football boot in

the world without laces. Many international stars was wearing the innovative Lotto Zhero

Gravity boots during this World Cup as for example the players of the the Ukrainian

National and National Serbia and Montenegro fwhich Lotto was technical sponsor and

official supplier.

2010 Lotto launched the new Lotto Zhero Gravity Ultra on the occasion of the Football

World Cup in South Africa. This new football boots are laceless and equipped for the first

time with the new technological « Twist'n'Go » and « ReactiveArch » innovations. The most

famous football palyers were wearing this new shoes during the world cup as for example :

Leonardo Bonucci, Glen Johnson, Alexander Doni, Sidney Govou and Joan Capdevila. This

year the Spanish team won the world cup and lots of its players were wearing Lotto boots as

Joan Capdevilla. In tennis, for the first time in history, an Italian tenniswoman won Roland

Garros: Francesca Schiavone and she was sponsored by Lotto Sport.

2012 Lotto launched its new Stadio Potenza II 100 which is a tribute the anniversary of the

150 years of italian unity. The italian football team was finalist of the EuroCup and most of

the players were wearing this boots. In April, the polish tenniswoman Agnieszka Radwanska

won the WTA Cup in Miami and she is naturally sponsored by Lotto Sport.

To conclude we can say that Lotto Sport use athletes as icons to show that their products are

design for high performance and that they know the needs of sports.

CONCLUSION

As we have seen « Made in Italy » is not only the fact that a product in manufactured in Italy

but it is also a kind of brand. When a consumer buy a product from Lotto Sport shop he is not only

looking for the product itself but also for the vision. What is this specific vision that give « Made in

Italy » to a product as a Lotto's football boots for example ? It gives to the consumers the insurance

that its boots are aesthetically corresponding to the italian style which we could associated with the

fact that italy is well-known for being a world center of mode and elegance. It also gives the vision

that the product has been design using new technologies to improve its conforts, and here we can

associate this vision to the famous italian genius Leonardo Da Vinci. And finally this vision is about

quality of the product. Indeed Italy is know for its passionate craftmen that are able to produce high

quality product in an industrial way.