LF to launch American sports/street casual brand ‘Champion’ in Korea
- Acquisition of domestic distribution rights for the global brand, Champion, popular amongst teenagers and young adults around the world
- Expansion of the domestic youth fashion market as an opportunity to introduce the Champion brand
LF (CEO: Oh Gyu-sik), a lifestyle-focused company, will launch ‘Champion’, a popular American sports and street casual brand, in the domestic market from the spring/summer season of 2020.
LF recently signed a contract for import and distribution of the Champion brand in the domestic market at the headquarters of Champion's parent company, Hanesbrands, located in North Carolina, USA, and will begin a full-scale promotion of the brand from the next spring/summer season.
Since its launch in the United States as a sportswear brand in 1919, Champion developed a line of cold-weather undergarments that became the predecessor to the current sweatshirt, and developed the training attire for the US military and American college athletes in the 1920s. It has quickly emerged as a major brand for American sportswear due to its reasonable price. Champion has since been promoting itself as an authentic sportswear brand, such as producing uniforms for the US national basketball team in 1990, the English Premier League’s Wigan Athletic FC since 2008, the Welsh national football team, and the Greek national basketball team. Addressing the issue of fabric shrinkage after washing, Champion developed the 'Reverse Weave', which solved this issue by innovatively changing the weave direction of the fabric, and obtained the first manufacturing patent for it.
Champion, which started as a sportswear brand, has transformed itself into a hip, street brand that has hit the global fashion scene in recent years due to the hip-hop boom, and has successfully expanded its scope to street casual and hip-hop fashion. Since 2016, Champion has launched collaborative collections with global street brands such as Vetements, Carhartt, and Supreme, which dominate the fashion scene around the world. It has solidified its position as a 'brand loved by fashion connoisseurs', with countless paparazzi shoots of celebrities wearing Champion's most well-known product, a big logo-imprinted sweatshirt, in their daily lives.
LF has been pushing for the domestic introduction of the Champion brand as the domestic youth fashion market targeting teenagers and young adults has grown rapidly and sporty, street casual wear has taken its place in the domestic fashion market. It plans to directly import all global lines of Champion from the brand’s US headquarters and introduce it to the domestic market from the spring/summer season.
“Through close collaboration with the US headquarters of the Champion brand, which leads the global street casual fashion market, we selected the hottest items suitable for young adult consumers and plan on launching them in the domestic market. We will further strengthen our brand’s image and actively target the domestic youth fashion market,” said Yoo Hyo-sang, managing director of LF’s Champion Division.
Meanwhile, LF plans to open exclusive stores in major department stores by the end of next year to promote the Champion brand, while expanding the supply of products to various distribution channels such as shopping malls and online stores.