MILAN — Murphy&Nye, the Chicago-born brand rooted in sails and sailboat equipment, is continuing to chart its new course with a retail activation.
Kick-started with a rebranding last year, the label’s relaunch under chief executive officer Tommaso Rossi and creative director Chicco Barina is continuing with the debut of a long-term temporary store dubbed “Murphy&Nye Lighthouse” and installed at the Clan Upstairs retailer in Milan’s Brera district, which will be celebrated with an event during fashion week on Sept. 26.
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The opening is in sync with the management’s mission of shifting the brand toward a more premium positioning and a lifestyle proposition, as well as its plans to focus more on directly operated distribution channels, both off- and online.
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“We’ve noticed that in the retail world there are always the same, static formats and we wanted to be in a space where there’s much else going on — a bar, events, as well as other brands that we find attuned to our positioning,” said Rossi about the tie-up with Clan Upstairs. “To be in places where customers really like to spend time at, even to check out other brands — we’re more than fine with that, as long as they find an enjoyable shopping experience.”
“Plus this new formula enables us to really express our collection,” continued Rossi. “Wholesale is playing a little bit in defense right now when it comes to assortments, while we see that our more experimental pieces are selling well on our e-commerce. So this format gives us the chance and space to showcase them.”
Barina added on the strategy, underscoring the importance of displaying a preview of the new collection or a selection of looks that stand out for the most innovative fabrics and treatments in the location.
“That’s important also for my work, for the research and development of new products,” said the creative director pointing to how customers’ feedback to such pieces is essential for him. “The idea is to put in our space the items we most believe into, without third-party filters.”
Along with the new collection, the Lighthouse space will display Murphy&Nye’s collaboration with Vibram, the premium shoe sole producer and performance footwear brand known for its innovative quotient. As result of the tie-up, two styles will be presented during fashion week, including the Optimist sneaker and Deck boat shoe. Priced at 168 euros each, the designs will be available to purchase from March.
“We tasked Vibram with creating a sole that for me had to feature three key traits: ultra grip, ultra flexibility and ultra lightness,” said Barina. He stressed on the importance of having elements essential for nautical gears translated into designs fit for a urban lifestyle, too.
Ditto for the interior concept of the temporary store, which will be operating at least for a year. Barina worked with architect Sebastiano Tosi to revisit the brand’s heritage with a contemporary appeal. They focused on an essential layout to let the product stand out, but still infused references to the label’s DNA, ranging from the integration of its signature allover pattern and dominant colors — red, white and black — to nautical details.
To be sure, Barina said he wanted to include elements such as a boat mast and nautical ropes as part of the installation and was surprised when Tosi turned these, as well as carbon structures and carabiners, into hangers and functional designs.
The Lighthouse’s overarching concept is to offer the company a recognizable yet low-impact tool to support its distribution expansion and a flexible format that can be easily replicated for other temporary corners, shop-in-shop activations or implementations in alternative venues, such as art galleries and cultural spaces.
Rossi said the goal is to export it to different locations, starting from mountain and resort destinations such as Cortina d’Ampezzo and Saint-Tropez — always in partnership with local retailers.
“The idea is to keep the Lighthouse for special destinations and the most receptive locations, whereas elsewhere we continue with our traditional stores,” confirmed Barina.
Flanked by the future opening of new HQs in Padua — the town in Italy’s Veneto region where Barina develops the collections and many manufacturing partners of the company are based at, — this distribution expansion will be among the drivers of Murphy&Nye’s new business plan, which is aimed at reaching 20 million euros in sales within the next three years.
The company reported total sales of 6 million euros in 2024. Rossi forecast a flat performance for this year, underscoring how the repositioning toward the premium lifestyle segment has influenced a reorganization of the wholesale distribution. This will count about 100 doors by the end of the year, 80 percent of which are in Italy.
“We expect the wholesale channel, which accounted for half of total revenues last year, to decrease its share to 30 to 40 percent, in favor of retail and e-commerce, as we expect sales generated online to grow 20 percent this year,” said Rossi.
The brand’s internationalization is also a priority for Rossi, starting from expansion in markets such as the U.K., France, Norway and the Middle East.
As the brand opens up to a more premium target and moves from competing with other nautical players to lifestyle brands, collections are pivoting toward a full-fledged assortment.
The new course under Barina opened last fall with the Silver Capsule, a seven-item range reinterpreting archetypes such as windbreakers, vests and T-shirts with a futuristic edge. For the occasion, he also introduced the brand’s first sneaker, named “Challenger.”
Ever since, the designer worked to expand the catalogue to offer total looks. For example, his fall 2025 had a strong focus on pants — an item that is often overlooked in the market, according to Barina — while his spring 2026 line presented during Milan Fashion Week in June flanked performance designs for men with the debut of women’s styles. Next up, Barina’s eyeing an expansion in accessories to include the likes of bags and backpacks.
The designer approached the project out of a personal passion. “When I started my career, Murphy&Nye was a big and authentic label, with such a strong DNA, good sales and many stores,” he recalled. “I knew Tommaso [Rossi] for other projects and when his family bought [Murphy&Nye] back in 2022 I told him that the sailing world will be the next big thing.”
“It has evolved so much tech-wise: these boats are like F1 cars. No wonder Ferrari is making its foray into sailing,” he continued, pointing to the automotive behemoth’s plans revealed last year. “And I was hoping in another sport interacting with the design world.”
Murphy&Nye was established in Chicago in 1933 by Jim Murphy and Harry Nye Jr., who transformed artisanal sail-making techniques into advanced nautical apparel. In the 1960s, the firm was one of the most important sailing companies in the U.S. and in 1975, it opened its European branch in Italy. Five years later, the latter acquired the brand from the American parent company.
At the same time, the firm decided to optimize its know-how in the production of racing sails to produce clothing for crews, handcrafting highly technical and functional garments in the same sail lofts where the sails were made.