NEW YORK — Le Coq Sportif is the latest old-school brand being readied for a comeback.
Former Fila U.S. president Jon Epstein is spearheading the U.S. relaunch of the sports lifestyle label with the distinctive French rooster logo.
“Le Coq Sportif has a great heritage and it brings an element of sport and style to the marketplace, which is needed and wanted today,” said Epstein, managing partner of the new company, Le Coq Sportif North America, which holds the license to market and distribute the brand in the continent.
The initial items for sale are primarily footwear, with a small selection of apparel and accessories bowing for fall and holiday. A larger apparel collection will roll out for spring 2006, said Danny Lieberman, who was formerly senior vice president of global apparel at Fila and is now overseeing the apparel business at Le Coq Sportif.
The apparel offerings include performance and lifestyle looks. The performance side covers styles that can be used for fitness activities such as yoga and running, while the lifestyle looks include updated tracksuits, outerwear and jerseys. The North American operations also will distribute products from the Jean-Charles de Castelbajac line. The couture designer has had a partnership with Le Coq since 2003 that includes brightly colored footwear and apparel, and is part of a trend of sport houses linking up with designers.
Lieberman said the company is targeting stores such as Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s for some of the more upscale footwear and apparel, as well as Urban Outfitters for the lifestyle looks and sports specialty chains for the performance items. Wholesale price points in apparel are about $15 for T-shirts, $30 for tracksuits and $100 for some of the outerwear looks.
The North American operations will be based in Manhattan at 551 Madison Avenue. Epstein is in the midst of putting together a staff, and will be hiring people for sales, marketing and design since some looks will be tweaked and updated for the American market. Epstein said the brand could have sales in North America of $50 million in five years.
Le Coq Sportif dates back to the Twenties and is best known for its upscale tennis and soccer offerings and its association with top-tier athletes and team sponsorships. The brand, which had sales of about $35 million in 1993, has had various incarnations in the U.S. For more than 40 years it was owned by Adidas, and was then sold to Brown Shoe in 1995 before that company sold the trademark back to a French concern run by Olivier Jacques in 1999, who now runs Le Coq Sportif International and is based in Sausheum, France. While it has sold a small selection of products in the U.S. in recent years, this is the company’s first significant return to the American market.
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A number of retro brands have reentered the market in recent years, often with updated fashion twists and new corporate parents, and Le Coq will be competing with those labels for floor space. Among them are Fred Perry, Penguin and Le Tigre. At the same time, brands such as Lacoste and Puma have updated their fashion direction toward more lifestyle offerings with less sport-specific products.
With this new development, Epstein also is making something of a comeback. The longtime industry executive led Fila through its March 2003 acquisition by Sport Brands International, and for a short period, was the chief executive officer of SBI before he stepped down at the end of 2003. A month later, he was one of a number of sport industry executives who were snared in a federal investigation connected with financial troubles at the footwear chain Just for Feet, which has now been settled. He served a brief at-home probation.
After running a billion-dollar company at Fila, Epstein is looking forward to the opportunity for a more entrepreneurial experience.
“I have always had a lot of respect for this brand and the timing is right,” he added.