PEAKLIFE

‘Athleisure is making its way into the Indian market and what goes into the making of these collections’, Peaklife brings more from the Creative Director of FILA India,  Abdon Lepcha.

FILA has introduced “Explore,” a new, limited-edition collection of footwear, apparel, and accessories for men and women. A marriage of form and function, FILA Explore is a lifestyle collection of footwear, apparel, and accessories that encourages its wearers to embrace their own adventurous spirit. It is inspired by FILA’s history in mountaineering and influenced by the growing trend in outdoor-wear collections. Peaklife gets an exclusive insight into the thought behind this concept, by Mr. Abdon Lepcha, Creative Director, FILA India.

What is the inspiration behind the collection ‘Explore’?

It is a limited-edition collection launched by FILA inspired by the exploration of natural territories. It is further divided into Canyon, Woods, Mountains, and Elements. The collection includes sportswear and everyday wear.

Q. Tell us more about the Explore Collection.

The ‘Canyon’ collection has a coral, turquoise and white colour pallet, the ‘Woods’ collection has black, teal, and purple, for ‘Mountain’ we have played with blue, orange and yellow and for ‘Elements’ you will see black, grey as well as a rainbow.

Q. What are USPs of the explore collection?

In terms of USP, we have taken four silhouettes from the archives and redesigned the shoes, namely – The Mindblender, Bouveasourus, Creator, and Drifter – giving it the perfect outdoor feel. Other USPs are the fabric and material used in our high-performance jackets and attractive apparel.

Q. Tell us about the FPS collection?

FPS is FILA Performance Shoes – they are pure running shoes, and they come with BOA technology. The BOA technology is a laceless concept where with the help of a button, one can tie their lace automatically.

Today the consumers are aware of the latest technologies and inventions, do you feel this as a challenge when you design a new collection?  

Yes, when you introduce something new to the market, it is always a challenge. This is where our research comes into play. For instance, for the FPS collection, we studied the market, understood the customer’s needs and introduced the product which is a technologically advanced shoe.

Q. When you say performance, who can buy these shoes and with what variation? 

FPS is essentially a running shoe collection, but it can be treated as a regular sports collection – for running a marathon or to wear to a gym. The shoes are fast & lightweight which is good for athleisure but also comes with a sense of design, giving you a stylish finish. There are multiple variations like high experience running shoes for both men and women.

Q. What kind of person are you? An Adventurous or Gym freak? 

I’m a sporty person, I love playing soccer on a daily basis, and I run daily up to 5 km. Apart from that, I enjoy listening to music.

Q. Any favourite from the overall FILA Collection. 

Personally, my favourites are the Mindblower and Mindblender. I have four pairs of them in different colours. It is chunky, with mesh and leather on the upper part. It was originated in 1995 and is one from the archives.

Q. Does FILA also have this concept of reinvented or redesigned shoes from the archives?

FILA is known for reintroducing its archives pieces; we have an amazing museum in Italy. We have all the historical pieces archived and so most of our creative ideas start from there. So we can say the birth of any new concept comes from FILA’s history. Our archive pieces date back to 1911, so we consider those styles, do the market research and keep re-introducing.

Q. What would you say about brand positioning?

FILA is not just a sportswear brand but a fashion sportswear brand. And we are also entering as an international fashion luxury brand.

Q. What is next from FILA?

We have our new collection launching on September 22nd at the Milan Fashion Week. Apart from that, we have fashion collaborations with other creatives brands and artists. We look forward to engaging the customers with our creativity. FILA works together to get it together. 

Available:

FILA Explore collection is only available at Fort (Mumbai) & Chandigarh store.

FPS Collection is available at all exclusive FILA stores.