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FILA holds a strange pull for me. It could be that the company provided the uniform of my ball boy days. Summers spent chasing netted tennis balls, and avoiding adolescent lust for the women whose matches I served, led to a closet full of Italian branded sportswear. It could also be that growing up in the mid-Atlantic, the brand was omnipresent at street level. A true mix, in my life, of casual and sport, FILA has a very particular image in my mind.
In the late 1980s and through the mid-90s, FILAs were on the feet of street and sporting heroes. The latter years of the period heralded signature models for Grant Hill and Jerry Stackhouse. Basketball trumped tennis, and served as my core reference point for FILA as a performance brand. Yes, there was Caprioti, but I’m a bloke... her look did not lay groundwork for my style.
Still, beyond athletics, classic FILA material had me hooked well before the patent leather hint of the Hill II convinced of the series’ potential. This owed greatly to the purchase of the N.W.A and the Posse album as a 7 year old. The record was my introduction to the FILA Fresh Crew. Short lived as that group was, it linked the brand to my musical love - hip-hop. My tennis playing father had the track suits and polos, my musical heroes turned those items into something cool. I wanted to be FILA fresh too.
Many others had that same feeling. FILA was part of the uniform, readily apparent in the mid-Atlantic. Luxury sporting apparel that held sway on road. Outside of hip-hop, there were moments when the brand found favor on the football terraces. In short, in several of the subcultures from which our contemporary iteration of “street wear” developed, FILA made a mark.
Of course, to make mention of a brand heritage one must understand more than the last few decades. FILA was born in 1911. From the shadows of the Italian Alps (in Biella, Italy), the brand developed its sporting DNA. Even with the more sport based styles, FILA has always had strong style content and a strong Italian point of view towards design. There’s always been a rich luxurious feel to the product. That luxury feel and style has existed in many an athletic venue, from the slopes to the greens, the court to the track. Sporting heritage is undeniable. And, so to, is the sub-cultural heritage linking distinct parts of the FILA story to our own story here at Highsnobiety.
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