During the recent Fashion Magazine’s conference “The Future of Retail”, Matteo Sinigaglia, CEO, Replay, spoke about the premium jeans brand founded in 1978, which he took over in 2010, five years after the death of founder Claudio Buziol.
The entrepreneur has a clear vision of how to grow the brand, which achieved a turnover of almost €340 million in 2022 and sells mainly through wholesale.
He intends to focus on two new segments to boost the brand’s performance: women and Gen Z. These are two worlds that Replay can attract through the appeal of sports and music, but above all thanks to the authenticity of a 40-year history, an archive of 70,000 garments, and a unique identity.
“I come from the sports footwear sector and am very familiar with this world,” he said.
“Sport is undoubtedly the most inclusive arena on the planet, the only reality that can bring China, the United States, and Europe together. Music, for its part, allows us to reach specific targets and different age groups. So, by combining these two approaches, we can increase our audience on the one hand and focus on any generation we want to reach on the other,” he added.
He explained how he wants to win over both new target audiences. “For about a year now, we have been focusing on authenticity, something that not everyone has and which, if done well, can become an interesting selling point. Authenticity is a luxury because you can’t buy it. Either you have it or you don’t, and consumers can tell if it’s real or fake news. At Replay, we have plenty of it to sell.”
Today, Replay’s business is divided between 75% men and 25% women: “This convinced us to focus on a sector with development potential, women. About a year ago, we invested in design and brought Natalia Barbadesi, a natural talent with ten years of experience in the US, into the company.”
In this way, Replay has managed to remain relevant to its customers by following a path that is currently yielding positive results. “We have applied completely different rules from those used for men, starting with the raw materials, which are totally different for women, and innovating the design,” he explained.
As for Gen Z, Sinigaglia sees them as very entrepreneurial. “Traveling around Europe, you see lots of kids making their own jeans. They are young, highly competitive entrepreneurs who are lucky enough to know the world and digital technology very well, all skills that we didn’t have at their age.”
This is why they are very good at recognizing fake news from real news, for example: “As a result, for us, being authentic is a point in our favor. All it takes is a quick check and they can immediately evaluate a product and its price. We know we are just starting out, but we are very interested in starting a dialogue because this is a customer base that represents the future.”
Replay focuses on premium and is mainly a wholesale company: “It’s a huge market and a wealth that allows everyone to improve. I think wholesale will be resilient.”
The brand will probably organize itself differently in the future than it does today in terms of locations. “For example, it’s more difficult to have a presence in tier 1 cities, which are more expensive. It will be more effective to position ourselves in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, which are interesting and are also starting to become trendy. Düsseldorf, for example, is an extremely trendy city in Germany. Despite Berlin is the capital of music, I’m starting to see really good stores in cities that until yesterday were not considered relevant,” concluded Sinigaglia.
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