Ellesse

Ellesse was founded in 1959 in Perugia, Italy by Leonardo Servadio as a small Italian tennis-and-ski-apparel manufacturer specifically focused on producing technically-engineered tennis-and-ski wear for the Italian and international competitive-sports community. The brand became one of the defining Italian-anchored sportswear brands of the 1970s-1980s — with the iconic Ellesse sponsorship of Boris Becker (1985-1991, the defining 'Becker-tracksuit' moment that anchored the brand's broader cultural visibility), Chris Evert, Pat Cash, and the broader 1980s-tennis-elite roster. The Ellesse vocabulary settled around several specific products: the iconic Heritage tracksuit (the brand's defining 1980s-era Boris-Becker-association tracksuit, still in production with the original 1985-pattern design), the Ellesse Tonale ski-jacket and ski-trouser programme, the long-running Ellesse heritage-tennis-shirt-and-polo programme, various 1980s-tennis-tracksuit-revival product, and a colour palette anchored to washed-navy, washed-cream, oxblood, electric-blue, plus the brand's recurring use of the iconic 1980s-tennis-aesthetic saturated red-and-yellow-and-orange combinations. The brand has been one of the defining post-2010 'Tennis-luxury-streetwear-revival' brands, with the Becker-tracksuit nostalgia specifically anchoring the broader contemporary streetwear conversation. The brand is owned by Pentland Brands (the British footwear-and-apparel conglomerate that also owns Speedo, Berghaus, Mitre, and Endura — Pentland acquired Ellesse in 1994). The brand operates approximately 200 retail flagship stores globally — particularly strong in the UK, Europe, Japan, and the broader Asian-and-tennis-revival specialty retailer network. The brand has done extensive contemporary collaborations including Ellesse × Aimé Leon Dore, Ellesse × Wood Wood, Ellesse × Bamford, Ellesse × Slam Jam, and dozens of other defining post-2010 luxury-and-streetwear collaborations. The Heritage tracksuit remains one of the defining products of 1980s-tennis-apparel heritage.