No matter how it’s translated, calcio – soccer for Americans or football for Brits — is definitely a cultural and national passion for Italians, and more than merely a sport.
For several major Italian fashion powers, it’s a way to liaise with their employees, and to support the towns where their companies are headquartered. The Agnelli family was a forerunner, first taking control of the Turin-based Juventus Football Club back in 1923. They also own Ferrari — racing and Formula 1 being other Italian sport passions.
Tod’s Group brothers Diego and Andrea Della Valle owned the Florence soccer team ACF Fiorentina for seven years until 2019, and OTB‘s Renzo Rosso, Stone Island’s Carlo Rivetti and Nessifashion founder Marco Bizzarri are investors in the teams of Vicenza, Modena and Rubiera, respectively.
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Out on the ocean, Prada’s Patrizio Bertelli’s venture in sailing with Luna Rossa has made history and Moncler adviser and venture capitalist Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo is an investor in and president of the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team.
Below, some examples of fashion’s top players investing in sports.
Giorgio Armani
Passionate about basketball, the late Giorgio Armani acquired the Olimpia Milano team in 2008. In 2014, the team won the Italian championship, returning to success after 18 years, and maintained the momentum for years, until it secured its 30th title in 2023.
“There was a sense of family. As a child, I always watched my brother Sergio play, with my mother and my sister. It was the 1950s and I still remember those moments of cheering and leisure with pleasure,” the designer once recalled to WWD. “I didn’t play, but I really liked the fast actions; I always found them engaging, exciting. And even today, with my closest people around, I still consider it the family sport. I am amused by Leo’s unbridled passion for the team; it is mainly for him that I bought it.” To be sure, Leo Dell’Orco, Armani’s main heir and president of the team, says Olimpia is “one of the great passions that I have always shared with Giorgio. The work done on the team over the years has been significant and given us much satisfaction. I am actively involved: In sports as in the company I very much believe in team play, based on listening, strategy and ability to stimulate.”
For almost 30 years, Prada Group chairman Patrizio Bertelli has been investing in the Luna Rossa sailing project with the ambition to win the America’s Cup to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, building increasingly technologically advanced sailboats and contributing to shaping the history of the prestigious competition. Current plans call for participating in the 38th edition of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup to be held in Naples in 2027.
Patrizio Bertelli
Luna Rossa has “become an iconic name in sailing worldwide. We accomplished the goal to create a team of extraordinary technicians and sailors capable of shaping the future of sport in our country and leaving a legacy for future generations,” Bertelli said. Regarding the long investment in the America’s Cup, he says that ”time is not important, it’s necessary to have the courage to continue to try and not give up. This curious and strange game requires persistence to reach the objective and it is the difficulty that gives meaning to the challenge. Passion has nothing to do with it, persistence is the true motor and behind this obstinacy is all the technological research that over these past years brought an enormous development to the world of sailing and repercussions also on daily sailing. It’s a continuous challenge where you learn something every day.”
Renzo Rosso
Renzo Rosso, founder and chairman of OTB, bought soccer team L.R. Vicenza in 2018 for about 1 million euros, saving it from bankruptcy. During this current championship it has been promoted from the C league to the B league. Obviously happy with this development, Rosso, who plays soccer with his friends on Sundays and has since he was a child, explains the investment with his wish “to be present in the community I live in, to support all those that enjoy going to the stadium on Sundays and then talk about the game during the week. It connects me to the city and to those that contribute to the success of our group. There are more than 2,000 of our employees, plus all those in the pipeline who live in Vicenza and in the area. Also, we support the younger generation of players in the teams affiliated with Vicenza Calcio for the future of the sport.”
Pier Luigi Loro Piana
The Loro Piana family has always had a deep and genuine passion for sailing, and Pier Luigi Loro Piana, deputy chairman of the company, is still competing with crew in regattas with the fifth in a series of boats named My Song. Over the years it has sponsored and participated in sailing events from the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta held in Porto Cervo in cooperation with the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda to the Loro Piana Caribbean Superyacht Regatta and RendezVous held in Virgin Gorda BVI in cooperation with the YCCS, and most recently, from 2024 the Loro Piana Giraglia Regatta, held from Saint-Tropez to Genoa via the Giraglia rock in Northern Corsica. Last year, organized by the Yacht Club Italiano with the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez and in collaboration with Loro Piana, this regatta was held in June.
“There are a few common aspects between business life and sea life,” says Loro Piana, whose passion for sailing began at age 18 when one of his parents’ friends invited him on a cruising weekend. “When you compete it’s all about teamwork.…It’s a matter of team building, working together. You’re just one of the gears of the engine, which is made up of other people.…The most similar thing is understanding what other people have to do and your role, respect other people’s jobs and behave accordingly.”
Marco Bizzarri
In 2022, entrepreneur Marco Bizzarri invested in the Rubierese soccer team, where he played aged 8 to 23. Born in the Italian town of Rubiera, the team is managed by some of his friends of a lifetime. “The Rubierese gave me many happy days and many friends, including Giulio Bertolini, president of Rubierese,” says Bizzarri, whose Rubiera-based restaurant “Osteria del Viandante” is a sponsor of the team. “My goal is also to invest in the soccer school and help the younger generations to stay together in a healthy way. I am also proud of the team’s inclusivity project that helps disabled young men and women play soccer.”
Gildo Zegna
In 2024, the Oasi Zegna Ski Racing Center revealed it had inked a two-year agreement with the Federazione Italiana Sport Invernali FISI, the Italian Winter Sports Federation. According to the deal, the ski center created in Bielmonte, an alpine location 20 minutes away from Trivero where the Ermenegildo Zegna Group is based, became a new official training site for the FISI teams. The structure in Bielmonte, located at 1,500 meters above sea level, offers five slopes certified by FIS, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation and a sports center for athletic training, among others services.
“I learned to ski before I learned to walk,” says Gildo Zegna, executive chairman of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group. He can’t hide his passion for skiing, a sport he believes has shaped his character and personality. “The competitiveness allows you to measure yourself with others, and if you prepare yourself mentally and physically, if you work hard, in sports and professionally, you can always raise the bar.”
Antonio and Stefano Percassi
The founders of Italian beauty powerhouse Kiko, Antonio Percassi and his son Stefano, bought the city of Bergamo’s Atalanta soccer team in June 2010. Antonio, whose son Luca is the CEO of Atalanta, says the acquisition “was mainly an act of love. Mine and my family’s. Atalanta needed us and we, hailing from Bergamo and in love with Atalanta, where my son Luca and I used to play, we could only say yes [to this opportunity]. The motivations and the ambition were first of all to build a a Club and a team that would live up to the city of Bergamo, with the goal to keep Atalanta in the major league for at least 10 years, to expand our sports center in Zingonia and to support the storied tradition of the academy, which remains today the beating heart of our club. With the same motivations and the same goals we have built the new stadium, the New Balance Arena, to make the city proud because our biggest joy and main ambition is for the city to be proud of Atalanta. We are a company guided by a strong sense of realism, but it is undeniable that Atalanta has grown remarkably since 2010, successfully combining sporting success with financial performance. In this respect, special credit goes to my son Luca.”
