J.Lindeberg’s Rebrand Has Been A Long Time Coming

Founded by Johan Lindeberg in 1996 as a tribute to the power of protest, ​​J.Lindeberg went on to become the leading brand for Swedish athleisure wear before falling out of favour with shoppers. Now, with new creative director Neil Lewty bringing his background in tailoring and luxury fashion to sport design, the brand has reported their highest sales in history. Grace Banks meets with Lewty to discuss the delicate act of bringing a household brand into the future.

“The idea was to design a collection which is fully integrated, fashion and sports in the same items” J.Lindeberg’s head of design Neil Lewty says of his new Fall 2022 collection that splices sports with tailoring – “the golf course and the runway at the same time in order to bring those two worlds together.” Lewty joined the brand in 2020, and after testing the success of fashion-forward pieces over the past two seasons, the brand’s FW22 collection is the debut of his fully formed tailored sports wardrobe, in which he pairs J.Lindeberg’s golf wear heritage with luxury fashion. It’s a much needed repositioning for the Swedish sports brand which has struggled to remain relevant over the last decade.

Led jointly by Lewty and J.Lindeberg’s CEO Hans-Christian Meyer, their new fashion-golf hybrid seems to be working. In 2021 the brand reported a turnover of $81M, the highest it has ever been. Both Lewty and Meyer joined in the first months of Covid-19 in 2020, Meyer from Tiger Sweden and Lewty from Hugo Boss. “When I joined the company at the beginning of the pandemic, there were many challenges” Meyer says, “we were doing all we could to drive sales in a extremely challenging market and we decided to shifted as much as possible to digital channels.” For Lewty, the opportunity to bring in this new digitally savvy customer to a brand best known for its golf wear was a welcome challenge. His new collection caters to a new post-Covid casual shopper as well as a growing Gen Z audience who are thrifting 1990’s J.Lindeberg golf apparel on Depop and Ebay. “There are actually not that many brands I could turn to for the fully rounded fashion and sport hybrid wardrobe,” Lewty says, “so I think from a marketing point of view and from a consumer point of view, that’s really a gap in the market.”

Your new Fall collection is your first for J.Lindeberg since you joined the company of head of design, how did you approach the creative process when you joined the brand?

When I turned up at J.Lindeberg the design team, a fantastic bunch of people, were designing everything in separate small collections – a golf collection, a fashion collection – and it just didn’t make sense. I thought, okay, let’s just bring it all together under one concept, one color story, one print story. My end goal was really to create a strong and tangible look for the brand, because I don’t think you dress up differently if you’re going to go to golf or if you’re just going out anymore. The idea was to be able to design a collection which is fully integrated, fashion and sports in the same items, the golf course and the runway at the same time in order to bring those two worlds together.

You’ve recently shown your SS23 collection at Stockholm Fashion Week. What makes the brand a Swedish label to you?

I think what’s interesting about J.Lindeberg is that it’s always done things a little bit differently. The idea to do this runway show really came about because we felt it was time to do it, regardless of what the fashion show schedule might dictate. We only later were made aware that Stockholm Fashion Week was in that same week, so we wanted to create a buzz, have a party, and show people our new direction. The brand has been working on this new look for J.Lindeberg for two years now, so it’s time to really start to show what we’re working on.

The business has reported that 2021 was the most successful financial year to date. How would you like the business to scale in the wake of that success?

I think showing at fashion week, creating events, and creating a particular mood for people to experience. We wanted to kind of put ourselves back on the map by making a big event in Stockholm, and the next project is going to be the New York store, then after that will be a store in Seoul in Korea. I think it’s so important to always refresh and refine your brand, and just turn that dial a little bit more each time you go. And of course, it’s the first time we’ve done this.

Post Covid, many brands are tapping into the luxury athleisure wear market. How will J.Lindeberg stand out in that crowd?

We’re certainly at this point in time were many brands are looking to that market. If you look at Gucci collaborating with North Face and Adidas, you realize that this fashion and sport connection is absolutely happening. But what I hope sets us apart in the market is the fact that we’re a sports brand by heritage, we’re not a fashion brand doing sports.

We really understand sports design and tailoring, so it’s interesting for us to be adding the fashion angle into that. I’m confident that we can dress someone who has an active lifestyle, who also wants to dress well, wants to look good when they’re doing sports, and wants to look current and relevant when they’re dressed up and going to a party. So from my point of view, there’s actually not that many brands I could turn to for the fully rounded fashion and sport hybrid wardrobe. Our womenswear collection features leggings and a blazer, knowing that that will work for sports too. The same goes for menswear, I don’t think there are many brands in our segment that really do that. So I think from a marketing point of view, and from a consumer point of view, that’s really a gap in the market.

Over the last two years, appealing to a new customer has involved a lot of change for J.Lindeberg. How would you like the brand to continue to innovate in the next two years?

When I turned up at J.Lindeberg it was during the pandemic and the situation of the brand couldn’t really have gotten much worse. Of course there were options, from scaling back to closing the business. But we decided to try and make a difference and make a change and that involved risk. We’re going to bring what we think is relevant to the market, what people want, and not be scared to innovate. And because of that, the results are really incredible. And with so much feedback from a lot of customers, suppliers and buyers, they’re just like – you guys have gone for it, it’s so refreshing. And it’s a great piece of feedback to get. You know, why should you follow the norm?