Inspirational Stories Behind FILA Revival: Korean Entrepreneurs Who Are Late Blooming

FILA is a sport veteran in Italy, founded in 1911. In 2003, FILA was bought by Cerberus Capital Management, a US private equity fund. Since then, its light has gradually dimmed, and sales are declining due to poor management. In 2007, Yoon Yoon-soo, President of FILA Korea Korea region, bought FILA global brand and its subsidiaries for $400 million.

Since then, FILA has changed its original brand positioning, focusing on young consumers, winning young users through cheaper shoes and richer shoe lines. In 2018, sales of shoes and clothing for FILA (parent company) increased by 52% to $1 billion 40 million over the same period.

In recent years, the Dad Shoes has become more and more popular in sports shoes. FILA is one of the biggest beneficiaries of this trend. By the end of January this year, FILA had sold about 10000000 pairs of women's old shoes "Disruptor 2". This is just a microcosm of FILA's Renaissance.

Today, FILA's business is spread all over the world in more than 70 countries, and is developing rapidly, especially in the Chinese market. Since August 2009, when Anta acquired FILA's trademark rights and franchise in China with 332 million yuan, FILA has become one of Anta's most important and outstanding brands. In 2017, brand annual sales exceeded 5 billion yuan, and it still grew at an annual rate of around 30%.

Looking back at Yoon Yoon-soo's personal growth can be regarded as a late bloomer.

Yoon Yoon-soo died when her mother died of typhoid fever. His father died of cancer in high school, so he wanted to be a doctor. However, he failed in the three time he applied for the Seoul National University medical department. By the time he graduated from politics and diplomacy in ROK foreign language university, Yoon was over thirty years old.

At the age of 30, he was not an age popular with businesses. He stayed in a spanportation company for a while and then entered an American department store chain corporation. Later, when he was involved in the import and export business of Korea, he came into contact with FILA's shoes and clothing business, so he planned to get the FILA South Korea's right to operate, and asked FILA to set up a production plant in Korea.

Finally, in 1991, at the age of 45, Yoon Yoon-soo became the head of FILA's South Korean business, with an annual salary of $1 million 500 thousand.

While leading FILA to revival, Yoon Yoon-soo also received huge personal rewards. In 2010, Yoon Yoon-soo led FILA Korea to be listed in Korea. Since the beginning of 2018, the share price of FILA Korea has risen by 400%, and its market value has soared to $4 billion 300 million. Yoon Yoon-soo and its family currently hold 20% of FILA Korea company, and the current value is over $830 million.

Yoon Yoon-soo, who is also president of FILA global and President of American Golf Corp Acushnet, once said: "if we want to accumulate wealth by virtue of violation of moral principles, then wealth will be meaningless. The meaning of wealth lies not in quantity but in the way of accumulation.