The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The Brazilian footwear and accessories conglomerate purchased BAW, a digitally-native streetwear brand, for 105 million Brazilian reais ($20.5 million) last Friday.
BAW, which has built a consumer base of Gen Z shoppers, reported revenue of 20 million reais ($3.95 million) in 2020 and said it expects its business to double in 2021. This would make it one of fastest-growing companies in Brazil. BAW’s business model is entirely online and focuses on releasing drops quarterly.
The apparel brand was founded in 2014 by brothers Bruno and Lucas Karra in partnership with Fernando Frizzatti and Celso Ribeiro. With this acquisition, the founders will become shareholders in Arezzo & Co, Fernando Frizzatti will continue as BAW’s CTO and Celso Ribeiro will become a digital marketing consultant for Arezzo & Co.
Arezzo & Co’s stable includes footwear brands Arezzo, Schutz, Anacapri, Alexandre Birman, Fiever, Alme and Vans. It also operates the ZZ Mall marketplace, resale platform Troc and lifestyle brands AR & Co, including Reserva and its portfolio of fashion brands. Its full year 2020 adjusted net revenue totalled 1.6 billion Brazilian reais (approximately $278 million), down 4 percent from the previous year. Adjusted net income declined year on year by 38.1 percent to 87.3 million reais ($15.2 million).
In the near future Arezzo & Co said it plans to open physical stores for the BAW brand in Brazil’s major cities to provide offline experiences for its consumers.
Local streetwear brands, festivals and stores selling major global labels remain relatively small but the country’s community of hypebeasts and sneakerheads is growing fast.
This week’s round-up of global markets fashion business news also features Senegalese investors, an Indian menswear giant and workers’ rights in Myanmar.
Though e-commerce reshaped retailing in the US and Europe even before the pandemic, a confluence of economic, financial and logistical circumstances kept the South American nation insulated from the trend until later.
This week’s round-up of global markets fashion business news also features Korean shopping app Ably, Kenya’s second-hand clothing trade and the EU’s bid to curb forced labour in Chinese cotton.