Hugo Boss
Hugo Boss AG (stylized as HUGO BOSS) is a fashion company headquartered in Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company sells clothing, accessories, footwear, and leather goods. Hugo Boss is one of the largest German clothing brands,[3] with global sales of about €4.2 billion in 2023.[2] Its stock is a component of the MDAX.[4] The company's fashion brands are Boss and Hugo. Hugo Boss also sells licensed brand products for children's fashion, eyewear, watches, home textiles, riding apparel, writing utensils and fragrances.[5]
For other uses, see Hugo Boss (disambiguation).Company type
1924
€410 million (2023)[2]
€270 million (2023)[2]
€3.472 billion (2023)[2]
€1.311 billion (2023)[2]
Free Float (83%)
Marzotto family (15%)
Own shares (2%)
18,738 (2023)[2]
The company was founded in 1924 in Germany by Hugo Ferdinand Boss and originally produced general-purpose clothing. In the early 1930s, Hugo Boss began to produce and supply military uniforms for the Nazi Germany government, resulting in a large boost in sales.[6] After World War II and the founder's death in 1948, Hugo Boss started to turn its focus to men's suits. The company went public in 1988 and introduced a fragrance line that same year, adding men's and women's wear diffusion lines in 1997, a full women's collection in 2000, and children's clothing in 2006–2007. The company has since evolved into a major global fashion house. As of 2015, it operated more than 1,418 retail stores worldwide.[2]
History[edit]
Early years[edit]
After the end of the First World War, Hugo Ferdinand Boss (1885-1948) took over his parents' clothing retail business in Metzingen, where it still operates, and registered it as a business for manufactured goods in 1922.[7] In 1924, he started a factory for the production of workwear along with two partners, Albert and Theodor Bräuchle, as shareholders. The company produced shirts, jackets, work clothing, sportswear, and raincoats. In 1925 and 1926, Hugo Boss, like all Metzingen companies, announced Kurzarbeit for its almost 30 employees. In connection with the global economic crisis following the New York stock market crash of 1929, the company had to reduce its workforce by almost a quarter and file for bankruptcy in 1931. In the same year, Hugo Ferdinand Boss reached an agreement with his creditors, leaving him with six sewing machines to start again.[6]
Since 2017, Hugo Boss has pursued a two-brand strategy, with the core brand Boss (stylized as BOSS) for upscale business and leisure wear and Hugo (stylized as HUGO) for a young target group.[65][80][81] The company has additional licensing agreements with Coty, C.W.F., Movado and Safilo for product collaborations.[82][83][84][85]
Hugo Boss is active in the following segments:
Products are manufactured in a variety of locations, including the company's own production sites in: Metzingen, Germany; Morrovalle, Italy; Radom, Poland; İzmir, Turkey; and Cleveland, United States.[100]
Hugo Boss has invested in technology for its made-to-measure program, using machines for almost all tailoring traditionally done by hand.[101]
In 2020, Hugo Boss created its first vegan men's suit, using all non-animal materials, dyes, and chemicals.[102]
The Hugo Boss shares have been included in the MDAX since March 1999.[103] Until June 2012, the share capital was divided into common and preferred stock. On June 15, 2012, after the close of trading, the preference shares were converted into ordinary shares and all shares were converted into registered shares.[104] Since then, the company's share capital has consisted of around 70.4 million no-par value registered ordinary shares.[105] In 2023, a promissory bill loan with a total value of €175 million was placed for the first time.[106]
As at March 2024, the shareholder structure was as follows:[107]
Marketing[edit]
As early as the 1980s, Hugo Boss began with product placements and the outfitting of celebrities. Among other things, Hugo Boss outfitted the actors of the popular US law series L.A. Law and was henceforth seen as the outfitter of yuppies.[108] Hugo Boss dressed the leading actors Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in the crime series Miami Vice.[22] Other well-known personalities wore Boss outfits at the time, such as Michael Jackson, who wore a white Boss suit on the album cover of Thriller,[109] or Sylvester Stallone, who wore a Boss sweater as Rocky.[110][111]
From 1996 to 2022, Hugo Boss AG sponsored the Hugo Boss Prize, an annual $100,000 stipend in modern arts, awarded by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation every two years as a cultural sponsor, and supported international contemporary exhibitions.[112] In collaboration with the Staatliche Modeschule Stuttgart, the company has presented the Hugo Boss Fashion Award to fashion students since 1987.[113]
In February 2024, a fashion collection designed by supermodel Naomi Campbell was introduced.[114]
Social commitment[edit]
Hugo Boss has been a partner of the child protection organization UNICEF since 2007.[115] In addition, the Group established the Hugo Boss Foundation, whose main source of income is the "Every purchase counts" initiative. Since 2023, 5 cents of every own product (excluding licensed products) have been donated through this initiative. The donations are intended to support local, regional and global impact-oriented projects, particularly in the fields of climate and environmental protection.[116] In 2023, for example, the foundation was involved in the crisis areas affected by earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.[117]
Sustainability[edit]
In 2016, Hugo Boss became a member of the ZDHC Foundation (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals), which is committed to avoiding harmful substances in production.[118] Since 2017, Hugo Boss has been working on its own contribution to the successful implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.[119] Furthermore, Hugo Boss was part of the Sustainability 2030 science platform initiated by the German government[120] and joined the Klimabündnis Baden-Württemberg in 2024.[121] Sustainability is also part of the Claim 5 strategy implemented by Grieder. As part of this, the resale website Hugo Boss Pre-Loved was launched in 2022, which pursues a circular economy.[122] The investment in the start-up Heiq Aeoniq LLC supports the development of its cellulose fiber Heiq Aeoniq, which is intended to replace chemical fibers such as polyester. Heiq Aeoniq LLC primarily sources its materials from discarded algae, sugarcane, straw, hemp, nutshells, cigarette butts, and coffee grounds.[75][123][124]
At the Hugo Boss Digital Campus, data is processed to make company processes more efficient and to thus improve determination of the demand for products, thereby avoiding the overproduction of clothing. Structures are also being created to better track supply chains. This is in line with the Supply Chain Act, which aims to ensure compliance with environmental and social standards. The company has also announced its intention to become CO2-neutral by 2050.[125]
Since December 2023, Hugo Boss has been the first company to invest in Collateral Good Ventures Fashion I, a climate-related venture capital fund aimed at promoting sustainability in the fashion industry.[126]
Compliance[edit]
The company has introduced structures to ensure compliance. In this context, it works with the Fair Labor Association, has established an ombudsman system, has social audits carried out on working conditions and offers the opportunity to use the Fair Labor Association's comprehensive external and anonymous complaints management system.[127]
Controversies[edit]
Russell Brand[edit]
British comedian and actor Russell Brand was at the 2013 GQ awards, which were sponsored by Hugo Boss. After receiving an award on stage, Brand proceeded to talk about Hugo Boss's Nazi connection and did a goose step. He was later ejected from the ceremony and later apologized.[128]
Wages[edit]
In March 2010, Hugo Boss was boycotted by actor Danny Glover for the company's plans to close the plant in Brooklyn, Ohio, US after 375 employees of the Workers United Union reportedly rejected the Hugo Boss proposal to cut the workers' hourly wage 36% from $13 an hour to $8.30. After an initial statement by CFO Andreas Stockert saying the company had a responsibility to shareholders and would move suit manufacturing from the US to other facilities in Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania,[129] the company capitulated to the boycott and cancelled the project. Renewed plans to close the plant in April 2015 also failed.[130][131]
Mirror fall[edit]
In September 2015, Hugo Boss (UK) was fined £1.2 million in relation to the death in June 2013 of a child who died four days after suffering fatal head injuries at its store in Bicester, Oxfordshire.[132] The four-year-old boy had been injured when a steel-framed fitting-room mirror weighing 120 kilograms (260 lb) fell on him. Oxford Crown Court had earlier been told that it had "negligently been left free-standing without any fixings"[132] and the coroner had said that the death was an "accident waiting to happen".[133] In June 2015, Hugo Boss (UK) had admitted its breach of both the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and Management of Health and Safety at Work regulations 1999.[134] The company's legal representative said:
