It’s official: from January 2023, the Italian house Herno, famous for its impeccable raincoats and its historical know-how, will dress the football players of FC Barcelona in the city, as well as its men’s basketball team and all the club staff. They will wear the brand’s models for the next three seasons, when traveling to European competitions and during the finals of their various matches.
For the details of the collections, however, it will be necessary to wait a little longer or squint to distinguish the outfits appearing on the official photo of the announcement of this partnership. Barça aficionados will however be able to recognize some of the club’s stars: Alexia Putellas, Ballon d’or 2021 and 2022, Robert Lewandowski, Gavi, Frenkie de Jong, Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic, Pedri, Ingrid Syrstad Engen, but also basketball players Nicolas Laprovittola, Nikola Kalinic and Nikola Mirotic.
The sequel after the ad
A nice picture for a certainly commercial union but which underlines the awakening of Barça (let’s not forget that in 2021, PSG snatched Lionel Messi from Barcelona, his mythical player) and has the merit of bringing together two renowned institutions sharing common values, as their joint press release underlines:
“The partnership between Herno and FC Barcelona was born from a series of shared ideals, two realities that aspire to excellence in their respective fields through commitment, teamwork and ambition. These are also two brands that have always stayed true to their roots over the years. »
In fact, if Barça can be proud of a history dating back more than one hundred and twenty years and of a powerful anchorage in the capital of Catalonia, it is in Lesa, in Italy, on the shores of Lake Maggiore, that this Italian and family fashion brand was born more than seventy years ago.
An eco-responsible brand
The Herno house – whose name is inspired by one of the rivers that crosses the city, the Erno – was indeed founded in 1948 by the young Giuseppe Marenzi and his wife Alessandra Diana. By treating cotton with castor oil from abandoned planes from the Second World War, they designed jackets and then coats in waxed cotton capable of protecting against humidity and cold. Then it will be their famous buttoned raincoats, a symbol of Italian chic. And finally collections outdoors more and more diversified and technical, but which still symbolize this know-how that our transalpine neighbors have been able to preserve.
Today, the son of the founders, Claudio Marenzi, is at the helm of the family business and is growing it internationally, without turning his back on its social and environmental values. In 2020, interviewed by our fashion columnist Sophie Fontanelthis charismatic boss thus denounced the “greenwashing” of certain brands:
“My job, which also consists of finding new fibers, makes me a very good person to talk about issues of eco-responsibility because, from where I am, I see the truth very crudely. »
And to add:
“JI said to myself that stamping a product as “eco-responsible”, on the pretext, for example, that it contains recycled materials, is by no means sufficient. Because before boasting, you have to take into consideration the entire production circuit. Including the jobs it creates or eliminates. »
The Italian house Herno will dress the players of FC Barcelona: the union of two traditions