Cycle Jeans, the historical Italian jeans brand, is back and wants to grow in Italy and internationally, while betting always more on high-quality, and stylish Made in Italy products.
The brand, founded in 2000 by its actual designers Andrea Bertin and Elena Boaretto, and previously owned by Italservices, was acquired by Numero 8, the Italian company that owns Sun 68, a successful apparel and sneaker brand born in 2005 and now producing, just to mention, a record 600,000 sneaker pairs per season.
The SPIN OFF has met Enrico Spinazzè, CEO and founder, Numero 8, an enthusiastic entrepreneur who is deeply and personally involved in relaunching Cycle and whose previous experience is tied to his family-owned fashion retail business.
"Along with that, the brand is developing according to the same guidelines of its past. In fact, we are working with the same designers, who founded it. We are working with the same technicians, suppliers, manufacturers and laundries - mostly located in Italy, just in our surroundings in the Veneto region, in Noventa Di Piave - and we are constantly focused on taking care and increasing the quality level of our offer as, above all, we are driven by a great passion for the product," continued Spinazzè.
Cycle is also focused on sustainability, although it is not making a show-off out of that. For f/w 2023/2024, it offers a selection of pieces made with organic or recycled cotton and for s/s 2024 it is developing a new capsule of jeans finished with eco-friendly treatments.
"Sustainability is a path that all companies will have to take. We prefer not to spread what we are doing in this direction, as for many companies it is just a trend to follow," commented Spinazzé. "We choose to be fair and loyal to our consumer on this aspect, but we know that much more could be done if everyone did its own part. If we only consider that bigger brands, by simply taking this direction in a small part of their offer, that could really make a much bigger difference," he added.
The brand offers a collection of about 250 pieces and is selling through about 250 stores, in Italy only by now: "We are not in a hurry to grow as we can count on a solid company. We prefer to increase our revenues slowly but solidly and through selected top-end retailers," he explained referring to his family-owned company, Numero 8, that registered €73 million sales in 2022, of whose 20% from export and €2.5 million from Cycle, and expects to grow to €80 million by end of 2023.
Such results could be reached thanks to Sun 68 that was born in 2005 as an own apparel brand founded with the aim to offer its clients what regular collections didn't include. Soon after, Sun 68 brand boomed, and it now sells apparel and footwear in equal parts and has just reached a production of 600,000 pairs of sneakers per season.
In order to consolidate its growth, Cycle is also betting on foreign expansion. For this, it will participate in the next edition of Premium in Berlin.
Among its future aims, there is the intention to double the number of stores they are selling to and reach a total of 500 of multilabel stores within three seasons. "Before the brand was successful, in addition to Italy, also in Northern Europe and Japan. Now our aim is to also start selling, for instance, first in Korea and Japan, and then also in France, Eastern Europe and return to sell in Northern Europe, too," Spinazzé explained.
"Our company is structured in every aspect, but this is our paradox: our growth is led by our love for the product and for our employees. As I said before, we are not obsessed by numbers, but as a company we have registered a significant growth - and our employees have increased from 35 to 65 in three years. They are the ones who make us grow, and our love for people is the only aspect that remains to us as a family-lead company," he added.
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