Product development
Björn Borg is a sports fashion brand offering sports apparel (training and leisure), underwear (fashion and sport), bags, swimwear, socks and lounge wear. Björn Borg also offers footwear and eyewear made under license.
Björn Borg’s products are sporty and modern, with clear guidelines in place to ensure a consistent, contemporary design. The feeling and expression in our garments are set out in a design platform based on timeless Scandinavian aesthetics. In recent years, expressions on both product and communication have been redirected to clarify the company’s identity. A modern, Scandinavian, and unique expression, in which the company’s values were allowed to play a more central role, was established. The new creative direction has since characterized the collections in a very positive way. Furthermore, Björn Borg’s internal design and product department, as well as external licensees, are governed by high sustainability goals and quality requirements.
Product areas
The largest and strategically most important product areas, underwear and sports and performance apparel, are owned and managed by the Group. Design and product development of sports and performance apparel were moved from the Netherlands to Sweden in 2014, and since 2015 have been managed from the Swedish head office.
Product development in other areas – footwear, eyewear and other – is licensed externally.
Every product company, whether Group-owned or licensed, is responsible for design, development and sourcing of collections for all markets, and for positioning products based on Björn Borg’s guidelines. The collections are shown and sold to distributors in various geographical markets for resale to retailers. The product development companies also play a supporting role for distributors and retailers in the network.
All design and product development are done internally by the companies, while production is mostly outsourced to Asia – primarily China – but in recent years to Europe as well, mainly to Turkey, which means shorter lead times.
High demands are placed on quality and deliverability relative to price, and supplier performance is continuously monitored. In production and logistics, Björn Borg is focused on increased flexibility and efficiency, two factors that have taken on greater importance in recent years in pace with the growing need for a responsive supply chain that can adapt to changing fashions. The company also stresses that suppliers follow Björn Borg’s guidelines on working conditions and the environment. For more information on Björn Borg’s corporate social responsibility, see page 30 in the Annual Report for 2020 and on the sustainability section.
