Hugo Boss AG is a German fashion and lifestyle house based in Metzingen that specializes in high-end mens- and womenswear. It is named after its founder Hugo Boss (1885–1948).
Hugo Boss currently has at least 6,100 points of sale in 110 countries. Hugo Boss AG directly owns over 360 retail stores with over 1,000 stores and shops owned by franchisees.
Products are manufactured in a variety of locations, including the company's own production sites in Izmir, Turkey (the most important production site of HUGO BOSS); Radom, Poland; Morrovalle, Italy; Cleveland, USA; and Metzingen, Germany.
There are two core brands, BOSS and HUGO:
- Boss Black. Menswear (1970), womenswear (2000). Modern classic clothing which is more widely distributed than other lines, and has the broadest product range.
- Boss Orange. Menswear (1999), womenswear (2005). Originally quirky styling, with bohemian influences, this line was relaunched in 2010 as denim based casual wear.
- Boss Selection. Menswear (2003). Higher priced clothing aimed at a more mature market, with emphasis on English tailoring styles.
- Boss Green. Menswear (2003), womenswear (2010). Previously known as Boss Sport, was relaunched in 2003 as a golf-style active wear collection.
- Hugo. Menswear (1993), womenswear (1998). Fashion forward styling, with a more European look, and sometimes androgynous models.
Hugo Boss has licensing agreements with various companies to produce Hugo Boss branded products. These include agreements with Samsung to produce cell phones; C.W.F. Children Worldwide Fashion SAS to produce children's clothing; Procter & Gamble Prestige to produce fragrances & skincare; Movado to produce watches; and Safilo to produce sunglasses and eyewear.
In 1985 the company was floated on the stock exchange. In 1991, the Marzotto textile group acquired for $165 million a 77.5% stake. Marzotto spun off its fashion brands into the newly created Valentino Fashion Group in 2005. Valentino Fashion Group was subsequently purchased by private equity firm Permira in 2007 from the Marzotto family, who retain a 22% stake in the company.
In 2009, BOSS Black was by far the largest segment, consisting 68% of all sales, with the remainder made up by BOSS Orange (17%), BOSS Selection (3%), BOSS Green (3%) and HUGO (9%). Sales taken in company owned stores were 19% of total sales worldwide.
Hugo Boss started his clothing company in 1924 in Metzingen, a small town south of Stuttgart, where it is still based. However, due to the economic climate in Germany at the time Boss was forced into bankruptcy. In 1931 he reached an agreement with his creditors, leaving him with 6 sewing machines to start again. The same year, he became a member of the Nazi party and a sponsoring member ("Förderndes Mitglied") of the Schutzstaffel. He later stated himself that he had joined the party because of their promise to end unemployment and because he felt "temporarily" withdrawn from the Lutheran church.[10] He joined the German Labour Front in 1936, the Reich Air Protection Association in 1939, the National Socialist People's Welfare in 1941.[10] His sales increased from 38,260 RM in 1932 to to over 3,300,000 RM in 1941, while his profits increased in the same period from 5,000 RM to 241,000 RM.[10] Though he claimed in a 1934/1935 advertising he had been a “supplier for Nazi uniforms since 1924”, such supplies are probable since 1928/1929 and certain since 1934, when he became an Reichszeugmeisterei-licensed (official) supplier of uniforms to the Sturmabteilung, Schutzstaffel, Hitler Youth, National Socialist Motor Corps and other party organizations. To meet demand in later years of the war, Boss used about 30 to 40 prisoners of war and about 150 forced laborers, from the Baltic States, Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the former Soviet Union.According to German historian Henning Kober, the company managers were “avowed nazis”, “the Boss were all great admirers of Adolf Hitler” and Hugo Boss had in 1945 in his apartment a photograph of himself with Hitler taken in the latter's Obersalzberg retreat.
n a 1946 denazification judgement, based on his early party membership, his financial support of the SS and the uniforms delivered to the Nazi party even before 1933, Boss was considered both an “activist” and a “supporter and beneficiary of National Socialism”. He was stripped of his voting rights, his capacity to run a business and, fined “a very heavy penalty” of 100,000 marks. He died in 1948 but his business survived. In 1997, the company appeared in a list of Swiss dormant accounts, which stirred the publication of articles highlighting the involvement of Hugo Boss with the Nazis. In 1999, American lawyers filed lawsuits in New Jersey, on behalf of survivors or their families, for the use of forced workers during the war. The company did not comment on these law suits but reiterated an earlier statement that it would “not close its eyes to the past but rather deal with the issues in an open and forthright manner”. It sponsored a research by German historian Elisabeth Timm. Nevertheless, after Timm told the press of her findings, the company declined to publish them. In December 1999, an agreement was reached between the German government and a group of American class-action lawyers, Jewish groups and the United States government to set a $5.1 billion fund, financed equally by German industry and the German government, to compensate slave laborers used by the Germans in World War II. Hugo Boss agreed to participate to this fund, for an amount which was estimated by some sources to be “about 752 000 €”, while others considered the firm “finally paid an absolute minimum into the compensation fund”.
In March 2010, Hugo Boss was boycotted by actor Danny Glover after Hugo Boss announced plans to close an Ohio suit manufacturing plant reportedly after 375 employees of the Workers United Union rejected 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 that the company had a responsibility to shareholders and would move suit manufacturing from Ohio to other facilities in Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania the company "succumbed" to the boycott and cancelled the project
