type private industry fashion founded molvena italy 1978 founder adriano goldschmied renzo rosso 1 headquarters breganze italy key people renzo rosso president & founder nicola formichetti artistic director products clothing and accessories 2 revenue 1.3 billion 2009 parent otb group website www.diesel.com diesel s.p.a. is an italian retail clothing company located in breganze italy . 3 it sells denim and other clothing and accessories . the clothing line has two different brands diesel and diesel black gold . there s also a line for children called diesel kid . the company is known for its surreal advertising campaigns . since 2013 the creative director has been nicola formichetti . 2 4 contents 1 history 2 fashion lines 3 advertising 4 references 5 external links history edit diesel founder renzo rosso began stitching jeans on a sewing machine at the age of fifteen . he used his mother s sewing machine to produce low riding bell bottomed jeans which he would wear himself and sell to his friends for five lira a piece . he later attended an industrial textile manufacturing college in padua . 5 in 1976 rosso began working for a clothing manufacturer called moltex which was owned by adriano goldschmied . after working with the company for two years he used a loan from his father to buy a 40 % holding in the company which changed its name to diesel and marketed jeans under the diesel brand and many others . 6 rosso bought out goldschmied s interest in the diesel brand name in 1985 for us 500 000 becoming the sole owner of the company . 1 rosso has said that he learned marketing from the us creativity from italy and systems from germany . 7 in 1990 russ togs inc. received the license to market and distribute diesel lines in the united states and mexico . mitsubishi co received the license to market and distribute in japan . 8 by 1991 russ togs was going out of business and sold diesel sportswear to rosso upon ending the licensing deal . as a result of russ togs collapse the creation of made in the usa diesel products never came to fruition and diesel instead placed its made in italy jeans and clothing in us stores . 9 in 1992 diesel became the title sponsor for the world superbike racing circuit . 10 in 1995 diesel launched one of the first significant fashion retail websites which housed images of each of its collections . the first diesel jeans to be sold online were available in finland and sweden starting in 1997 . it then opened a virtual store that allowed home delivery for further markets the following year . 11 diesel store in krak w poland in 1996 diesel opened large flagship stores in new york city san francisco rome and london and began to open other mono brand stores for diesel in order to augment its points of sale in department and other multi brand retails stores . further flagship stores also known as stylelabs opened including stores in berlin barcelona and paris . 12 diesel also produces illustrated catalogs for its retail lines . 13 the company also won the premio risultati award for best italian company of the year from the bocconi institute in 1996 . 14 in 1998 the wall street journal called diesel the label of the moment . 6 diesel founder rosso began purchasing additional fashion companies in 2002 under the parent company only the brave which diesel was brought under as well . companies purchased by only the brave included maison martin margiela viktor & rolf marni and licensing company staff international . 15 in 2005 diesel released the book fifty upon rosso s fiftieth birthday an illustrated history of the company with a print run of ten thousand . 16 diesel s denim s products are produced exclusively in italy with much of its products produced by out sourced factories . its headquarters are in breganze and had twelve international subsidiaries as of 2005 . 13 as of 2008 the company had five thousand points of sale across eighty countries with 270 mono brand diesel stores . diesel itself owns 170 of those with the rest owned by franchisees . 17 turnover was over 1.3 billion in 2009 7 and by 2010 the company had over 400 stores . in 2012 diesel founder rosso was listed on the forbes magazine list of billionaires for the first time . 18 in 2015 the company held the exhibition welcome to diesel world in shanghai which provided an overview of the company s history in conjunction with its collection debut . 19 another exhibition was held in tel aviv to mark the company s twentieth year in israel . 20 fashion lines edit diesel black & gold store in vienna austria while the most popular diesel apparel item has been denim wear the company has expanded to include additional forms of clothing . the company has created leather jackets women s dresses and other items . 21 in 1998 diesel founded an offshoot label called diesel stylelab which produced higher end fashion designs beyond more traditional denim jeans . 22 in the 2000s the company began to license its brand to other retail manufacturers in order to create new product categories . these lines included the sunglasses line diesel eyewear in partnership with marcolin the jewels and watches line diesel watches in partnership with fossil 23 the fragrance line in partnership with l oreal . 24 the production of each line involves supervision from diesel itself . 11 diesel has also partnered with moroso seletti scavolini foscarini and berti to create a home furnishings line called diesel living 25 with bugaboo to create strollers 26 with avg to create helmets 27 with ducati 28 and with fiat to create a limited edition fiat 500 . 29 diesel also produces limited edition lines of jeans . 30 as of 2003 according to women s wear daily diesel had three distinct fashion lines diesel style lab the most pricey fashion forward designer label ; diesel a fashion brand that still focuses heavily on denim and 55dsl the board sport inspired streetwear line that blends fashion and function . 31 style lab and 55dsl are now defunct . currently there are two lines at diesel diesel and diesel black gold . 32 diesel black gold is the luxury ready to wear line and was launched in 2008 during the new york fashion week . 33 that year the company also partnered with adidas to co produce a sport denim line . 34 in 2013 diesel underwent a re branding effort reorganizing both the business structure and marketing methodologies . 15 advertising edit dieselwall in berlin starting in 1991 13 diesel has been known for producing ads that invoke surreal images in lieu of direct product details in partnership with swedish ad agency paradiset ddb stockholm . these included 1997 ads portraying life in communist north korea shot in hong kong . 35 another ad campaign imitated automobile crashes . 36 campaigns have also used social consciousness as a theme ironic plays on global issues such as their global warming ready campaign featuring post global warming backdrops in global locations as well as anti establishment messages . 37 38 39 michael chevalier has critiqued the retail stores stating that he believes that the stores s merchandise is presented in a confusing way in order to get customers to interact with the sales staff . 40 during the late 1990s diesel produced cd roms and other computer content including the computer game digital adrenalin 55dsl . 11 in 2007 diesel sponsored a music contest diesel u music . 41 from january to september 2008 diesel spent 5.8 million on u.s. advertising according to tns media intelligence . 42 the grand prix award at the cannes lions international advertising festival was won by diesel in 1997 22 in 2001 for a campaign featuring the fictitious newspaper the daily african 6 and for the ad campaign be stupid in 2010 . 43 there is a diesel art gallery in tokyo . 44 in 2009 the head of diesel s us division steve birkhold left the company shortly after agreeing a deal to sell cut priced jeans through macy s. 45 in 2015 liam hemsworth appeared in an ad for only the brave . 46 winnie harlow also appeared in ads that year as well . 47 references edit a b c clare o connor 25 march 2013 . blue jean billionaire inside diesel renzo rosso s 3 billion fashion empire . forbes . accessed may 2014 . a b diesel s page bof careers . the business of fashion . retrieved 2015 11 23 . anne waak october 16 2014 . wine and jeans diesel founder renzo rosso s organic vineyard . retrieved march 23 2015 . fashion trends what s in for spring summer fall and winter vogue . style.com . 2015 11 17 . retrieved 2015 11 23 . nicola mccormack june 3 2006 . fueller of fashion from making his first pair of diesel jeans on his mother s sewing machine renzo rosso has gone on to create a superbrand . the herald . retrieved march 24 2015 . a b c clare o connor march 6 2013 . blue jean billionaire inside diesel renzo rosso s 3 billion fashion empire . forbes magazine . retrieved march 23 2015 . a b t surendar saumya roy june 30 2010 . diesel founder renzo rosso knows what matters in fashion . forbes india . accessed march 2014 . robert hartlein march 5 1990 . russ togs gets license for diesel in u.s. mexico . russ togs inc. gets license for diesel an italian apparel line . wwd . retrieved march 24 2015 . robert parola december 11 1991 . diesel sportswear inc. to be sold to renzo rosso owner of diesel s.p.a. . daily news record . retrieved march 24 2015 . alan cathcar january 1993 . the end of laverda . cycle world magazine . p. 26 . retrieved march 23 2015 . a b c franzen and moriarty pg . 5 stella bruzzi ; pamela church gibson 2013 . fashion cultures theories explorations and analysis . routledge . p. 8 . retrieved march 23 2015 . a b c franzen and moriarty pg . 4 rosso renzo . newsmakers 2005 cumulation . january 1 2005 . retrieved march 24 2015 . a b vikram alexei kansara september 8 2014 . inside diesel s reboot . business of fashion . retrieved march 23 2015 . david lipke december 12 2005 . the story of diesel . daily news record . retrieved march 24 2015 . giep franzen ; sandra moriarty 2008 . the science and art of branding . m.e. sharpe . p. 3 . retrieved march 23 2015 . andrea murphy december 21 2012 . diesel jeans mogul renzo rosso joins ranks of forbes billionaires . forbes magazine . retrieved march 23 2015 . diesel s nicola formichetti takes us to shanghai . yahoo.com . 2015 04 15 . retrieved 2015 11 23 . news . modaonline.it . 2015 06 15 . retrieved 2015 11 23 . maureen jenkins march 12 1997 . diesel fuels a lifestyle . chicago sun times . retrieved march 24 2015 . a b keeping its cool . diesel s.p.a. . wwd . april 24 2003 . retrieved march 24 2015 . fossil inc. enters new license agreement with diesel for jewelry re richardson texas aug. 31 prnewswire firstcall . prnewswire.com . retrieved 2015 11 23 . l oreal luxury products division signs partnership agreement with diesel for launch ... re paris jan. 16 prnewswire . prnewswire.com . retrieved 2015 11 23 . salone del mobile 2014 la collezione casa firmata diesel living corriere . living.corriere.it . retrieved 2015 11 23 . the selby x bugaboo by diesel famille macpherson