italy in 1959 . it has been owned by british pentland group since 1994 . contents 1 history 2 celebrity endorsements 3 purchase by pentland group 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit leonardo servadio ellesse was founded by leonardo servadio in perugia in 1959 . the name ellesse derives from the initials of servadio s name l.s. ellesse grew in popularity during the 1970s as a producer of skiwear such as quilted jackets and ski pants . in 1979 ellesse s jet pant a ski pant featuring padded knees and a wide lower leg to fit around a ski boot was included in an event at the pompidou centre in paris celebrating italian design . 1 another sport with which ellesse has been closely associated since its early years is tennis . the ellesse logo references the form of a tennis ball with the shape of the tips of a pair of skis . through the 1970s and 1980s ellesse gained a reputation for combining sportswear functionality with street level fashion styling . it was one of the first sportswear brands to feature their logo prominently on the outside of its garments . during the mid 1980s french designer jean charles de castelbajac worked with ellesse an early collaboration between a sportswear company and a fashion designer . the uk casuals dressers adopted the brand in the 80s as premium sportswear took off across british terrace culture known today as 80s casuals a talked about comeback style back available in 2011 in limited ellesse heritage stores celebrity endorsements edit a number of sports celebrities have endorsed ellesse including tennis players tommy haas chris evert guillermo vilas boris becker mats wilander arantxa s nchez and anna kournikova skiers marc girardelli and jean luc cr tier and formula 1 driver alain prost . other celebrities associated with the brand include boxer muhammad ali natas kaupas and maurice cheeks and actors brigitte nielsen and roger moore . ellesse also ventured into football sponsorship and manufactured the kits for the new york cosmos in the 80s . purchase by pentland group edit in 1994 british brand management company pentland group purchased a ninety per cent share of ellesse for 20 million . pentland had been ellesse s uk distributor since 1981 . servadio retained a 10 per cent share . 2 pentland group also owns other well known sportswear brands such as berghaus and speedo . 3 it currently licenses the ellesse brand to partners in countries around the world who manufacture and distribute ellesse products in their territory . ellesse celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009 with a party in rome in july 2009 . see also edit italy portal company portal diadora erre fila kappa references edit ellesse did you know retrieved 2009 11 04 pentland group spends pounds 20m on italian sportswear manufacturer uk company in charge after 13 year link with ellesse 5 january 1994 retrieved 2009 11 04 our brands retrieved 2009 11 04 external links edit official website pentland group website interviews with leonardo servadio ellesse korea website ellesse china website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ellesse & oldid 737821200 categories sporting goods manufacturers of italycompanies established in 19591959 establishments in italysportswear brandsitalian brandscompanies based in perugiaclothing companies of italy navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages fran aisitaliano edit links this page was last modified on 5 september 2016 at 06 42 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view