The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1966–2007
Sergio Tacchini sold the name he put on tennis — 'globalization overturned everything'
The ex-player who brought color to all-white tennis built a 220-billion-lire brand on his name; near bankruptcy by 2006, he sold it — to China, then Korea.
Sergio Tacchini
HearsayWidely repeated, and we cannot show you a document for it. Read it for the lesson, not as fact.
What it means today
Before betting a company on a personality or a single asset, ask what the market will pay for it when the fashion turns. Tacchini's name survived four owners in fifteen years; the business that created it did not survive the squeeze that made it cheap.
What happened
In 1966 Sergio Tacchini, a retired Italian tennis player, founded Sandys S.p.A. in Bellinzago Novarese and did something nobody had done: he put colour on all-white tennis dress, and his own name on it. The company, renamed Sergio Tacchini S.p.A., signed the personalities rather than just the results — Nastase, McEnroe, Connors, Navratilova, Sampras, Hingis, and beyond tennis, Ayrton Senna. By 1992 the group turned over about 220 billion lire a year with just under 450 employees.
The name was the business. New York Magazine noted in 1983 that McEnroe was paid up to 400,000 dollars a year to wear Tacchini, one of the most expensive signatures in Italy; in 1998 L'Express wrote that a Tacchini garment was a symbol of success in the banlieues. Then Nike and Adidas came at the market like steamrollers, and the squeeze found the model's weak spot. Martina Hingis sued the company in 2001 over an injury she attributed to its shoes, and by 2006 the firm was close to bankruptcy.
In June 2007 H4T — 'Hembly for Tacchini', controlled by Billy Ngok of Hembly International Holdings — entered the company, and the Bellinzago Novarese production site closed. In December 2012, 42 of the last 55 employees there were put on mobility terms as the remaining stores shut. The name kept migrating: to Wintex Italia in 2013, to two American private-equity funds in 2019, and in July 2022 to F&F, the Korean group that bought it from B. Riley. The ten-year revival deal signed with Novak Djokovic in 2009 had ended in May 2012, its victory bonuses unpaid.
The founder is alive to tell it. In a November 2025 interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, the 87-year-old said it plainly: La globalizzazione ha rovesciato tutto. Io ho venduto ai cinesi — globalization overturned everything, and I sold to the Chinese. Ubitennis told the whole arc in 2019 under the title 'come un boomerang', closing that the talent lies in catching the boomerang before it hits you — and the image has stuck as the way Italian tennis tells the story of the brand that wore its founder's name.
Why it happened
- The brand was a person: when sponsorship money moved to Nike and Adidas, the name that had carried two decades of growth had no second engine underneath it.
- Success raised the bill — McEnroe at $400,000 a year, a bonus owed on every Djokovic victory — while the market paid less for what the company sold.
- Each rescue sold more of what made it an Italian company: the production first, then the name itself, until by 2022 the brand lived in Seoul.
The lesson
A famous name can build a company but cannot defend it. When Nike and Adidas came, Tacchini's equity was the name alone — and the name was the only thing still standing when the company went.
Sources
- Wikipedia — Sergio Tacchini (azienda) (founded 1966 as Sandys S.p.A. in Bellinzago Novarese by ex-tennis player Sergio Tacchini; colour introduced into all-white tennis; champions dressed include McEnroe, Connors, Navratilova, Sampras, Hingis, and Ayrton Senna; 1992 turnover about 220 billion lire, just under 450 employees; 4 June 2007: H4T — Hembly for Tacchini, controlled by Billy Ngok of Hembly International Holdings — enters the company; Bellinzago Novarese production site closed; Wintex Italia 2013; two US private-equity funds 2019; 20 July 2022: F&F, the South Korean holding of Kim Chang-soo, buys 100% from B. Riley Principal Investments)
- Gazzetta dello Sport — interview with Sergio Tacchini, 6 November 2025 ('Il rivoluzionario ha 87 anni'; 'La globalizzazione ha rovesciato tutto. Io ho venduto ai cinesi'; 'Ho preso una cosa che aveva un valore, il mio nome, la mia immagine, e l'ho applicata al tennis'; on McEnroe: 'Come John McEnroe nessuno. Siamo diventati amici')
- Ubitennis — 'Sergio Tacchini, come un boomerang' (26 June 2019: New York Magazine 1983 — McEnroe paid up to $400,000 a year, one of the most expensive Italian signatures; L'Express 1998 — 'L'indumento Tacchini è un simbolo di successo nelle banlieues'; Hingis filed a complaint in 2001; Nike and Adidas as 'rulli compressori'; near bankruptcy 2006, Hembly concluded the purchase the following year; the 10-year Djokovic deal of 2009 ended May 2012, bonuses the company could not pay on time; closing: 'il talento consiste nell'afferrare il boomerang prima che ci colpisca')
- MilanoFinanza — Crisi Tacchini, in mobilità 42 dipendenti (12 December 2012: 42 of the 55 staff at the Bellinzago Novarese plant placed in mobilità; imminent closure of the Castelletto Ticino store and end of the wage-guarantee fund at the Caltignaga outlet; H4T had licensed the label to Img for the relaunch)
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