In a move that signals a fresh chapter for one of alpine luxury's most storied houses, Willy Bogner GmbH has appointed former Puma CEO Arne Freundt as its new chief executive, effective June 1. The appointment comes five months after the Munich-based family sold a 60 percent controlling stake to Katjes International GmbH & Co., a move that has reshaped the brand's ownership structure while keeping the Bogner family - including Willy Bogner Jr. and his sister Florinda - as minority stakeholders with continued strategic influence. Former CEO Gerrit Schneider departed at the end of 2024, leaving the position open to align with the new partnership.
Freundt, who spent 14 years at Puma - rising from managing director of its largest region, EMEA, to global CEO until last April - brings a formidable track record in sport-lifestyle branding. His appointment is, in many ways, a sartorial echo of the brand's own history: Bogner was founded in 1932 by Olympic skier Willy Bogner Sr., but it was his wife, Maria, who truly stitched the brand's identity into the fabric of ski fashion. Maria Bogner, a designer ahead of her time, created the first functional yet flattering skiwear for women - think tailored trousers and chic zip-front parkas that liberated female skiers from bulky, borrowed men's gear. This marriage of performance and glamour later inspired the Bogner family's Fire + Ice line, a snowboard-friendly offshoot co-created by Willy Jr. and his late wife, designer Sônia Bogner.
As Freundt steps in, he inherits a brand whose DNA is woven from both Olympic grit and couture sensibility - a lineage that, in the world of lingerie history, parallels the evolution of the girdle into the shapewear revolution: function meeting form. His challenge will be to translate that alpine heritage into global luxury relevance without losing the thread of Maria Bogner's original vision.
Originally reported by WWD