P448 Enters Joint Venture with The Camp Brands for European Wholesale Distribution and Retail Stores (2024)

P448, the Italian streetwear brand, has formed a joint venture partnership with The Camp Brands, a Barcelona-based company that specializes in the distribution of international brands. The new partnership will expand P448’s European wholesale distribution and enhance P448’s retail strategy with the opening of stores in Europe. In addition, The Camp Brands will manufacture and market P448 brand apparel globally.

Called P448 Europa, the new division will be managed by its newly appointed managing director Javier Carera, who as co-founder and managing parter of The Camp Brands has experience marketing sportswear and fashion brands with previous executive roles at Quiksilver and Nike.

As part of the brand’s international European growth strategy, P448 Europa will be responsible for the retail and wholesale distribution, brand management, licensing and distribution models as well as consulting, development and expansion strategies.

P448 has been on a strong growth trajectory. In the past year, it has seen a 55 percent growth rate within its European e-commerce site. Consequently, P448 will open retail stores in key European cities over the next 10 years. The environmentally conscious stores, which are eclectic and fun places to socialize, are highly experimental featuring local artists, entertainers, music and art.

The strategy is to cater to the loyal core customers while also attracting a new customer base within existing European markets as well as new markets such as Sweden, Poland and Denmark.

P448, whose sneakers are designed and crafted in Italy by master artisans, focuses on fashion, technology and fit throughout its sneakers and lifestyle categories.

“With Javier and the team, I have found the perfect international expansion partners for P448,” said Wayne Kulkin, executive chairman of P448 owner, StreetTrend, LLC, which was formed in 2017 as a joint venture partnership with Kulkin and Jeffrey Hecktman, CEO of Hilco Global, the international investment and financial services company. “It is an immensely proud and exciting time for the brand as it all started in Europe. So, to be able at this time in our story to build out and expand throughout Europe providing easier access to our latest offerings with new retail stores, first rate servicing and more wholesale channels is a giant tipping point for the company.” Kulkin is the former CEO of Stuart Weitzman.

A new apparel collection will be introduced for fall 2025, with a small capsule of 26 styles that will launch in September to entice customers. The lineup will include T-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, shirts and pants. Retail prices will range from $90 for T-shirts up to $250 for hoodies. The design aesthetic will be driven by the threads, materials and color palettes of the P448 footwear collection, with streetwear at its heart. It will be available in both the U.S. and Europe, starting with the fall 2024 collection, through e-commerce and physical locations.

P448 has a deep interest in sustainability with the use of recycled and upcycled leather and suede, invasive species skins and vegan apparel leather and algae for its sneakers. The apparel collection is being designed with eco-friendly materials stamped with environmental certifications. Adopting the same approach of the brand’s footwear position, offering functional and high-quality product at obtainable price points, the apparel collection follows suit with accessibly-priced streetwear offerings made in Europe available at both retail and wholesale channels.

“Joining the P448 family feels like we’re coming in the most exciting time to this brand becoming a global top competitive lifestyle brand,” said Carrera. “Taking the core values of its brand philosophy as a truly designed and made in Italy footwear brand, mixed with its activism on sustainable driven product initiatives, the Camp Brands and I are thrilled to enlarge the brand’s footprint and exposure with not only a full apparel collection, but also contribute to its growth within the retail and wholesale arenas.”

StreetTrend designs manufactures, distributes and sells several footwear brands including P448 sneakers at select boutiques and online. Mark Wahlberg, the actor, producer and entrepreneur, is also a strategic investor in StreetTrend, having taken a significant minority stake in the business. Recently, John Hansen, an experienced investor in the consumer space, joined the company as investor and chairman of the board. The new P448 Europa division will be administered by a board of directors comprised of Kulkin, Hansen, Lori Sigimondo, Javier Carrera and Diego Carrera.

“This new strategic partnership with The Camp Brands is an exciting next phase of our continued expansion of the P448 brand throughout Europe in both footwear and apparel in retail and wholesale channels. With Javier Carrera joining the team as the managing director for P448 Europa, we gain an impressive business partner with extensive retail and consumer brand experience across the European continent having worked on global brands like Hurley, Nike, Quiksilver, Pepe Jeans and more,” said Hecktman.

As reported, Kulkin said in December the company overall grew between 16 and 20 percent last year. In the U.S., the company has stores in New York and Boston and sells to Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.

P448 was founded by street art enthusiasts Marco Samone and Andrea Curi in 2014 in a small town outside of Bologna, Italy. Kulkin met the duo and established a distribution deal in 2019 and bought the whole company in 2020.

P448 has been looking for sustainability solutions outside of the traditional leathers as part of the brand’s “Regenerative Sustainability” initiative to make 30 percent of its products from more sustainable materials. In February, the company said it was launching a new sneaker made out of Burmese python as part of its efforts to use alternative leathers and educate consumers about invasive species. It was the third in a series of P448 shoes made from invasive species including lionfish and carp.

Also in February, P448 teamed up with Vibram for an eco-friendy footwear capsule, including two footwear styles, a hybrid sneaker-hybrid and thong sandal. Each shoe features the Vibram Ecostep natural sole, which is made with 90 percent natural biobased materials, as well as a midsole made of sugarcane and bamboo.

Last December, P448 tapped 96-year-old American figurative artist Alex Katz to co-create a limited-edition sneaker for the ultimateart collector.