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Hugo Boss

Hugo Boss
Aktiengesellschaft
Traded as BOSS
Industry Clothing
Accessories
Founded 1924 by Hugo Boss
Headquarters Metzingen, Germany
Key people
  • Mark Langer, CEO, Bernd Hake
  • Michel Perraudin, Chairman
Products High-fashion
Accessories
Footwear
Revenue €2.809 billion (2015)
€447.7 million
Profit €319.3 million (2015)
Total assets €1.800 billion
Total equity €955.7 million
Number of employees
13,764
Parent
90.08% Free Float
7.95% Marzotto Family
1.97% Own shares
Website http://hugoboss.com/

Hugo Boss AG, often styled as BOSS, is a German luxury fashion house. It was founded in 1924 by Hugo Boss and is headquartered in Metzingen, Germany. Originally focusing on uniforms, it was a supplier for Nazi Party organizations both before and during World War II. After the war and the founder's death in 1948, Hugo Boss started to turn its focus from uniforms to men's suits. The company went public in 1985 and introduced a fragrance line that same year, added mens and womenswear diffusion lines in 1997, a full women's collection in 2000 as well as children's clothing in 2008/2009, and has since evolved into a major global fashion house with more than 1,100 company-owned retail stores worldwide (2016).

In 1924, Hugo Boss started a clothing company in Metzingen, a small town south of Stuttgart, where it is still based. Due to the economic climate of Germany at the time, Boss was forced into bankruptcy. In 1931, he reached an agreement with his creditors, leaving him with six sewing machines to start again.

That same year, he became a member of the Nazi Party and a sponsoring member ("Förderndes Mitglied") of the Schutzstaffel (SS). He also joined the German Labour Front in 1936, the Reich Air Protection Association in 1939, and the National Socialist People's Welfare in 1941. After joining these organizations, his sales increased from 38,260 RM ($26,993 U.S. dollars in 1932) to over 3,300,000 RM in 1941. His profits also increased in the same time period from 5,000 RM to 241,000 RM. Though he claimed in a 1934–35 advertisement that he had been a "supplier for National Socialist uniforms since 1924", it is probable that he did not begin to supply them until 1928 at the earliest. This is the year he became a Reichszeugmeisterei-licensed (official) supplier of uniforms to the Sturmabteilung (SA), Schutzstaffel, Hitler Youth, National Socialist Motor Corps, and other party organizations. For production in later years of the war, Hugo Boss used prisoners of war and forced labourers, from the Baltic States, Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union. According to German historian Henning Kober, the company managers were fervent Nazis who were all great admirers of Adolf Hitler. In 1945 Hugo Boss had a photograph in his apartment of him with Hitler, taken at Hitler's Obersalzberg retreat.


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