Brett Johnson sales up 35% in first four months of 2026, invests in circular footwear and JD.com

With the launch of its Spring/Summer 2027 collection, men’s clothing and accessories brand Brett Johnson is evolving its luxury casual footwear offering by introducing a project driven by circularity.

At the heart of this evolution is a customised sole developed, to date, exclusively for the brand, designed to become a lasting, transeasonal signature of Brett Johnson. The new cupsole is crafted from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and is lightweight and highly flexible.

The sole’s sustainability is ensured by circular production: its interior is made using TecneGreen technology, which enables the integration of an additive polyurethane foam with a high percentage of recycled textile materials sourced from offcuts of Brett Johnson’s ready-to-wear collections.

“Since I took on the role of CEO, I wanted to see footwear as a category in its own right, not a complement to apparel. To give it a distinct identity, we had to conceive something special, so we focused on circularity,” Marco Fiandesio, CEO of Brett Johnson, told FashionNetwork.com.

“A tag embedded in the sole, accessible directly via the customer’s smartphone, links to a web page that details the product’s origin and its entire production process, offering full transparency, as well as the method that precisely quantifies the shoe’s sustainable benefit—whose processing, for the first time, takes place exclusively through a mechanical rather than a chemical process—thereby turning it into a tangible resource. The result is the most sustainable shoe we have ever produced.”

The project is completed with the introduction of an end-of-life take-back programme: customers can return the shoes, allowing the brand to recycle them and reintegrate them into new production processes.

Aesthetically, the sole features an all-over logo on the outsole, while an embossed letter B stands out on the back of the shoe. The cream-coloured sole visually unifies the collection. The line consists of three models, available in suede or leather, in sand, powder pink, chestnut, beige, silver grey, bright green, aqua, white and blue colourways.

There are also business and distribution developments for Brett Johnson in the opening months of 2026.

“In the first four months of the financial year, we recorded a 35% increase in sales compared to the same period a year ago,” Fiandesio said. “Sell-in for the SS 2027 season has begun, and we are seeing many new customers, while long-standing customers are buying more from us, partly because of the quality and value of the new collection, and partly because of the new colours we have developed and will reveal at the next Pitti Uomo. These include powder pink, light greys and intense pastels that are very distinctive and run counter to the usual offerings in the segment.”

In addition, Brett Johnson has just closed a deal to sell via the Chinese platform JD.com. “Just a week ago I was in China, where I sealed the deal,” the CEO explained. “We are starting with our hero products, the brand’s iconic items. JD.com is very motivated to work with us, also because right now people are more attracted to no‑logo, original, independent, lesser-known brands,” explained Fiandesio, noting that for Brett Johnson “we will establish cross-border logistics via JD.com.”

Indeed, the Chinese group stands out for the depth of its proprietary logistics network, as well as a sales model centred on product authenticity. Founded in Beijing in 1998 by Richard Liu, JD.com began as a physical store selling electronic components and today has become China’s second-largest e-commerce giant after Alibaba.

Well established in Europe, the Brett Johnson brand, founded by the American fashion designer of the same name, has strong ties to Italy, thanks to production entirely located in Tuscany and Umbria and headquarters with a showroom on Via Manzoni in Milan. Today it is also eyeing the Middle East and the U.S. as new markets for 2026.