Lotto has returned, but no one noticed The historic Italian brand has officially entered a second youth
The historic Italian company Lotto, founded in 1973 in Montebelluna, has officially come full circle: its all-around comeback is now complete. We can finally reconsider it as a solid, new-yet-old player in the sportswear brand landscape.
In fact, while April 2025 marked the brand’s return to football — on the shirt of AFC Wimbledon, a sponsorship that is still ongoing — the final months of 2025 instead ushered in a fresh comeback in the lifestyle sphere as well. Creative direction has been entrusted to Dustin Canalin (and Kari Cruz), former art director and head of signature apparel & special projects at Nike Basketball.
Lotto’s second youth
All of this can be gleaned from the Instagram profile Lotto Sport US: yes, because despite Lotto still being an Italian company headquartered in Trevignano, the global ownership of the brand’s rights has recently passed into the hands of the American company WHP Global, while Lotto continues to be produced and managed as an Italian brand. The Instagram profile also reveals the creative direction the lifestyle side of the brand will take: Lotto and its new creative director aim to bring back the brand’s powerful heritage — from silhouettes to the color palette, spanning green and red with forays into pastel tones — and to blend it all with styling that is decidedly in line with contemporary trends.
The golden years and the designs shaped by Ciriano Zenon
Lotto experienced its period of greatest success in Italy roughly between 1990 and 2003, with high-profile sponsorships such as Milan and Napoli — goalkeeper Pino Taglialatela’s shirts are still considered iconic today — and later Juventus. A trajectory that, in some ways, mirrors that of Umbro in England: that of a national company — albeit much younger than Umbro — that became a benchmark for sporting excellence in its home country. Lotto’s impact, however, was never limited to football alone: the brand also played a fundamental role in tennis, contributing significantly to the development of technical apparel and footwear for the sport. Moreover, Lotto’s history is closely tied to key design figures such as Ciriano Zenon, the mind behind some of the most successful and iconic sportswear products in the brand’s history.
In this regard, Ciriano Zenon was a creative director who had a great deal to say in the creation of iconic goalkeeper jerseys, which over time have become true aesthetic benchmarks. Should Lotto make a more substantial return to Italy — today present in the top divisions solely with Monza — we can legitimately dream of seeing great things once again.
