Hugo Boss launches the rollout of AI-powered product content across its e-commerce channels for enhanced customer engagement online and operational efficiency.
HUGO BOSS Fall Winter 2024
At the forefront of this evolution is the Hugo Boss Web3 and Immersive Experiences team, which uses cutting-edge AI algorithms to create images and videos. This strategy seeks to give accurate and captivating material to customers by fusing creativity and technology in a seamless manner. The AI-generated video with a model dressed in Hugo Boss clothing is a noteworthy example of the brand’s creative usage of AI in digital content creation.
Jan Philipp Wintjes, executive vice president of global omnichannel at Hugo Boss, shared on his LinkedIn that the company had started using generative AI to create images and video:
“This isn’t just about leveraging cutting-edge technology, it’s about delivering meaningful innovation that drives tangible results for our customers and our business. By harnessing the power of AI, the Hugo Boss Web3 and Immersive Experiences team is pioneering the use of advanced AI tools in image and video creation. This launch represents a future where technology seamlessly meets creativity and precision. This is AI in action, not as a concept, but as a catalyst for growth, efficiency, and improved customer experiences.”
This calculated action fits well with Hugo Boss’s larger digital transformation initiatives. The corporation has been gradually digitising its product development processes, aiming to develop products digitally using 3D design technology, allowing for faster design iterations, reduced physical prototyping, and efficient collection development, with a goal to reach over 90 percent digital product development by 2025; this includes utilising digital showrooms to present collections to retailers.
“Digitalisation is and remains a big trend, which has already been embraced by HUGO BOSS,” says Tina Rolefs, Senior Designer, Hugo Boss Menswear, on the official website. “I also believe that algorithms will be increasingly used in the future. We can respond to customer needs better and faster thanks to ‘big data’. Within a few years I think garments will be created using 3D printers. However, the classic design part will still remain. Future technologies will hopefully replace fast fashion as sustainability becomes ever more important. Our roles will change drastically in the years ahead. It is all very exciting.”
Hugo Boss’ increasing digitalisation efforts
HUGO BOSS’ sub-brand, Hugo, entered Roblox in 2024, unveiling an immersive experience titled “Planet Hugo” on the platform. Users can enter the new store building and explore the exclusive selection; purchase HUGO merchandise and get it delivered straight to your front door [US Residents only], discover the latest UGC drop with digital versions of each item, explore a world that’s denim to the core, discover the HUGO UGC collection at HUGO HANGOUT, find hidden items and unlock badges to earn free UGC.
‘Targeting its Gen Z audience, Hugo harnessed the launch event as the perfect occasion to activate gaming and metaverse spaces as key cultural focus territories’, said Nadia Kokni, Senior Vice President Global Marketing, HUGO BOSS. ‘With Planet Hugo, the brand is tapping into gamification, the facilitation of social moments, self-expression and self-exploration: all key aspects of Hugo’s DNA, and values loved by the Roblox community’.
HUGO BOSS
At Metaverse Fashion Week, the German fashion brand used AI to translate the creative concept of BOSS Miami Fashion Show into a Metaverse showroom. The space combined gamification with digital retail — the five looks displayed in the space were shoppable and linked to relevant product pages on hugoboss.com.
‘Following a line-up of NFT projects, the BOSS immersive showroom is the next step in our exploration of Web3 and the Metaverse, exciting new spaces for fashion brands’, said Daniel Grieder, CEO, HUGO BOSS. ‘We will leverage the opportunities this opens for our brand’s storytelling and see it as an additional sales channel within our future omnichannel strategy. The virtual showroom concept… brings us closer to our goal of becoming the leading premium tech-driven fashion platform worldwide’.
HUGO BOSS in 2024
HUGO BOSS is one of the leading fashion and lifestyle companies in the premium segment. Two strong brands, BOSS and HUGO, differ in their aesthetic but meet the same high standards. The company, based in Metzingen, Germany posted a 2024 financial report stating, ‘HUGO BOSS showed a solid performance also in the third quarter, benefiting from the growing brand relevance of BOSS and HUGO built in recent years…In Group currency, revenues amounted to EUR 1,029 million in Q3 2024 slightly above the prior-year level.
HUGO BOSS Fall Winter 2024
The Group posted robust revenue improvements in brick-and-mortar wholesale and digital. Interestingly, the launch of the BOSS Fall Winter 2024 campaign in August 2024 marks the beginning of a partnership with David Beckham while BOSS Spring Summer 2025 unveiled at Milan Fashion Week is generating more than 40 million livestream views worldwide! What’s more, the new customer loyalty program “HUGO BOSS XP” is driving an increase in its member base.
‘In the third quarter, HUGO BOSS achieved solid top-line improvements despite the ongoing weak consumer sentiment,’ said Daniel Grieder, CEO, HUGO BOSS. ‘Most importantly, and despite the volatile market backdrop, we have further enhanced the relevance of our brands, deepening customer engagement and continuing driving brand experiences and product offerings.’
‘In the third quarter we have also made important progress when it comes to improving cost efficiency. By further leveraging our global sourcing activities and rigorously executing our cost measures introduced earlier this year, we have improved productivity and effectiveness across our business, and supported our bottom-line development’ he added.
History of HUGO BOSS
Hugo Ferdinand Boss – the youngest child of Heinrich and Luise Boss, who jointly owned a lingerie and linen shop in Swabian, was the heir to his parents’ shop. He began an apprenticeship as a merchant before enlisting in the army during World War I and later opened his clothing factory in 1924. During its first years the factory handmade garments including shirts for the National Socialist Party. Hugo F. Boss advertised his company during the mid-1930s as a “supplier of Party equipment since 1924.”
In 1929 the global economic crisis caused problems for the textile industry and by 1931 Hugo Boss’ factory was near- bankruptcy. That year Hugo F. Boss became a member of the National Socialist Party which placed orders for uniforms. Hugo Boss however took a long time to recover from the Great Depression. Post- 1938 the company received major commissions for army uniforms.
Hugo Boss grew during the Third Reich. Metzingen was occupied by Allied troops in April 1945 after which it became part of the French occupation. Hugo F. Boss was forced to undergo denazification, during which he was initially classified as “incriminated” and reportedly fined 100,000 reichsmarks. The reasons for this sentence included his early membership of the National Socialist Party, the fact that he benefited financially from National Socialism, and his friendship with Georg Rath, the local leader of the National Socialist Party. Hugo F. Boss appealed against the initial sentence and was ultimately classified as a “follower”.
When the war ended, the company manufactured uniforms for the French occupation forces and the Red Cross. Under the aegis of Hugo Boss’ son-in-law Eugen Holy, production expanded until the end of the Sixties. The company had already begun selling suits during the Fifties and by late Sixties, its sales had climbed to 3.5 million deutschmarks. In 1969 brothers Jochen and Uwe Holy took over the company and began evolving it into the global fashion brand it is today.
In 1984 Boss fragrances appeared and the company was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange the following year. The brand began sponsorship of motorsports, golf and tennis. In 1989 Boss launched its first licensed sunglasses. After the Marzotto textile group acquired a 77.5 per cent stake in 1991 Hugo and Baldessarini brands were introduced. In 1995 the company launched footwear.
Daniel Grieder joined the HUGO BOSS AG Managing Board as CEO in 2021. Per a company release, he explains the brand’s transformative vision: “With the branding refresh and the release of the star-studded campaigns we are ushering in an entirely new era for BOSS and HUGO. It is our aim to excite new and younger target groups and turn them into fans of our brands. Both campaigns are therefore an important step in further boosting brand relevance.”
Jasmeen Dugal is Associate Editor at FashionABC, contributing her insights on fashion, technology, and sustainability. She brings with herself more than two decades of editorial experience, working for national newspapers and luxury magazines in India.
Jasmeen Dugal has worked with exchange4media as a senior writer contributing articles on the country’s advertising and marketing movements, and then with Condenast India as Net Editor where she helmed Vogue India’s official website in terms of design, layout and daily content. Besides this, she is also an entrepreneur running her own luxury portal, Explosivefashion, which highlights the latest in luxury fashion and hospitality.
