Diadora America, Inc. tripled its tennis business last week after the company acquired the Kaelin license from Ermine Investments and runs Snowmass Apparel. The deal provides Diadora America with the worldwide license for the Kaelin brand, with the exception of Japan. Snowmass acquired the brand from ITOCHU about four years ago, but has done little with its heritage ski product. The tennis business has been running out of offices outside Baltimore, Maryland.

Bill Nutall, president of Diadora America, told Sports Executive Weekly that the Kaelin RD&D and sales team will remain in Maryland. He stressed the importance of keeping the brands separate. Stu Keillor, who has been with Kaelin for roughly 20 years, most recently as president of the company, has been appointed GM for the Kaelin business under Diadora.

All other functions, primarily the back-office and logistics elements, will move to Diadora’s facility in Kent, Wash. Diadora recently moved into a new larger corporate office and warehouse facility, making the deal possible. Nuttall said they closed the deal on June 14, but started moving goods to Kent on June 1. They were already able to ship Kaelin product out of the Diadora facility the day the deal closed.

Diadora’s tennis apparel business is primarily a basics and team business with very little seasonal change to the line. Nuttall told SEW that Kaelin must retain its high-end, fashion-forward positioning, delivering five collections a year. He did hint that Diadora could take color direction from Kaelin in the basics area.

Nuttall told SEW that Kaelin has roughly twice the number of tennis specialty accounts than Diadora and their tennis business is double the Diadora business. Diadora has 30 reps for their soccer business and 12 of those reps also carry tennis. Kaelin has 11 reps in the field and about half of those reps will now carry Diadora as well. Nuttall stressed that there is no move to fully integrate the sales organizations.

As for international, Nuttall said they are assessing how the brand will play in Europe where Diadora has a considerable operation.