MILAN — New Guards Group, once considered an innovative and successful streetwear conglomerate, has been weighed down by financial challenges, including a bankruptcy protection filing in Italy and outstanding debts to Authentic Brands Group, which last year terminated its license to distribute Reebok clothing and footwear in Europe. The original alliance between NGG and Reebok came on the heels of the latter’s acquisition by Authentic from Adidas in 2021, a deal pegged at 2.1 billion euros. 

Founded in 2015 by Claudio Antonioli, Davide De Giglio and Marcelo Burlon, NGG over the years grew to include brands Palm Angels, Unravel Project, Heron Preston, Alanui, Kirin Peggy Gou, Opening Ceremony and Ambush, as well as the Off-White and Marcelo Burlon County of Milan licenses.

Farfetch acquired NGG for $675 million in 2019, envisioning further growth potential through the deal, but a declining demand for streetwear and the death of Off-White founder Virgil Abloh in 2021 contributed to impact the group’s performance.

Farfetch was impacted by its own financial troubles and was acquired at the end of 2023 at a knockdown price of $500 million by South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, eyeing a sale of noncore assets such as NGG.

Last year, Style Capital, which has invested in the likes of Zimmermann and MSGM, was said to be interested in NGG but a deal never materialized.  

Gradually, NGG began to fall apart. Most recently, in June, Burlon cut ties with Farfetch and NGG. The designer, who exited the creative director’s role of his namesake brand in April 2024, signed a global design, manufacturing and distribution license with Italian fashion company Daddato Next. A month later, Heron Preston bought back his brand.

Those developments came after Bluestar Alliance acquired Off-White and Palm Angels and followed the announcements that Alanui’s cofounders, siblings Carlotta and Nicolò Oddi, had bought back the stake held by NGG in the high-end knitwear brand they launched in 2015.

Last April, Ambush’s founders Yoon Ahn and Verbal reacquired full ownership of the company, which joined the NGG roster in 2020.

NGG is still home to brands including Unravel Project and Kirin Peggy Gou. In November last year, it started to undergo a restructuring and debt management process under Italian bankruptcy law. The filing is known in Italy as a CNC, and offers troubled companies the time and space to restructure, and chart a path forward. It is not an insolvency procedure.

So far NGG has failed to find a buyer and whether it will work to recreate a stable of brands or shift its focus remains to be seen.