Autry Names New CEO Tasked With Brand Evolution, International Push

MILAN — Autry continues the global expansion kicked off when Style Capital acquired a majority stake in 2024, and now the private equity fund has appointed a new chief executive officer at the Italian footwear brand.

Industry veteran Danilo Piarulli is joining Autry with immediate effect, assuming a role that had been vacant for the past two years.

Prior to joining Autry, Piarulli had a 13-year stint at Golden Goose, serving in management roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as chief consumer officer with a seat on the company’s board of directors. He started his career in finance at companies including PwC, before moving on to fashion, first at Geox and then at Golden Goose, where he also served as chief financial officer.

He joins Autry at a time of rapid expansion, as the premium brand has opened 12 flagships and shops-in-shop over the past two years; increased marketing activities, for example naming K-pop star Changbin of Stray Kids as its first global brand ambassador; launched a new performance-aimed product vertical, billed Action, and developed several capsule collections.

“The next step is to establish a clear, solid vision for evolving the company from a product-driven firm to becoming a true brand. That is the primary challenge we have set for ourselves,” Piarulli told WWD.

“Building a brand means crafting a lifestyle that speaks to the communities and consumer segments with whom we can be relevant. We need to be obsessed with the end consumer… [fostering] opportunities to reach new audiences and bring them into dialogue with the brand universe. I want to nurture a company culture in which the consumer is at the center, and in which we understand how and when to engage with them,” Piarulli said.

“Our biggest competitor is not necessarily another [fashion] brand. It could be a fancy dinner or a day at a spa. That perspective will guide how we build the brand and align it with the lifestyle aspirations of our target audiences,” he said. “Capturing them fundamentally means developing themes that are both relevant and enduring. It’s not a merchandising exercise, but rather a 360-degree proposition.”

A talkative and focused executive, Piarulli first linked up with Roberta Benaglia, CEO of Autry’s parent Style Capital and chairwoman of the brand, and Max Caraffa, the private equity’s chief investment officer, over a decade ago, when the fund held a stake in Golden Goose, which it exited in 2015.

“We are making a forward-looking decision that I see as a natural evolution of our corporate organization,” Benaglia said. “Danilo has already demonstrated his ability to contribute to the transformation of a sneaker brand into a global company. Having the right skills is one thing; having successfully navigated that complexity before is another. He combines strategic vision with a highly operational mindset and a strong focus on execution, from processes and people to control and disciplined growth.”

Benaglia singled out Piarulli’s understanding of and expertise in the premium lifestyle fashion market as instrumental in laying the grounds for Autry’s next development steps.

In 2025, Autry logged sales of 150 million euros.

Under the strengthened leadership, the brand projects sales to increase 10 to 15 percent year-over-year until 2029, “driven by a strong expansion of our direct-to-consumer channels, which will be a direct expression of our [reinforced] relationship with consumers,” Piarulli said.

That channel, including retail and e-commerce, currently accounts for 34 percent of sales. Piarulli plans to bring the mix with wholesale revenues into balance within two to three years. Autry is sold at about 1,000 retailers globally.

This entails an aggressive retail expansion plan, with about five to 10 new flagships lined up each year, the executive explained. Some are already in the pipeline, including Rome; Venice; a second store in Milan’s Brera district, and Munich, as Germany is Autry’s third-largest market, behind Italy and France and ahead of Spain and the U.K.

With Europe in consolidation phase, the executive shared strong ambitions for the U.S. market, where direct retail is a key priority in the short term, alongside an expanded wholesale presence. Autry currently counts 50 partners Stateside, and conversations are ongoing with leading department stores.

The country also represents about 10 to 15 percent of Autry’s global online sales, signaling the ground is fertile. He said that primary retail targets include New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Dallas — where the brand was established by founder Jim Autry in the ’80s.

All the existing Autry flagships were opened after Style Capital’s takeover in 2024. They include Milan, two units in Paris, Cannes, London, as well as doors at South Korea’s Lotte Main, Galleria, and Shinsegae Gangnam department stores, and at Shinjuku’s Isetan in Tokyo and Takashimaya in Osaka.

Asia is high on Piarulli’s agenda as he sees growing interest, not least because of the recent tie-up with Changbin on a capsule collection and dedicated brand events, as reported.

The executive believes in a tailor-made distribution strategy, across different geographies and channels, with exclusive drops and special tie-ups catering to different audiences.

“We need a selective distribution strategy, recognizing that certain markets are more responsive to specific parts of the assortment,” Piarulli said.

Much of Piarulli’s confidence and trust in the brand’s potential comes from the strengths he sees in the product offering and pricing.

“Our baseline is very strong: We have a creatively solid product… and an attractive price point in a relatively protected segment, as luxury players have little interest in entering this space and sporting companies have an inherent price cap on their goods that is hard to overcome,” he contended.

However, Piarulli believes that there is still space to further refine the brand’s merchandising mix, by broadening or enhancing product pillars, including an expanded, fully styled ready-to-wear offering, which he believes would resonate strongly with female consumers.

Autry’s sales are currently evenly split between men and women, and Piarulli expects both genders to grow by 10 percent each year, in part by scaling up the brand’s appeal and footprint among Gen Z consumers, an age segment that is currently underdeveloped compared to Gen X and Millennials.