Hogan marked its 40th anniversary in Milan last night with a celebration that brought together fashion, film and the brand’s unmistakable sense of movement. Held during Milan Fashion Week, the evening introduced Hogan’s new manifesto, “Made to Move, Born to Rise,” alongside a special collaboration with the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Italy’s National Film School. Four commemorative short films paid tribute to some of Hogan’s most iconic shoe models, while the night looked back at four decades of design and forward to the brand’s next chapter.
Forty years is long enough for a fashion brand to build an archive. For Hogan, however, the anniversary is less about looking back than finding a new way to move forward.
Founded in 1986, Hogan emerged with an idea that now feels entirely natural but was strikingly new at the time: bringing Italian craftsmanship together with the ease and functionality of sportswear. The Hogan Traditional became its first icon, introducing a vision of relaxed luxury built around quality, comfort and versatility.
It was the beginning of a story shaped by movement.
The following decade brought the Interactive, distinguished by its unmistakable H and created for lifestyles that were becoming faster and increasingly fluid. The idea was inspired, according to the brand’s history, by Andrea Della Valle observing women in New York commuting in sneakers before changing into more formal shoes at work. Hogan instead imagined a sneaker that did not need to be changed.
The Olympia followed in the 2000s, bringing together sporting references and an urban sensibility, while the brand expanded into accessories, ready-to-wear and collaborations. More recently, H-Stripes, Hyperlight and Hogan Cool have continued that evolution, translating the house’s codes for another generation.
“Made to move. Born to rise.”
For its 40th anniversary, Hogan is choosing cinema in order to bring a new perspective. Rather than creating a conventional retrospective, the brand has divided its four decades into four stories, four shoes and four short films, each directed by a young filmmaker from Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. The shoes become what Hogan describes as the “silent main character” of each film.
Celeste, directed by Nicolò Folin, returns to the 1980s with the Hogan Traditional. Seen through the imagination of a young girl attempting to reach a box hidden high on a bookshelf, the story moves between reality, animation and memory. When she slips into her father’s Traditional sneakers, the simple act becomes symbolic. Reaching higher is no longer about physical height, but about believing another possibility exists.
“Every limit exists to be surpassed.”
Sarah Narducci’s Nine Hundred moves into the final hours of 1999. While the world waits nervously for the millennium, young skateboarder Mara is focused on something far more immediate: landing a Nine Hundred before midnight. Wearing Hogan Interactive, she races through Rome as the film contrasts static interiors with the energy of an empty city, turning the transition into 2000 into a story about risk, freedom and possibility.
The 2000s belong to Never Off, directed by Gregorio Mattiocco. A modern-day diva attempts to escape the paparazzi surrounding her hotel by exchanging identities with a chambermaid. Clothes, jewellery and status can all be abandoned, but one thing remains: her Hogan Olympia sneakers. Here, the shoe becomes less an accessory than a marker of identity, the one element she refuses to surrender.
Finally, Paoli De Luca’s Lola Rebel enters the 2010s. Its protagonist is a glamour icon seemingly trapped inside an immaculate image of herself until a young gardener disrupts the stillness. Their encounter leads Lola toward something lighter and freer, culminating in her stealing his Hogan Rebel sneakers. The film uses that gesture to speak about reinvention, playfulness and the possibility of writing one’s story again.
The filmmakers themselves represent the future-facing side of the project. Their backgrounds span cinema, photography, visual art and screenwriting, with work shown at festivals including Venice, Cannes and Alice nella Città.
Hogan’s relationship with the Centro Sperimentale does not stop with the films. The brand is also supporting five students through three-year scholarships across directing, acting, screenwriting, editing and production design, turning an anniversary project into an investment in emerging creative talent.
There is a physical anniversary marker too. The Hogan Cool Blue Special Edition arrives in a deep blue pony-effect leather, finished with H86_26 printed across the outsole and echoed on the laces. The anniversary shoe will be available from today at selected Hogan boutiques and online.
Blue runs through the wider anniversary narrative as the colour of sky, perspective and elevation. It feels appropriate for a brand whose winged logo has long represented ideas of freedom, boldness and movement.
At 40, Hogan is not treating heritage as something fixed behind glass. Its icons return through new eyes, new stories and younger voices. The shoes may change, the decades certainly do, but the idea at the centre remains remarkably consistent: keep moving, keep imagining and keep finding another way to rise.
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