Ellesse is a sports apparel company founded in Italy in 1959. It has been owned by British Pentland Group since 1987.

Ellesse was founded by Leonardo Servadio in Perugia in 1959. The name Ellesse derives from Servadio's initials, "L.S."^[1]

Ellesse grew in popularity during the 1970s as a producer of skiwear such as quilted jackets and ski pants. In 1979, Ellesse's Jet Pant, a ski pant featuring padded knees and a wide lower leg to fit around a ski boot, was included in an event at the Pompidou Centre in Paris celebrating Italian design.^[2]

Another sport with which Ellesse has been closely associated since its early years is tennis. The Ellesse logo references the form of a tennisball with the shape of the tips of a pair of skis.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, Ellesse gained a reputation for combining sportswear functionality with street-level fashion styling. It was one of the first sportswear brands to feature their logo prominently on the outside of their garments. During the mid-1980s, French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac worked with Ellesse, an early collaboration between a sportswear company and a fashion designer. The UK casuals adopted the brand in the '80s as premium sportswear took off across British lad culture.

A number of sports celebrities have endorsed Ellesse, including tennis players Tommy Haas, Chris Evert, Guillermo Vilas, Boris Becker, Mats Wilander, Pat Cash, Arantxa Sánchez and Anna Kournikova, skiers Marc Girardelli and Jean-Luc Crétier, and Formula 1 driver Alain Prost.

Other celebrities associated with the brand include boxer Muhammad Ali, Liam Smith Natas Kaupas and Maurice Cheeks, and actors Brigitte Nielsen and Roger Moore.

Ellesse also ventured into football sponsorship, and manufactured the kits for the New York Cosmos in the '80s.

In 1994 British brand management company Pentland Group purchased 90% of the shares of Ellesse for £20 million. Pentland had been Ellesse's UK distributor since 1981. Servadio retained 10% of the shares.^[3]

Pentland Group also owns other well-known sportswear brands such as Berghaus and Speedo.^[4] It currently licenses the Ellesse brand to partners in countries around the world, who manufacture and distribute Ellesse products in their territory.

Ellesse celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009 with a party in Rome in July 2009.