MILAN — The link between fashion and sports continues to tighten.
A day after LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton revealed it had signed on as a global luxury partner of Formula 1, the Oasi Zegna Ski Racing Center revealed it had inked a two-year agreement with the Federazione Italiana Sport Invernali FISI, the Italian Winter Sports Federation.
According to the deal, the ski center created in Bielmonte, an alpine location 20 minutes away from Trivero where the Ermenegildo Zegna Group is based, will become a new official training site for the FISI teams.
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Chairman and chief executive officer Gildo Zegna expressed his pride in the agreement, “which is part of the ongoing effort to bring the world’s best professional skiers to Bielmonte and represents another important step in the mission of Oasi Zegna Ski Racing Center to promote the values of sport and the territory supporting sporting excellence.”
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The structure in Bielmonte, located at 1,500 meters above sea level, offers five slopes certified by FIS, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation; a sports center for athletic training; a large covered parking lot located directly under the ski lifts, and services designed for all needs.
“This is a very important agreement for the federation and for Italian athletes,” said Flavio Roda, president of FISI. The Oasi Zegna Ski Racing Center “offers optimal training conditions, especially in the central part of the season, and is logistically close to many competition sites. For this reason, it is an ideal solution for the pre-race camps. I would like to thank Gildo Zegna, a great snow and mountain enthusiast, for strongly supporting this agreement, which I am certain will continue into the future.”
In particular, the Oasi Zegna Ski Racing Center includes the Bielmonte slope, with three special slalom (SL) lines with a gradient of 27 percent and a vertical drop of 130 meters, and the Moncerchio slope, with two giant slalom (GS) lines with a gradient of 29 percent and a vertical drop of 234 meters.
Sponsors of the center range from Intesa Sanpaolo through the IMI Corporate & Investment Banking Division; ski equipment brand Nordica, part of the Tecnica Group; eyewear firm Marcolin, and San Martino2 of Novara, a key shopping center in Piedmont and part of the SCC Group to premium beverage brand Lauretana.
Italy, especially the cities of Milan and Cortina, is gearing up for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which will run Feb. 6 to 22, while the Paralympics will run March 6 to 15, 2026.
The Zegna family owns the Hotel Bucaneve in Bielmonte, a 90-minute drive from Milan, and part of the Oasi Zegna, which was created starting in the late 1920s by Zegna’s grandfather, Ermenegildo Zegna, founder of the namesake luxury group.
The hotel, all wooden planks and coffered ceilings, with a big fireplace in the restaurant, upholstery and curtains in soft Ermenegildo Zegna fabrics, is surrounded by rhododendrons and half a million pine trees planted by the founder, who also created Route 232 connecting the two sides of the mountain and made them accessible for all. It offers stunning views of the Alps, from the Monviso pyramid-shaped mountain to the Monte Rosa massif, and overlooks the river Po Valley.
The Oasi Zegna is a territory spanning more than 62 miles and its colors and mood are also a source of inspiration for artistic director Alessandro Sartori, who has been developing the sustainable Oasi Cashmere and staged some shows at the location.