Fila

If Grant Hill is attempting to become the next Michael Jordan, he showed yesterday he is coming closer -- off the basketball court, anyway.The Detroit Pistons star signed a seven-year, $80 million contract with Fila Holdings SpA, one of the most lucrative sports endorsement contracts in history, that will boost his annual take from about $6 million to $11 million.Only Jordan, who recently signed a new contract with Nike Inc., receives more -- roughly $20 million a year. Hill's new deal exceeds the five-year, $50 million contract Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers signed with Reebok International Ltd.Fila, which has its U.S. headquarters in Sparks, hopes the contract will lead to an increase in sales of its sneakers and a corresponding jump in its stock price, which has gone from a high of $105 a share on Sept.

Fila Holding SpA yesterday said its fourth-quarter and year-end 1997 earnings will be about $10 million lighter than expected because stores are overstocked, prices for its shoes are falling and its markets are continuing to soften."

BIELLA, Italy -- Fila Holding SpA said yesterday that its second quarter could fall as much as 36 cents below analysts' per-share estimates on declining sales and the cancellation of orders in the United States.The maker of athletic clothes and shoes, with U.S. headquarters and distribution facility in Sparks, said it expected earnings to be 53 cents to 60 cents for each American depositary share.Fila had been expected to earn 89 cents an ADS, based on five analysts surveyed by IBES International Inc.The Biella, Italy-based company said its results were hurt by lower-than-expected U.S. sales.

Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa, who last year dueled the St. Louis Cardinals' Mark McGwire in a summer-long race to break the single-season home run record, will soon be pitching for Sparks-based athletic apparel maker Fila USA.The company announced a two-year deal yesterday with Sosa -- who lost the contest but was named the National League's Most Valuable Player -- in which he will market his own cross-training shoe. Outfielder Sosa hit 66 homers, breaking Roger Maris' record of 61, but came in second to McGwire's 70.Fila is working on a prototype of the "Sosa Trainer" and plans to have it in stores by spring.

Capitalizing on a coaching change in a basketball program fallen on hard times, Fila USA said it has signed Seton Hall coach Tommy Amaker to a multi-year sponsorship deal that marks Fila's first major foray into the competitive world of collegiate affiliations with shoe companies.Seton Hall's place in the Big East Conference will help the Sparks-based U.S. arm of the Italian athletic gear company get television exposure essential to moving Fila from its reputation as a strongly fashion-oriented brand to an image as a "performance" shoe for serious athletes as well.

The battle of titans never materialized. Although McDonogh and DeMatha are considered to be the top boys soccer teams from their respective areas, and both are nationally ranked in a preseason poll, neither played well yesterday in the final of the Fila Classic at McDonogh. That was especially true for Baltimore's top team, McDonogh, which lost, 1-0, to DeMatha, Washington's best, in the season-opening tournament for both teams. "I was disappointed with the way we came out in the first half," Eagles coach Steve Nichols said.

As hot-stocks maven Dan Dorfman's recent problems run, it (( wasn't much. But his May 1 prediction that Fila Holding S.p.A. stock could drop to $45 by fall is shaping up as a $500 million mistake.People laugh at Dorfman now, but underestimating Fila has practically been a Wall Street art form. And this month, the few remaining Fila skeptics have paid more dearly than ever.Analysts' profit estimates have proven too low for nine straight quarters -- often way too low. Two years ago, even Fila's own investment bankers recommended the shares only tepidly at $15. They're at $86.50 now. Oops.

Basketball shoes sit toe to heel on the window ledge of Jon Epstein's office at Fila U.S.A. in Sparks, and portraits celebrate Fila-clad tennis stars and runners. But the more treacherous sport of mountain climbing dominates Epstein's thoughts as the new chief executive struggles to revive the athletic footwear and apparel company.Epstein draws inspiration from the first climber to scale Mount Everest without bottled oxygen, Fila endorser Reinhold Messner, he wages an uphill fight of another sort -- restoring the faded luster of the once-shining Fila brand.

Presidential campaigns always seem to begin with Mom, Apple Pie and Baseball and descend into a mudslinging mush of negative ads. But sneakers ads?Yes, sneakers ads. Hitching a ride on publicity for mega-competitor Nike Inc.'s "Ken Griffey Jr. for President" ad campaign, Hunt Valley-based Fila USA is launching a negative campaign -- bashing the Seattle Mariners slugger as too inexperienced and, as a candy bar endorser, wrong on health care issues to boot.It...

In a bizarre case that has shocked the city's legal community, a Baltimore attorney has been charged with hiring a hit man to kill her law partner in an apparent effort to cover up the theft of more than $10,000 from the firm, police said.Susan Fila, 42, a malpractice specialist who graduated near the top of her class at the University of Baltimore law school, was rTC arrested Thursday night and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and theft over $300, according to court records.