Photo: Courtesy of Philip Lotko Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story Welcome to the Scoop : a weekly email series in which I quiz fashion insiders on the stories of the week. This will be a way for the Vogue Business community to synthesize and reflect on the latest headlines and get a little inside scoop every Friday.
This week’s guest is Rains co-founder Philip Lotko. Founded in 2012 as a niche outerwear company, Rains has grown rapidly in its almost 15 years of existence. There have been shows at both Copenhagen and Paris Men’s fashion weeks , one very big office move , and an even bigger corporate overhaul led by Lotko’s co-founder Daniel Brix Hesselager, who stepped into the CEO role in October 2025.
With the operational bit under control, this summer felt like the right time for a new creative vision. In early June, Philip was announced as the brand’s creative director. I called him up to talk about his new role, and some more Rains news.
The Danish brand has moved into a new state-of-the-art HQ to enable its rapid expansion. Co-founders Daniel Brix Hesselager and Philip Lotko share the strategy.
Hi Philip, first of all, congratulations on your new title as creative director. But it is your company, does the change in title make a difference?
It actually does. Daniel and I have worn many different hats throughout our expansion. I’ve been mostly based in Copenhagen and the company headquarters are in Aarhus, so naturally, I’ve been leading on special projects from there. This new role actually gives me an opportunity to reconnect with the business on a day-to-day level.
Over the past few years, we introduced a strategy that includes new product categories. In doing this, we want to make sure that the creative decisions we make are intentional and closer to the DNA that created the brand.
Rains is going to be the main sponsor for B.93, a historical football club from Copenhagen’s Østerbro. Officially called Boldklubben af 1893, it’s one of the city’s oldest football clubs, and it’s deeply embedded in the local culture. If you go to a B.93 on a Friday night, it’s more of a warm up before people go to the club. You see the coolest people of all ages at the games, and they all have incredible style. They sometimes host pre-game gigs too at the B.93 stadium, which is right next to the National Stadium of Denmark, where FC Copenhagen play. So the B.93 stadium is like this noisy little neighbor.
Rains co-founder, Philip Lotko, and B.93 CEO, Nicolaj Thomsen, sitting on the stalls at the Østerbro Stadium.
How did the partnership come about? Was that a way for you guys to engage with the World Cup ?
Everybody has been wanting to tap into football one way or another during this World Cup, which is super cool, because it becomes a cultural event rather than just a sports event. But this particular partnership for us is about reconnecting with our roots in Copenhagen.
I’ve been going to B.93 games for years now, and there’s just something very charming about this specific club. They’re not about winning every game, but about becoming just a bit better every day and engaging with the local community. We’ve been working closely with B.93 CEO Nicolaj Thomsen on all of this. This partnership also opens the door for more sponsorship for the club down the line.
We have designed the shirts, obviously, so our logo will be on the front. But we will also create small capsule collections that will be dropped around the games.…