OTB

Galliano’s departure also marks the end of his groundbreaking partnership with Diesel founder turned Italian fashion mogul Renzo Rosso, whose OTB Group is the parent company to Maison Margiela, Marni and Viktor & Rolf.

Brand-owner Renzo Rosso, who is CEO of the OTB group, lauded Martens as a “phenomenon,’’ but said there was a lot of teamwork to get the kind of results.

When customers look up one of the 600,000 OTB products registered, they don’t just do it on any random website; the brands control which goods are registered on the platform.

OTB’s service allows customers to tap their smartphone, for example, on a new pair of Maison Margiela Tabi shoes, which have NFC chips embedded in them.

“A digital certificate of authenticity is a huge, huge problem solver,” says Stefano Rosso, chairman of the French fashion house Maison Margiela and chief executive officer of BVX, which are both part of OTB Group.