Ferragamo announced on May 11, 2026, that Johnny Huang is its new global brand ambassador. The appointment is a deliberate one. Huang, who is known as Huang Jingyu in China and has 20 million followers on Weibo, is a prominent figure in his market. He is someone audiences have watched closely for nearly a decade.
Most Western readers may know Johnny Huang from Operation Red Sea, the 2018 action film that made him a household name well beyond China’s borders. For that role, he won a Best Newcomer award at the 13th Asian Film Awards and a Best Actor award at the Huading Awards in the same year. Since then, he has worked steadily and is set to appear in Pegasus 3 in 2026, following Pegasus 2 and Formed Police Unit in 2024. He is a versatile actor, and versatility matters when a luxury brand is staking its visibility on a face.
This is not Huang’s first time operating at the intersection of film and fashion. He was Abercrombie & Fitch’s first Chinese brand ambassador in 2018 and later served as a global ambassador for the Swiss brand Bally. Ferragamo is the logical next chapter for Huang, but it is also a more refined one. Ferragamo occupies a different register than Abercrombie. The Florentine company, founded on the craft of shoemaking and now led by British-Trinidadian creative director Maximilian Davis, has a particular kind of quiet prestige.
Davis joined Ferragamo in March 2022, recruited by former CEO Marco Gobbetti. What Davis has done since is worth paying attention to. He stripped away the excess noise and branding and returned the house to its origins of precision and restraint, offering clothing that lets the wearer do the talking. His Resort 2024 collection featured slim-cut suits, well-structured leisurewear, and a muted color scheme inspired by both Italian tradition and his own Caribbean heritage. Under Davis’s leadership, Ferragamo has stopped trying to be everything at once.
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This restraint is also what makes Huang a sensible choice. He is not the loudest presence in a room. He earns his appeal on screen rather than manufacturing it on social media, which gives the partnership a credibility that purely internet-born celebrity rarely provides.
Ferragamo’s roster of men’s ambassadors already includes Italian ski legend Alberto Tomba, who fronted the house’s “Legends, Reimagined” project, as well as NCT member Jeno Lee, the brand’s first global male ambassador. Huang’s addition extends the brand’s reach to a Chinese audience that is enormous and increasingly competitive for luxury brands.
The brand is also navigating an internal transition. Gobbetti stepped down from his CEO role in March 2025. Since then, executive chairman Leonardo Ferragamo has been steering strategy alongside a transitional advisory committee that includes James Ferragamo, the brand’s chief transformation and sustainability officer; former CFO Ernesto Greco; and former CEO Michele Norsa, who is now serving as a special adviser. That is a lot of hands at the wheel. Whether Davis’s creative direction will continue to improve under this arrangement is unclear, but the Huang appointment signals that the brand’s commercial ambitions remain intact.