The wind is not blowing in luxury. The sector has been in dry dock for half a year now, stranded by the slowdown in consumption, especially in China, which is weighing down the profit and loss accounts of the large conglomerates that are sharing the succulent pie. There are some exceptions, of course, but the fact that the flagship of the business that gives lustre to the clothing industry (and not only that, aside from jewellery and watchmaking, the issue extends to what they call lifestyle, from spirits to hospitality) has been showing declining sales for two consecutive quarters has executives and investors dizzy. Luckily, even if there is a lack of air, the French group Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy has more than enough capacity to puff out its chest, blow and unfurl its sails. We have just seen it at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, of which the holding company leader in the stormy sea of exclusivity has been a sponsor premium, and we will see it again in the upcoming America’s Cup, the most posh – and oldest – regatta ever, to be held in Barcelona between August 22 and October 27. There, soaking up prestige.
Bernard Arnault himself, president of LVMH, said it in an interview with the newspaper The World days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games: “We have to give our money’s worth.” Translation: by getting close to sporting excellence —with all its heroic epic of effort and overcoming— through sponsorship, the group and its assets/firms are invested with a certain sociocultural authority that transcends the merely material. The move, in this case, is a round one, because at the same time the multinational benefits from that multimillion-dollar remuneration of what in current marketing jargon is called “media impact value”, that is, the reach of appearances and mentions of the brand in the media. As regards the America’s Cup, for example, there is no loss: the final series of this thirty-seventh edition is preceded by the name of his first team, Louis Vuitton. “It is clear that Bernard wants to leave his mark. “If you can sponsor the competition, you can rename it as you wish,” conceded Grant Dalton, CEO of the America’s Cup and head of Team New Zealand (reigning champions), sitting in the front row at the Vuitton women’s cruise collection show in Barcelona last May.
France’s first fortune – or second or third in the world, depending on the stock market’s fluctuations – Arnault arrived in the Catalan capital aboard his superyacht, the Symphony, The luxury brand sails under the Cayman Islands flag. A symbolic landing by the luxury brand’s boss, who wants to get his business liner’s sales back on track. In reality, there are no official figures to support the move, nor are there any specific reasons for resuming a sponsorship that began in 1983 with the Louis Vuitton Cup, the event that determines which other team will compete in the final race against the champion, and which was abandoned after the 2017 competition, although Dalton has pointed out a “general interest in attracting attention and recognition to a niche sport, especially among younger people.” This complicated segment of consumers, which has been won over in the last five years through the men’s line with the signings as creative directors of Virgil Abloh, first (from 2018 until his death in 2021), and the musician Pharrell Williams (a year and a half in office), is supposedly the target of the capsule collection launched for the occasion. And the assumption must be emphasised because, as Simon Chadwick, professor of sports business at Salford Business School, explains, “the America’s Cup is an exclusive environment that does not generate engagement with sports fans in general. It is an elite that is only interested in itself.”
Without the massive and popular pull of other team sports, sailing has always been more of a hobby for the rich and privileged than any other, until the middle of the last decade, when nautical technology helped to change this perception, especially thanks to those windsurf-type sails. (foils) which make boats cut through the wind and glide over the surface of the water, defying gravity. It may not be Formula 1, but the spectacle of speed worked miracles and attracted the attention of new audiences.
Prada was quick to catch the wave, and in 2018 relaunched with great fanfare Red Line, the nautical-inspired collection that debuted in 1997 to honour the boat of the same name that competes in the America’s Cup. It also happened that the Italian group then took over sponsorship of the competition after the Frenchman left (the preliminary race was renamed the Prada Cup). The thin red line that distinguishes the clothes, shoes and accessories has thus once again become a distinctive part of the Prada universe, as well as an aspirational object that highlights functionality and creative technical excellence, with the house’s trademark recycled nylon as its flagship and the seminal white sneaker designed to be worn by the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team as an emblem of sporting luxury par excellence.
The year Linea Rossa returned also saw the appearance of INEOS Britannia, the team led by Sir Ben Ainslie (the most decorated Olympic sailor in history) who were to bring victory back to the United Kingdom, the birthplace of the competition. Belstaff then made its triumphant entrance as sponsor, with Kate Middleton as ambassador wearing the official uniform to wish the crew luck. There is a subtext here: the historic British firm, pioneer in the use of waterproof waxed cotton and celebrated for its biker jackets, is owned by tycoon Jim Ratcliffe, the richest man on Her Majesty’s Isles. Whether it will win the 37th America’s Cup remains to be seen, but for now it is already claiming the fashion medal with a capsule collection conceived specifically for it, the Belstaff Challenger. This year, in addition, the team will be wearing technical designs by Camper.
Even more surprising is the new entente between the New York Yacht Club American Magic of New York and Desigual. The team that remained undefeated for 132 years, until the New Zealanders snatched away the glory, is now dressed by Helly Hansen, a Norwegian brand now in the hands of Canadian capital with a popular appeal as urban as it is posh, which markets its collection ad hoc, But for Barcelona it has teamed up with the massive local brand in a capsule that is eminently youthful. The Parisian K-Way, for its part, is repeating for the second year as supplier of the Orient Express Racing Team, but it brings something new, like the regatta itself: with a women’s category for the first time in its history (under the auspices of the Catalan luxury group Puig as a sponsoring partner), the collection for sale includes clothing outdoor of woman.
As expected in a competition where testosterone has always reigned supreme, the icing on the cake is fine watchmaking. Omega, Tudor and Panerai keep time at sea, contributing to the sponsorship of the various crews (Emirates Team New Zealand, the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Linea Rossa Prada Pirelli, respectively), but above all they accumulate triumphs on land as collectors’ favourites thanks to the very exclusive and limited editions of the wrist models created for each edition of the America’s Cup. You know, here, if you don’t get wet, you don’t win.
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