Ralph Lauren alters its iconic logo to a rider riding a flame

Introducing our #FortnitexPOLO collaboration. For the first time, these two worlds converge, reinterpreting the timeless style of @PoloRalphLaurend within @Fortnite”, thus presents the iconic clothing brand Polo Ralph Lauren on his Instagram account. It is about the change that the brand of the American fashion company founded in 1967 by fashion designer Ralph Lauren, has made to attract generation Z (people who were born from 1996 to the early 2000s).

This reinvention is the first in the company’s 55-year history. Let’s remember that the brand opened a store last week (November 5) in the San Marino shopping center in Guayaquil (there is another, the first in the country, in the Mall El Jardín in Quito).

For five decades, the Ralph Lauren emblem has been occupied by the same silhouette recognized as a polo player on horseback, in full action and chasing a ball with the polo stick raised. But now it has been replaced by a llama, the mammal that lives in the Andes. However, the image of the horse and its rider goes down in history, although not definitively, and not in all the touch points of the fashion brand. But yes when it comes to the conquest of the younger public.

The collection includes clothing with a special Polo x Llama logo and custom embroidery.

This merger that the luxury fashion brand has launched is a co-branding strategy with the Epic Games platform. What does all this translate? The fashion brand unfolds and expands its business to adapt to these new profiles. This is how new products and clothes arrive that can be bought for both the earthly and virtual world: caps, polo shirts and other outfits designed by Lauren exclusively for the famous video game Fortnite.

In fact, the llama is the official mascot of the famous Epic Games game and they have been represented for some time now (specifically in the 3.3 update) as fun piñatas and, since then, they have not exactly gone unnoticed.

Polo Ralph Lauren will open its first store in Guayaquil

These famous llamas are special loot boxes, which take approximately 8 seconds to open and where you can find almost anything. What people like the most is that they reward whoever finds them with a lot of wood, stone and metal (which never hurts when building). But you can also find traps, ammunition, potions, bandages and some other weapons, although not too many.

David Lauren, Ralph Lauren’s chief innovation officer and son of the firm’s founder, said in an interview that the brand simply followed its instincts when it came to changing its emblematic logo. “We just felt like it was okay. We found it funny, ”he explained in an interview with Fast Company.

Before Ralph Lauren, other brands have set their sights on Fortnite, such as veteran fashion brands like Balenciaga or Moncler. And Burberry has decided to partner with Roblox and Mythical Games instead. What is evident is that fashion brands go where their customers are and today a good part of their buyers live in virtual universes.

Ralph Lauren is not, in any case, a brand alien to the digital universe. “We were one of the first brands to have a website, to play video games and holograms in our stores, and to partner with partners like Bitmoji,” Lauren said.

some history

The famous Polo Pony has cinematic overtones. It was in 1967, the year in which Ralph Lauren (83 years old) founded the company, but it was not until 1968 when the idea of ​​the polo player for the brand identity came. It happened after the premiere of the movie The Thomas Crown Affair, with Steve McQueen and the famous scene of the actor riding a horse when he plays polo.

It seemed to the American designer that this model of life of luxury, elegance and emotion fit perfectly with the aspirational model of life of his audience at that time. And that polo player embodied the living reflection of the values ​​that the brand wanted to convey.

For the company, the horse from the Ralph Lauren logo is a symbol of status, elegance. The distinctive design of the Polo Pony is a classic for a clearly snobbish brand.

However, now, that aspirational model no longer fits with the youngest, hence the brand’s flirtations with the metaverse and virtual universes.

“Technology is a phenomenal tool for telling those stories and Ralph Lauren’s recent partnership with Fortnite is merely the latest manifestation of what the brand has been doing for a long time,” said the brand’s founder.