Photo: Ralph Lauren
Collaborations between endemic outdoor companies and mainstream luxury brands are nothing new. Remember Thom Browne’s line of $4,000 wetsuits? Prada’s $700 pair of booties? That one time Dior and Stussy came together to launch a “high fashion beach capsule?” The list goes on. Ralph Lauren is the latest to jump on the trend of adding its logo to outdoor gear with its new line of very exclusive skis and snowboards.
The new line consists of one pair of skis paying homage to the brand’s “Ski ’92” clothing line, which was launched in the fall of 1992, a P-Wing snowboard, a “Snow Beach” decorative snowboard, and another decorative snowboard with the brand’s iconic Polo Ralph Lauren logo, all built by the East Coast brand Parlor, which specializes in custom-made skis and snowboards along with factory lines for both sports.
And yes, they really are exclusive, which explains the pricetags — $1,950 for the skis and $1,750 for the snowboards, which are clearly marketed as decorative (rare) art pieces rather than functional gear. There are only 15 pairs of the Ski ’92 skis, for example. The Snow Beach snowboard is a callback to the brand’s 1993 fall line and there are just 30 boards available. The P-Wing snowboard was another Ralph Lauren line from the early ’90s, which was “part of the legendary Stadium collection and is inspired by vintage track-and-field iconography.” Only 25 of those boards were made. And finally, the Polo Crest snowboard is limited to just 15 boards.
Has anybody else been watching the new show Your Friends and Neighbors? You can easily imagine Jon Hamm breaking into the home of his fellow rich neighbors and spotting any one of these on the wall. He’d probably deliver a monologue about the origins of Lauren’s first Polo line in the late ’60s, which was sold out of a single office in the Empire State Building in 1967. Bloomingdale’s started selling the brand’s polos and other clothing in its stores in 1969 and by 1972, Lauren opened his first store on Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive. Then again, actor Jon Hamm, errrr, Coop, would probably have an easier time stuffing a few Patek Phillippe watches worth six figures in his pocket than slinging a $2,000 pair of skis over his shoulder and trying to play it cool.
