Louis Vuitton goes off-white with a 60% stake in Virgil Abloh’s brand

Louis Vuitton Möet Hennessy bought a 60% stake in Off-White, as it doubled the foot of the fashion flute player, the fashion reign of Virgil Abloh. This investment propels LVMH deeper into the sportswear markets with ties to its unrivaled list of brands. Abloh is one of the few black designers with a leading role at the top of the fashion pyramid as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton. Will this new merger with Off-White and LVMH help create broader conversations about representation while giving them greater participation in the luxury sportswear and streetwear markets?

The breakdown you need to know: CultureBanx noted that Off-White, created by the artistic director of Louis Vuitton for men, Abloh, has a hugely popular line of sneakers with Nike. Additionally, Abloh designed the tennis uniform Serena Williams wore at the 2018 US Open. According to a recent study by Bain & Company, Abloh’s appointment to help Louis Vuitton’s menswear group is the reflecting the growing mix of luxury and streetwear sectors, focused on consumers.

This is a crossover sector in which LVMH wants greater stake, even though it overtook Nestlé earlier this year to become Europe’s largest company with a market capitalization of $ 382 billion. Many other LVMH brands have high-level sporting ties. Dior has released his own Air Jordan sneakers, Hennessy is teaming up with the NBA, and TAG Heuer sponsors the Porsche racing team and athletes, including Naomi Osaka. Let’s not forget that in February, he bought 50% of Armand de Brignac champagne from Jay-Z, a deal worth over $ 600 million.

Rely on culture: Now that Abloh and Louis Vuitton are inextricably linked, it will be a question of finding a harmonious balance between overexposure and exclusivity. This is something that Louis Vuitton has arguably struggled with in the past. Currently, the Louis Vuitton brand is the main sales driver for the French luxury goods group LVMH.

In 2020, the company’s fashion and leather goods business, which houses Louis Vuitton handbags, performed better than analysts expected in the fourth quarter, with sales up 18% year-on-year, and the Luxury conglomerate achieved revenue of $ 33.8 billion for the first half of 2021, an increase of 56% from the previous year. Men’s clothing is currently only sold in 150 of the 450 Louis Vuitton stores worldwide, although the company plans to increase that figure from 25 to 28 stores this year.

Knowledge of the situation: The fashion industry has a complicated relationship with race, although fashion is regularly influenced by street style, minority communities, and creative underdogs. These groups are rarely recognized or invited into the fold. Louis Vuitton’s investment in Off-White can finally be recognition from the luxury fashion industry for responding to contemporary culture in a new way.