Sunday, April 01, 2007
The journey from Lowes to Armani
We didn't name names at that time. By now many a sports watcher Down Under has heard about the deal between Italy's Giorgio Armani and the Australian National Rugby League (NRL)'s South Sydney Rabbitohs. The deal was facilitated by South Sydney owner and Hollywood actor Russell Crowe.
The red and green made-to-measure suits have been a huge public relations success. The (many) Doubting Thomasses mentioned in our initial report are dumbstruck, with photos and stories about the suits and their original, Crowe-inspired, insignia appearing outside the sports pages and in all media.
Which is certainly a good thing. Had publicity of the deal been restricted to only the sporting press, it seems very unlikely that Armani could have expected much increase in its client reach. The average rugby league supporter has for many years been inured on sports stars graduating from a distinguished NRL career to "acting" in television commercials for a clothing store called ... wait for it ... Lowes.
Lowes' Sydney city store is just around the corner from Armani, but the pricing distance between suits at the two stores is a figure with many zeros. Even the normally reliable Sydney Sun-Herald sports journalist Danny Weidler, fishing for a mandicle-plummeting revelation on the cost of Souths' Armani outfitting, seems to have furnished a significant underguesstimate. He may have figured that his readers simply couldn't wrap their minds around the kinds of prices Armani actually charges. Weidler says the value of the outfitting is between $100,000 and $250,000. But if we look at the Souths' outfits item by item, even a conservative estimate goes way beyond that:
$5,000 - 1 specially made GA suit, with extra pair of pants:
$1,000 - 2 pairs GA shoes:
$700 - 2 shirts
$300 - 1 GA tie
$400 - 1 GA belt
$200 - 3 pairs underwear
That's a - conservative, as I said - total of over $7,500 per person, and a squad (including coaches and other personnel) of between 50 and 70 were outfitted. You do the rest of the math.
At least the Souths' players seem to appreciate the gear. From all reports - after a few teething pains - they love the new threads and maintain them very well. Even the underweargate scandal we alluded to in February seems to have been misconstrued: at the first fitting, the players came straight from training, which is why one or two of them neglected to put on underpants. When the Armani staff supplied the naked offender(s) with daks, the other players cottoned on to the ploy as a way to milk the sponsor of cool Sat'd'y night panties. So they all turned up at the next fitting panty-free, prompting The Gladiator to ask the sponsor for 3 pair for each player ...
