La Martina
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Founder | Lando Simonetti |
| Headquarters | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Products | Apparel, Shoes |
Number of employees | 800 |
| Website | www.lamartina.com |
La Martina is a brand internationally known as the icon of the polo. Since 80’s La Martina is an Argentinean polo equipment and leisure clothing manufacturer and is present in North, Central and South America, Europe, Middle East and South East Asia with more than 70 exclusive stores, among which: Buenos Aires, Palm Beach, St Tropez, Milan, Lyon, Porto Cervo, Capri, Dubai, Doha and Kuala Lumpur.
La Martina has been designated the official supplier of Federation of International Polo, the Argentinean Polo Association and other international federations. In addition to the various national teams, La Martina also equips the university teams among other Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge and the College of St. Xavier in Mumbai.
La Martina is currently the official supplier of more than 90 polo events around the world. The activities of La Martina involve about 800 people.
History
An Argentine of Italian origin, Lando Simonetti built a career in the US fashion industry before returning to Argentina in 1985 and founding La Martina. A keen polo player in his youth, Mr Simonetti saw an opportunity to provide professional players with high-quality equipment. He began by making leather saddles and boots, then added shirts and caps and the 1985 marks the official birth of the company and of its first store located in the heart of Buenos Aires’ prime retail area. To date, La Martina still has a store there. [1]
In the 90’s, La Martina created a high handicap polo team to participate at the tournaments in Argentina, in particular to the Argentinean Open, the biggest and most renowned polo event in the world. The first sponsor for the team was Alfa Romeo. After then, major Argentinean polo players and team became regular customers at La Martina and started to request special shirt series for their teams and clubs. As Argentina was the mecca for polo, shop owners and teams from around the world came to Buenos Aires and started buying the shirts for wholesale distribution.
In 2002 La Martina joined the trade show Pitti Uomo in Florence, in order to introduce the brand in Europe presenting the new fashion collections, and started opening flagship stores in prestigious locations such as Milan, Rome, Madrid, high-end summer resorts such as St. Tropez and Capri and locations where polo was widely played such as Sylt, Germany. In 2007, La Martina opened the first store in United States at Miami Beach, followed by, in 2010, the opening in Las Vegas. La Martina made its Middle East debut by opening a store at the Dubai Mall in 2009. This outlet offers the complete range of La Martina fashion products, including the famous polo fashion line. In 2010, watches, perfumes and leather accessories were also introduced through licensees to complete the product range. In November 2010, La Martina opened a second flagship shop at the Emirates Mall, following an earlier one at the Dubai Mall, and the first store in Santo Domingo. In December 2011, La Martina opened first store in Casablanca, at Morocco Mall, the first and only destination Mall in the Mediterranean and Africa. [2] In November 2012, La Martina opened its first flagship boutique at Pavilion KL, in Kuala Lumpur, in partnership with luxury goods retailer, Valiram Group. Ever in 2012, La Martina opened a flagship store at Sambil Mall, Caracas. La Martina plans to open several stores in 2013, in locations including Houston, Washington and Mexico, and is expanding cautiously into Asia.
Stores
As of February 2013, La Martina operated more than 70 stores in the world. The figure reflects retail operations across various locations throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Polo Management Group
In parallel to La Martina, Lando Simonetti also created a company to promote the sport of polo around the world. Polo Management Group (PMG) provided an integrated set of services needed to organize turnkey Polo events anywhere on the planet. This way, La Martina was able to bring back the sport to places, such as Russia and the Island of Brioni in Croatia, where polo had not been played for decades. Brioni, the famous Italian fashion house hired PMG services to establish its polo grounds and organize the most prestigious polo event to serve as the centerpiece of the massive real estate development. In 2007 alone, PMG arranged and supplied some 60 events in Europe, making it by far the largest polo organizer in the world. Later in 2010, PMG created the very first 80 goal polo match exhibition in Paris, being the first time ever played in Europe, the very best top players in the world ranked 10 goal where battling the La Martina trophy in bagatelle hosted at Polo Du Paris.
Partnership
La Martina is partner of the Guards Polo Club, the polo club most closely associated with the British Royal Family and called by The Polo Magazine the most prestigious polo club in the world”. HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh has been President of the club since its formation on the 25th January 1955 and HM The Queen is its Patron. In 2009, HM Queen Elizabeth II opened La Martina’s polo pro shop at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor. In 2010, a licensing deal with Guards Polo Club allows La Martina to use the Guards brand, with a new collection due out next year. To mark the Spring-Summer 2013 collection, La Martina presented their capsule collection “Guards Polo Club by La Martina” in the British Embassy.
La Martina is partner of Maserati, the Modena-based luxury automotive manufacturer, and in 2011 produces a limited edition polo shirt, featuring their respective logos. To celebrate this partnership, Maserati sponsored the Italian team during the European qualifiers for the Polo World Championship at the Villa Sesta Polo Club in Bucine, near the Tuscan town of Arezzo. The tournament is a prelude to the world finals which be held in Argentina in October 2011. On the La Martina for Maserati polo shirt, a faithful replica of the Maserati Polo Team official shirt, the Italian flag is featured along the front placket as well as on the under collar. The new Capsule Collection was presented at Pitti Immagine Uomo in 2012 inspired by the prestigious event called "Polo at the Palace" which was held in November 2011 at Abu Dhabi.
References
- ^ "The case study: Polo kit maker opted for exclusivity". Financial Times.
- ^ "La Martina bets on retail expansion". Sportswear International.