Logomania comes and goes in the field of trends. Sometimes, wearing the emblem of the brand that is in fashion is a quick way to mark status, elegance or class. But in others, it is synonymous with ordinariness, bad taste or, worse, wanting to buy the total absence of style with a logo. Today, influenced by the heyday of sports fashion -with sneakers as the epitome-, these types of symbols are increasingly present. It is a trend that ranges from luxury, with references such as Gucci or Balenciaga, to premium brands. In Spain, this is the case of Silbon, El Ganso or Scalpers that are gaining ground in a space that Ralph Lauren is leaving free.
The decline of Polo Ralph Lauren?
The American firm is not at its best. The company ended the first quarter of the year with red numbers of 127.7 million dollars, compared to a profit of 117.1 million dollars in the same period of the previous year. In the same sense, sales fell 65.8% in the first quarter, to 487.5 million dollars. These bad data infected by the pandemic could be extrapolated to other brands in the sector, since the textile industry has been one of the most affected by the Covid-19 crisis. However, the North American brand – like other iconic brands such as Victoria’s Secret – has spent several years trying to recover the shine and strength that the 21st century (and millennials) are taking away from it.
Ralph Lauren achieved success in the last two decades of the 20th century thanks to a powerful brand image: aspiration. Son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, raised in the Bronx and surnamed Lifschitz, the proposal that Ralph made available to his clients responded to the goal that he had set for himself: to be a millionaire and, incidentally, fully American. Thus, through the Polo brand, its iconic logo and its own image, it democratized the American preppy style, which was based on the myth of the cowboy, the college aesthetic of the Ivy League, the post-Depression style and the working class look with jeans. and basic white t-shirt.
Today, that logo seems to have died of success, with numerous forgeries behind it, and the youngest are no longer comfortable in that aspirational atmosphere. Now, they identify more with an iPhone, a hoodie and a branded sneaker. However, the vacuum of influence that Ralph Lauren is leaving in Spain is being assumed by national firms such as El Ganso, Silbon and Scalpers, which undertake the titanic task of cementing themselves in a niche between luxury brands and fast fashion giants, with special imprint in our country.
The Goose animal logo
The firm El Ganso was one of the pioneers in opening the can. Its birth was due to a very clear image: the British style that the founders of the brand, the brothers Álvaro and Clemente Cebrián (Madrid, 1975 and 1974), found on their trips to London. However, it was a form of dress that they could not afford. And so the business was born in 2006: “Classic clothes with a roll and with an affordable price. They found a gap in the market there and they hit the mark with the first store on Fuencarral street in Madrid,” explains the company.
They wanted to materialize that idea in a clear logo. From the beginning, they insisted that it should be an animal that had a funny, rogue and differentiating point. And after considering a few options, they remembered what their grandfather told them when they were little and dressed by slitting pants, taking off their shirts and polo shirts: “Stop fooling around.” There, says the brand, they were clear: “It had to be that one.”
After almost two decades of business and weathering different crises, including the coronavirus, perhaps the worst; El Ganso continues its path with a firm proposal between fast fashion brands and the premium range: “El Ganso is characterized by having quality clothing at a good price and with a differentiated personality. This is where El Ganso found its space,” he explains. In fact, regardless of the market space in which it operates, the brand understands that the most important thing “is never to lose your personality and that the pressure of the sector does not motivate you to do things that in the end are not yours”.
scalpers skull
Scalpers was born a little later, in 2007, in Seville, but also with a studied goal: to reinvent the classic, to loosen the strict canons of men’s fashion. A spirit and hallmark that they transferred to a risky logo: a skull. “It is a symbol of rebellion against prejudice and pre-established canons. It represents our spirit, that of a group of friends without any experience in the field of fashion that one day they dreamed that things could be done in a different way”, explains Borja Vázquez, co-founder of the brand to this medium.
Thus, the Sevillian firm is growing outside and inside our country with a casual aesthetic and a less contrasting color palette than El Ganso. And, it is facing the coronavirus crisis with difficulty, like everyone else, but with the same fighting spirit and rebellion of its origins. “We have a very clear roadmap and we are fortunate to have a young, prepared, ambitious and very committed team, and that undoubtedly facilitates the work,” he says.
In addition, they feel comfortable in their market space: “In this segment there are brands that provide great added value and are doing very well internationally. It is a smaller space, but with more loyal customers who are committed to their brands And that creates a lot of possibilities.”
Silbon’s crossed rackets
The last of this trio of Spanish heirs to Polo Ralph Lauren is the Silbon brand, which was born in Córdoba in 2010. Of the three, it is perhaps the most classic because among its clients there are bankers, lawyers or notaries whose suits are almost like uniform. A fixed clientele that, in addition, has allowed them to weather the coronavirus pandemic positively. However, in the Silbon catalog there are more and more casual and sports garments that proudly bear the brand’s logo: crossed tennis rackets. An emblem that was born almost by chance.
The Cordovan brand tells this medium that the motif of the tennis rackets was part of the props of one of the first photo sessions of the firm, which was done on the fronton court of the co-founder and CEO of Silbon, Pablo Lopez. “The photo session was a success and for this reason, when the first store opened, the image of the two crossed rackets was already part of the decoration. An idea by Pablo López to bring the essence and good energy of that first shooting”, explains the company. At first, it was a souvenir but the customers liked it a lot. So Pablo, who was clear about the name Silbon because it was catchy, easy to remember and because of its sound, came up with the idea of joining it to the logo of the two crossed rackets.
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