**The Official Ralph Lauren Polo Thread**

I rocks with Jay. He's one of the few OG's
Thats been on the boards for a min & drops
Knowledge when really needed. I appreciate
His angst towards the destruction of this
Fabulous brand that true collectors & wearers
Covet.
 
The laughing emoticon says "Hey guys, I'm really not an angry person". While the follow up post gives the illusion that you actually contribute to this thread. Well played sir. :rolleyes



This is what was said last quarter. The executives will be speaking again tomorrow morning, 9 am, about all things polo.

Robby Ohmes - Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Two very quick question Roger I wanted to ask you actually on (rugby) as a follow-up you mentioned I think in your comments that it was a tough decision is there anything you can tell us that was there strategic decision behind that or what pushed you over the edge in you said commentary on how you see smaller brands out there or brands that are too U.S. centric maybe just your thoughts on that. Then just a quick follow-up for Jackie would be could you maybe give us a little more detail on the approach in North America for holiday this year versus last year. In terms of where you see pushing by channel and inventory investment versus last year? Thanks.

Roger N. Farah - President and COO: It was a tough decision because we put a lot of time, energy, and money into this brand over number of years and I think that, that comes with a lot of heart and a lot of personal effort by a lot of people in the company. Our decision at this point was really based on our desire to focus on opportunities that we have in front of us and I think Michael talked about this a little earlier in terms of Polo and some of the other brands. I think our conclusion was to take our energies and our resources and apply them against existing brands that have a global footprint as opposed to the ongoing efforts to build something from scratch. I think to build a brand from scratch, organically in a brick-and-mortar retail environment takes a lot of time and money and energy. I think the company's decision really just reflects the numerous choices we have to expand some of our other initiatives. One of which Jackie talked about Denim & Supply or Polo or Children's or even RRL that I think you know in the past many of you have talked to us about focus and are we focusing on the right issues. I think in our decision-making, it was relative weights of opportunities and the expected returns we anticipate getting, so that was all part of our decision. The second part of your question, I think is directed to Jacky.

Jackwyn L. Nemerov - EVP: Well we are very pleased with the initial response over our first year in Denim & Supply as you know this is our second fall season. As you developed a brand because of the cadence of purchase and sales, you literally can't make any changes and tweak a brand for the first nine months or so. So, following our initial launch with what we thought were positive results and what we thought would be things that we needed to change. One of the biggest standouts to us was how positive the jeans business is as we presented Denim & Supply as a life style brand. So, we are working diligently now, having identified what those key products are, and now we're putting in BSR programs in both men's and women's in our core denim to be able to drive that opportunity to be a minimum of 30% of the business, highly successful and highly predicable. The attitude of the brand driven by the gritty nature and unusual presentation in our marketing context, those in-print and online has been extremely successful. We partnered with Avicii and he has created a very interesting draw for the brand. He is a highly successful entertainer and he has really created tremendous crowd draw to this brand and to its success. We've had a very positive fall season, and while we continue to tweak a little more of this and a little less of that we are very optimistic as you know. The brand in the U.S. is exclusively in Macy's that will be rolling out to additional 100 doors starting next fall and to Hudson Bay in Canada where we're also experiencing some very positive results. At this point we've confined the brand to those two key customers. As I said we're very optimistic on our position for the millennial customer, which is a high focused area for our department store customers and one that we believe will be a – with this Denim & Supply brand a strong reach towards that customer, and driving additional opportunities into our department stores. We also have launched our Denim & Supply brand internationally beginning with freestanding stores in both Asia and in Europe and those also have performed extremely well. In that environment instead of having men's separate from women's, which is sort of the requirement of the nature of a department store there we're able to merchandise the brand together and with a very exciting impact where the consumer really it's the place to be. So the customer shopping with significant other in the store and it has a tremendous pulse and a great result, and as I said we're very pleased with where the first few stores are at this point and I think we have plans for many stores to follow.
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Ran across this bad boy. Should cop just to resale.
 
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400


Probably won't even wear it but it was too nice to pass up. Quality is pretty impressive considering it's roughly 20 years old.
 
sooperhooper said:
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400


Probably won't even wear it but it was too nice to pass up. Quality is pretty impressive considering it's roughly 20 years old.
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that coat came out in fall/winter 1987 and there are pieces with the same patch that came out in late 86! Back when Ralph did 30 to 60+ pieces eatch line.
 
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FrankMatthews said:
In other news!! Good lookin out BSB!
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Good man right there, also gave me the heads up though I missed it. Still got to do a store search to find one for the $240 sale price or I'll have to pay more via the website.
 
PanaRicanRetro said:
Seriously it's kind of a sad day seeing Rugby gone, but I just think it means that Polo will start putting out more prep and rugby inspired pieces to fill that gap.
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EXACTLY what I was thinking man, repped, although they are either going to go to the denim and suply line which i personally don't like or polo line which ends up more expansive than you could end up getting things at rugby (through the sales and discounts, etc a lot of items would be around longer than key items for polo) imo rugby was just easy ordering and a fit for me, so sad seriously.  The last 5 years I have been so much more into Rugby and gotten away from regular RL. I am not sure why but the Rugby stuff just excited me more than the polo.  welp, on the positive, savin money, right?
 
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FrankMatthews said:
They're $179 plus tax/shipping now. I'd get on it.
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Great price, but I just cant get past the knit chief logo enough to make the. purchase. Maybe if I let it slip and revisit it a year later, I may change my mind.
The Rrl Spring native knits are nice, but they missed the bar by not doing the double knit elbow pads. I guess they are cutting costs, but I'm definitely going to add the light green casino print to my.list of items to stalk

My thoughts on DS is that they will run a bit longer than Rugby since they borrow so many of Blue Labels iconic logos (usa flag, native American motiff, Chief in headdress, buffalo, ect) that fans of Polo will lean toward at a lower pricepoint. I give it 5-10 years with rappers doing free ads in club bangers before its replaced by another spinoff line for this demographic.
 
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@supermanblue: I said the same thing. Lol rappers!!!!lmao
@ natt : dope jacket. Temp Must have dip for u to get the chance to rock that.
 
nimisiskrash said:
@ natt : dope jacket. Temp Must have dip for u to get the chance to rock that.
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Krash, you have no clue. Coldest it's been in like 30 years or some **** and I came prepared.. The boy Jah was rockin the Mechanics Jacket and you don't wear that out here.
 
Hello, I wanted to ask if I had items that I would like to sell to polo collectors, would i be able to post them on this thread? 
 
Supermanblue79 said:
Great price, but I just cant get past the knit chief logo enough to make the. purchase. Maybe if I let it slip and revisit it a year later, I may change my mind.
The Rrl Spring native knits are nice, but they missed the bar by not doing the double knit elbow pads. I guess they are cutting costs, but I'm definitely going to add the light green casino print to my.list of items to stalk

My thoughts on DS is that they will run a bit longer than Rugby since they borrow so many of Blue Labels iconic logos (usa flag, native American motiff, Chief in headdress, buffalo, ect) that fans of Polo will lean toward at a lower pricepoint. I give it 5-10 years with rappers doing free ads in club bangers before its replaced by another spinoff line for this demographic.
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I thought that shawl was on your must haves list this fall? Something change? I would definitely consider revisiting it, it's a very beautiful piece, I feel like the chief is subtle yet still is able to set the sweater apart from similar prints. I am not a huge fan of that seafoam green but that casino joint is interesting indeed. I'd like to see it in person or at least some irl photos.

There is a lot of disdain and skepticism about D&S but if you listen to the company it appears d&s IS the future of RL. They are sinking a lot of effort and resources into it and really trying to push it to the forefront of all company lines. Seems like they want d&s right alongside blue label. RRL, BL, and PL will remain niches. There will be a day in the not too distant future when there will be just as many if not more, considering the pricepoint, D&S flagship stores than PRL flagships. I happen to think the appeal to rappers and the urban hip hop crowd in general is exactly what Ralph is trying to shy away from. Perhaps the reason it receives so much hate here is because it is specifically NOT trying to appeal to a certain demographic. That's part of the reason for discontinuing rugby and pushing d&s I believe, it was an issue of which one to put their all into as opposed to 50% in each. The company is looking for growth which can only come outside of the US at this point. D&S is more versatile in that it can offer themes that can cater to the Blue label and budget RRL crowd and can adapt to european and asian fashion senses as well. Rugby just coudn't hit all those marks without completely changing what the brand was. I can't really bring myself to buy anything outside of jeans from D&S although I do find a number of their designs appealing.

Here's some highlights from this mornings conference call for those interested in the company's vision going forward.

The excitement around Denim & Supply has grown as a result of the strong advertising and marketing that resonates with this brand's particular target audience. We have fantastic products with a fresh and youthful spirit that has tremendous appeal to the millennial customer worldwide.

In a relatively short period of time, we've already established credibility as a go-to denim resource in what you all know is a highly competitive space. The strong acceptance of our washes and fits at this stage is especially encouraging because we know those factors drive tremendous customer loyalty. As we look to the future, we will build on this momentum by expanding distribution for Denim & Supply, adding additional wholesale doors, increasing the brand's online presence and opening more freestanding stores in high-profile markets around the world.
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Yes, David, we are very committed to the growth of accessories.....So we're really in the early stages of giving it main floor expanded space, and we're beginning to see good traction from the customer. At this point, it's not really a strategy loaded with a lot of wholesale expectations, although there'll be some. It's really our ability to deliver a message and a level of expertise in our own brick-and-mortar and e-commerce space.
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As you know, we represent the most important menswear brands in the industry, in every market we're in, and the backbone of that has been Polo...And as we elevated assortments on a Madison Avenue or New Bond Street, we were shrinking the assortments of Polo represented in those stores to highlight the other luxury brands. And what we realized is that there was a tremendous appetite by our customers for what we call the Blue Label products, men's and women's and kids, that we weren't satisfying in the direct-to-customer...and Ralph has really led the charge on envisioning a more complete Polo story that we can take directly to the customer. That could be flagship locations or that could be smaller-sized footprints in appropriate sized markets.
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Oh, and just a heads up. If mods come in here and see people soliciting there will be warnings and/or suspensions. At least that has been the case in the past. I'd love it if we could get our own B/S going on in here but it's against the ROC apparently.
 
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FrankMatthews said:
I thought that shawl was on your must haves list this fall? Something change? I would definitely consider revisiting it, it's a very beautiful piece, I feel like the chief is subtle yet still is able to set the sweater apart from similar prints. I am not a huge fan of that seafoam green but that casino joint is interesting indeed. I'd like to see it in person or at least some irl photos.
.
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You're right, it was at the top of my must-haves for the season, but the patchwork blazer became top priority when it became available. The chief logo just seems a bit too rounded like a paw print, and my build streches the detail all the way out of it...to ice-cream stain status. Factor in that alot of my native items are red blue and green and I just can 't justify the purchase for myself. If I do buy, I'll just put it away and build off of it slowly.

Thanks for posting conf. updates. Good info.
 
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