Luxury Came for the World’s Most Humble Game
There are only two things you need for a game of bat and ball, and it’s all in the name. However, there are levels to the equipment used in this simple beach sport, which consists of pinging a ball between two bats as many times as possible without dropping it.
On one end of the spectrum are the endless supply of cheap plastic rackets and balls flogged at every beachfront stall since time immemorial. On the other are the biggest names in luxury fashion.
Loro Piana, the opulent Italian fabric mill turned trailblazer for all things quietly luxurious, is the most recent label to luxurify this most humble of games. The Loro Piana beach racket set comprises two bats and a ball (duh!) with an LP-branded rubber sphere made to bounce from the colorful beachwood slabs. And for when you’re not playing, there’s a storage bag where Loro Piana’s weatherproof storm system prevents seawater from damaging those beachwood rackets.
The full set will set you back $1,060. That might sound like a lot for a beach game (even if it is Loro Piana), but that’s actually slightly below the going rate amongst all high-end fashion houses.
Hermès, known for making everything from iPhone chargers to measuring tapes in sumptuous leather, charges $1,275 for its brilliantly named “Succulent Sultan beach rackets.” This one features printed beechwood on a cork base with a screenprinted rubber ball — no leather involved. Fellow leather specialist Bottega Veneta, meanwhile, wraps calfskin leather around its $1,300 beach bats made in Brazil using recycled wood off-cuts.
Go back through the archives, and you can even find super-rare wooden Chanel rackets with double-c branded balls from 2018. But back then, these types of high-end games felt like a rarity, whereas today they’re practically expected.
Bottega Veneta has a whole section of its website dedicated to primo games like its leather Jenga set, which face competition from Miu Miu UNO, Balenciaga Monopoly, Prada chess and all the other fashionable versions of ordinary games promising luxurious fun for the whole family. When it comes to games, fashion brands, ironically, aren’t playing around.
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