Fernando Alonso has sold his clothing brand Kimoa's 70% to US company Revolution Brands in order to give it the international boost it needs. Kimoathe sports-inspired clothing and sunglasses brand created four years ago was not getting off the ground. Despite the impressive pull of the Spanish champion, the brand only had acceptable sales in Spain of caps and sunglasses, traditionally the 'best-sellers' in the world of merchandising, due to the ease of not getting into issues of sizes or patterns of the textile product. It is a brand with undoubted potential but which, unfortunately, has not yet managed to achieve its initial objectives because it has run up against the peculiarities of a sector as extremely complex as fashion and retail.
This seems to be the scenario for the agreement with Simply EV, a division of the Revolution Brands companydedicated to electric mobility, and that from now on incorporates Kimoa as the brand of reference in lifestyle products. It is perhaps a strange way to grow your brand when it is now part of a larger one, but if they are truly strong in online sales as they promise in their company presentation, it could be a good solution to increase the brand's global sales. Fernando Alonso will continue to retain a 30% and will continue to act as its global ambassador, which makes sense as without the Spaniard's presence the brand is virtually worthless.
A difficult sector for entrepreneurship
For Alonso, Kimoa is the third attempt to enter the world of textiles and accessories, after two ventures that were ultimately unsuccessful. The first was with the Spanish merchandising producer DaringThe company, with a lot of experience in the MotoGP field, created a line of products based on the image of the two-time world champion. Although sales were initially quite good, they gradually lost steam because Formula 1 fans do not look for products with the name of their favourite driver, but rather for the official cap, official clothing or replica worn by their favourite driver. Years later, the Spanish driver supported, together with David Cantollaone of the creators of Pocoyó, the brand known as FASTER. That project revolved around a character with a life of his own that could have spin-offs beyond clothing, such as the creation of content in series or video games, but the adventure didn't take off either.
Apart from Alonso, other Formula 1 drivers, such as Lewis Hamilton, also experienced the same difficulty as the Asturian in developing their own product line. The Englishman's failure came with the giant that had become a Reebok, which tried in 2011 to revitalise its brand with a lucrative contract with the British champion. Despite Lewis' extraordinary global popularity, sales fell far short of the forecasts they had estimated. As with Alonso, people wanted the official McLaren cap, T-shirt, or anorak that the English driver put on when he got out of the car. They didn't want clothes inspired by him, they wanted 'his clothes'.
What happens in the USA
In this sense, motor racing is a very particular sport and rarely are the success stories of other athletes in the field of endorsement (personal endorsement of the athlete to a brand) extrapolated. In the US, in NASCAR, the matter is somewhat different, and drivers such as Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin get around 2 million euros per year from the sale of products associated with its name. In Formula 1, however, the situation is very different, as the association with the team is the key. Suffice it to say that Ferrari sells as much merchandise as all other teams and drivers combined.The only brand that has really turned the sale of products of all kinds into a gold mine. Alonso took a hefty royalty in his Ferrari years, because people went crazy for anything that linked the Asturian driver's image with the 'cavallino' symbol, but the message was clear: The Ferrari driver is the only one who has really turned the Ferrari brand into a gold mine selling all kinds of products.The value of the 'Fernando Alonso brand' was multiplied when it was associated with his team.but if it was unlinked, it lost a lot of value.
Perhaps from all the lessons learned, the Asturian thought that it made no sense to create a brand with his name and not even to do it based on motor racing, but to create it from scratch reflecting a lifestyle that went far beyond car racing. Under these premises, Kimoa made perfect sense, but the problem is that placing a new brand in the global market is a titanic task where not even giants like Inditex have it easy.. If it is extremely difficult for them to gain a foothold by having all the elements of the value chain mastered, what can we say about a particular venture by an outsider? Logic dictates that the model to follow is what they did recently. Lewis Hamilton with another titan of the textile industry such as Tommy Hilfiger: licensed his name so that the company would take care of design, manufacture and distribution and he would only have to put his hand in on account of the royalties generated. However, whether because of the disparity in image between Hamilton's flamboyant dressing and the traditional sobriety of the Tommy Hilfiger product, or simply because the clothes have not been liked, the 'logical' way of doing things has not worked either. It is clear that there is no safe 'recipe' here.
The Michael 'Air' Jordan case
The benchmark of the industry and what every global sports icon aspires to is undoubtedly Michael Jordan. Since 1984 he has won a whopping 2 billion from licensing its 'Air' trademarkcreated under the Nike umbrella. Everyone wants to replicate this success story to a greater or lesser extent, but proof that it is not easy is that Nike itself tried to repeat the basketball move with Tiger Woods in the world of golf and ended in a resounding failure. If the Nike/Woods duo has a chance, who is immune from failing in the attempt?
Aware precisely of the difficulty of replicating Jordan's success, another basketball legend such as Shaquille O'Neal He opted for a completely different model, which was to create his own brand 'SHAQ', albeit within the portfolio of the world's number one retail distribution company, Walmart. If Jordan sold trainers for more than 100 dollars in all kinds of shops, O'Neal sold his shoes at three times cheaper only in the stores of the American retail giant. A strategy of volume instead of margin that without giving the stratospheric results of 'Air Jordan' worked quite well and even helped 'Shaq's' reputation, because the perception was that thanks to him people without economic resources had access to a quality product.
Another option is that of 'cobranding', for which it has opted. Simone Biles with Athletathe brand of the GAP group, or the one carried out by Rafa Nadalwhich incorporates his trademark horns logo next to the Nike swoosh. In his case, Alonso would now have a very easy time doing the same thing with Le Coq Sportifwhich is the supplier of Alpine. But the problem is that successive team changes in motorsport do not help. It takes many years of continuity for the brand/athlete association to become ingrained in the customer's imagination. For the same reason Uniqlo has paid 300 million to Roger Federer to sign him for ten years!
Let's hope that Fernando Alonso's new business move brings him the success he expects from his venture. He has a tough time of it, but all the examples mentioned above serve to show how extremely difficult it is to succeed in this sector.
Text published in the newspaper El Confidencial