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hot property USPA Properties is contributing millions of dollars to American polo through its range of branded clothing, reports Herbert Spencer
The Mogul conquests of the late 15th century onwards first brought the ancient game of polo from its birthplace in Persia into India, but it would be almost four centuries before the sport reached the USA. It seems historically incongruous, therefore, that men and women of the rapidly rising and aspiring middle class in modern India will soon be wearing clothing adorned not with some symbol of Indian polo but rather the name and logos of the much younger US Polo Association (USPA). Nothing could better illustrate the global success of USPA Properties Inc (USPAP), the marketing subsidiary of the American polo association that is responsible for licensing the USPA name and symbols for use in manufacturing and merchandising products. Not only are USPAP’s commercial activities making the brand ‘US Polo Assn – Since 1890’ known throughout the world but, more importantly, they are contributing millions of dollars in royalties to USPA coffers to develop and grow the sport at home.
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‘We signed a licensing agreement with Arvind Mills Ltd, the big Indian textiles and fashion group, just last autumn,’ says David Cummings, President/CEO of USPAP, ‘and they are launching their first line of US Polo Assn-branded men’s clothing [later to be expanded to ladies and youth] this autumn. We are pleased with their progress and designs. Their apparel will be priced somewhere below Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger when it hits the shops on the Indian sub-continent.’ Just one week after announcing the Arvind Mills contract last October, Cummings heralded another new licensing agreement, this time for Europe, with the Italian firm Incom SPA. Incom’s clothing, with USPAthemed polo motifs from USPAP, is due to go on sale in Italy, Spain and Portugal in the autumn, with plans to expand the market into other countries on the Continent and possibly the UK as well. Now, with other licensees in New York, Panama City, Istanbul, Shanghai,
and Goteborg, Sweden, USPAP’s commercial activities extend through North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia, with retail potential in more than a hundred countries. ‘We are currently looking for licensees in Africa and Australasia, which would complete the global picture,’ says Cummings. While apparel is common to all of the USPAP’s partners, other product categories licensed to various firms include the likes of shoes, accessories, bath products, luggage, home furnishings – a wide range of branded goods like their competitors, Polo Ralph Lauren (PRL). Products with the US Polo Assn brand can be found in store and online with chains such as Sears and JC Penney in the US, but also in some 35 stand-alone shops built by licensees in shopping streets or big malls from Orlando, Florida, to Istanbul, Turkey. The USPAP has deliberately chosen not to go head-to-head with PRL at the top of
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