The Regionalized Polo Shirt

Much has been written on the venerable  Polo-style shirt, both here and throughout the blogosphere, so I will try not to be too redundant. Of late, I’ve observed that around the country, companies have been sprouting up that seem to base much of their business effort on the Polo, or more exactly, the Polo, the cap, and small accessories.

The strategy seems to be based around the logo – typically using a highly regionalized theme, which evokes a certain lifestyle in a given region.  Here are just a few:

The South

Southern Tide – with Skipjack (fish) motif

http://www.southerntide.com/products/Skipjack-Polo-%252d-Classic.html

Southern Proper – with bow-tied Lab motif

http://www.southernproper.com/store/gentlemen/proper-polo.html

Southern Point – with Pointer motif

http://www.southernpointco.com/category.php?cat=polo

Cash Robinson Clothing Co. - with horse racing theme

http://www.cashrobinson.com/small_batch_apparel/silks_reserve_polos?product_id=63

The Northeast

Green Lobster USA – with Green Lobster motif

http://www.greenlobsterusa.com/menspolos.html

Castaway Clothing – with Life ring motif
http://www.castawayclothing.com/classic-polo-shirts.html

Vineyard Vines – with whale motif

http://www.vineyardvines.com/product__129756_____13068_13050

In my brief Internet search, I didn’t turn up anything for the Midwest, the Rocky Mountain Region or the West Coast, so I apologize in advance for possibly overlooking. But as you can see above, the Northeast and The South are well represented with companies.   I understand that Polos are both a tradition and a traditional shirt in those regions, but is there any reason why other parts of the US can’t have a successful regionalized Polo shirt?  For the Rockies, I could see a pair of crossed skis as a nice motif, for California, perhaps a surfboard or wine bottle motif.  Here in Cascadia, I could see a mountain, an umbrella, a sailboat, or perhaps, a meth lab motif.

But seriously, if there are any venture capitalists reading this, contact me.  Let’s work up a business plan, do a feasibility study, and hopefully represent the West in the regionalization of the Polo shirt.

(by the way, I do like all of the clothing companies shown above... except for one.)

Polo Wars

It's not what it looks like! (The author on right)

It was 1992 or 1993. In our downtown apartment over looking the lake and city lights, my roommate and I thought it would be a good idea to settle a score at long last.  Who was preppier, him or me? 

Instead of side arms, we entered this preppy duel equipped solely with the cotton arsenal in our closets and dresser drawers. The rule of the contest - who had more individual pieces of Polo Ralph Lauren clothing. (We were bored seniors in college and mildly intoxicated, so this seemed like a stellar idea.)

Back then, Polo was the standard bearer for quality and preppiness just as one could argue it is today.  Being young fools, we had wrapped so much significance in this brand of all brands to the point that we equated one's future success in life (wealth and enduring popularity with the opposite sex) with how much Polo we owned.

And so with a Shiner Bock (or was it cheap scotch) in hand, we headed to our respective bedrooms to  tally our ponies.

Me:  (3) button-down oxfords; (6) short-sleeved polo shirts; (2) pair of shorts; (1) twill baseball cap; (3) pair of boxer shorts; (3) pair of socks; (1) old bottle of Polo cologne

My roommate: (4) button-down oxfords; (3) short-sleeved polo shirts; (2) pair of shorts; (2) twill baseball caps; (6) pair of socks

Smugly, I thought I had this in the [tote] bag! 19 Polo-branded items to his to his paltry 17. But just as I was reaching for my bleeding madras crown, he slapped me down. "Not so fast, young Jedi," he said. "I don't have 17... I have 20." He reminded me that we said "individual pieces of clothing." I counted pairs of socks, and he counted individual socks. Beaten on a technicality.

He would go on to be a high powered attorney in New York, writing contracts. I would go on to IT middle-management in Pugetropolis, writing blogs.  But to this day, I still get great satisfaction from the fact that he didn't catch that my cologne was not an article of clothing.

The devil and the preppy are in the details.