The original version of this article was published on The Inertia.
Luxury fashion brands dipping into the world of outdoor sports is nothing new. Most of the time, they come in the form of collaborations between an endemic brand. It’s usually a surfboard maker and a luxury brand, or a snowboard brand and a world-class designer label. The list goes on.
The gimmick in those cases really just amounts to an exclusive luxury name slapping its logo on a board you might hang on your wall. Or, in the case of Gucci in recent years, some branded après-ski threads.
The Italian fashion brand’s new Altitude line, however, appears to be an attempt at real ski gear. They announced the new mountain-focused venture this week with Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner as their pitchman.
Sinner is currently ranked second on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings. He was also an accomplished skier as a child. He won a national championship in giant slalom at the age of 8, but ultimately made tennis his focus by the time he was 13.
Details of the new line from Gucci are pretty scarce, but their brand messaging clearly focuses on the idea that this is the brand’s first venture into functional, performance ski gear. There are two jackets at $6,300 apiece, and two pants options with a $4,500 price tag; $1,100 branded gloves, and a $1,390 pair of goggles.
If you’re really trying to go all in, the line includes a Gucci x Head collab. The ski set runs $8,200 for sticks, bindings, and poles, and the snowboard is $7,000.
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