Here for F1, LV boss Pietro Beccari on Louis Vuitton’s big bets
As LV boss Pietro Beccari lands in Melbourne for the Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Grand Prix, he explains why Louis Vuitton will be ‘everywhere’ at the track.
I t’s little surprise that Pietro Beccari, chief executive of Louis Vuitton – the world’s largest luxury brand, with an estimated annual revenue of €20bn ($34.6bn) – believes in the power of sport. For one, he used to be a professional soccer player in his native Italy. And for another, sport has never been so entwined in the worlds of luxury, business and culture.
Beccari is speaking to The Australian ahead of his arrival in Melbourne this week for the Formula One Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix. That Louis Vuitton has naming rights for the first race of the 75th season – and the first as part of luxury conglomerate owner LVMH’s 10-year investment into the sport – aligns to this synergy.
But so does the starring role of Louis Vuitton’s famous monogrammed trunks at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics – where LVMH also invested €150m ($260m) – and the Louis Vuitton check on the medal trays for the victors in each sport. As does the fact the sports sponsorship industry is predicted to be worth $US109bn ($173.6) by 2030, up from $US63bn in 2021.
F1, by the way, is now the most followed sport on social media in the world.
“I think that we want to position ourselves, as you have known, as you have seen, hopefully, in our stores, as a brand that doesn’t sell only bags. And we’re really here to try to be part of the contemporary culture,” Beccari says.
By culture Beccari means sport, but he also means art and lifestyle and the zeitgeist, too.
In April the Louis Vuitton Fondation in Paris will open the largest survey of English artist David Hockney’s work. And this week the second chapter of the acclaimed (and selling like hot cakes) collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami launches, playing on the brand’s culture-defining first iteration of its work with the artist in 2004 when Marc Jacobs was the creative director.
The maison has worked with other artists, too, including Yayoi Kusama. In 2024 a limited-edition Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama pumpkin bag sold at Christies for $US151,200 – the highest price for an LV bag.
There also are books, such as the City Guide series. It’s rumoured that a Louis Vuitton Hotel is likely to open in 2026 as part of the house’s renovation of a massive building next to its headquarters at Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris. The monogrammed scaffolding around the building and at the brand’s New York flagship has become an Instagram sensation and tourist hotspot in itself. So, too, the monogrammed lattes at the Louis Vuitton cafe in the Doha airport, and the chocolates at the cafe within the LV Dream exhibition concept and store in Paris.
Last week the maison announced its foray into beauty, appointing one of the world’s most influential women in the category, British make-up artist Dame Pat McGrath, as creative director. The category will launch later in 2025.
McGrath joins a stable that includes Pharrell Williams, who is the creative director of menswear at Louis Vuitton, yes. But he’s also a musician and indeed the ultimate multi-hyphenate, whose work and ideas influence culture beyond fashion.
But sport is something Beccari – who was appointed chief executive of Louis Vuitton in 2023 following a stellar innings at Dior, and before that at Fendi, and who has spent almost 20 years at LVMH – says he believes is particularly resonant right now.
In part, he says, it’s because sport – with its essence of striving, of hopefulness and determination against all odds – represents an affinity with the spirit of Louis Vuitton. After all, the maison was founded as a travel trunk and luggage brand in 1854 by Louis Vuitton, who, orphaned at a young age, left his home in rural France for Paris in pursuit of his dream.
“I believe that in each sport there is a notion of optimism. And Louis Vuitton is a brand of optimism because we are born in travel, but travel is not just to travel to reach a destination,” Beccari says.
“I think it’s part of who we are, and that’s important.”
The appeal of sport for a major luxury brand makes sense – it remains one of the last universal and unifying experiences. Even when your team is down, the true ones never lose hope. The best ones push beyond.
Beccari is known for telling his teams: “Don’t think big – think huge!” Sport, he says, has been a guiding light in the way he runs the company, too.
“I’d say that sport helps me a lot in what I do as a manager, as a person. And many of the things that I learned in these long years of a sportive, active person are helping me to try to manage the best the company. You feel like a little bit of a trainer, right, of a big team,” he says.
Beyond the Olympic Games and the F1, last year Louis Vuitton became the title partner of the America’s Cup, held in Barcelona.
The maison has been associated with the world’s oldest and most prestigious sailing race since 1983. The Louis Vuitton Challengers Cup is the race that decides which team will be set against the defenders of the cup.
Louis Vuitton also has crafted the trunks to house some of the world’s most prized trophies, including the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup and Norman Brookes Challenge Cup at the Australian Open. The brand started using the “victory travels with Louis Vuitton” slogan when one of its trunks housed the FIFA World Cup in 2010.
“There is a notion of the trunk, Louis Vuitton, is so perfect, and so precious, it can contain the most precious trophy in the world. I think there is something there, which is very, very emblematic, very strong,” Beccari says of the significance of these moments for the brand.
“And again, it’s just not victory because you’re lucky, it’s victory because you prepared yourself, because you had a fantastic life, but life of sacrifices, and you forget your trophies, and you want to win a new one … that’s very much also the spirit and the mentality that we have at Vuitton.”
The opportunity to host some of Louis Vuitton’s top tier Australian clients at the grand prix this weekend is something Beccari relishes. As he notes, attendees at the race – which in 2024 attracted a record crowd of 452,055 – will see Louis Vuitton “everywhere”.
“The trunks will be given at the end of the grand prix, and on the circuit there will be Louis Vuitton written all over,” he says.
He says Australia – a nation of sport lovers – will especially connect with this positioning.
“(Australians) are very passionate of sports. And I think this positioning of ours will help us to stand out in a market where we are a market leader,” he says.
How the brand judges the success of such activations is not so clear cut. After all, while victory is the ultimate goal in any sport, the journey to get there and the lessons learned are important too.
“Of course, we can register the number of engagements, the number of views, etc. They are all good. But especially, we do (it) because our instinct says that is good. And I think there is a movement towards sports, as you have noticed, that is based on … more than numbers.”
For Beccari, sport remains ingrained into how he works, and lives: “I love sport, and I think sport has taught me lots of lessons that I try to apply also to my way of management and a way of living.”
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