Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez end on Saturday. Among the crews racing, only one has been dressed from head to toe by a brand, and it sails on a boat older than the brand imagines.
The Resolute Salmon is a one-tonner sailing yacht, designed in 1975 by Britton Chance. The term refers to a rating class and not to a weight: a boat designed to race, not to parade. According to the organisers of the operation, it has always remained closely tied to Saint-Tropez and its most emblematic regattas. It is a rare detail in a gulf where maxi-yachts and century-old classics cross paths every autumn: a racing boat of its era, which does not need spectacular age to have a local history.
This year, its crew is wearing a complete total look, clothes and shoes, designed by Sebago. The House stated this in its press release, specifying that the yacht would sail « driven by the spirit and values of the brand ». The choice is hardly surprising. Sebago was born in Maine as a boat-shoe brand, known for its Docksides line. Equipping a crew means bringing the shoe back to its original deck.
What can be judged remains to be seen. For now, almost nothing about the clothing itself: neither the cuts, nor the materials, nor the pieces, nor the number of sailors equipped are known. What can be examined is the logic of the gesture. Dressing a racing crew commits the brand in an exposed place, since the clothes there endure sea spray, manoeuvres and hours of immobility on the water. A fashion show never produces that test. The question for the coming weeks is therefore less one of image than of endurance: what will remain of these outfits after nine days at sea?
The operation is part of a wider whole. On 28 September, Sebago, K-Way and Sundek, three BasicNet group brands, were due to gather in their multi-brand boutique on Place de la Garonne in Saint-Tropez, on the sidelines of Les Voiles, which run from 26 September to 4 October. Owners of boats entered in the competition were among the announced guests. If the boutique is the place of social life, the Resolute Salmon is the proof of use.
What this says about Sebago can be put in a few words: the brand chose to show itself on a boat that races, not on a quayside. Whether it was right will be verified in the prize-giving photographs, where the outfits will either still be in good condition or marked by the race. The interest of the subject is established. The quality of the creation cannot yet be judged.
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