Louis Vuitton's journey from a homeless, uneducated teenager to the world's most valuable luxury fashion brand is a testament to innovation, resilience through adversity, and strategic business evolution, ultimately becoming a cornerstone of the LVMH conglomerate.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
is the most valuable luxury fashion
brand in the world it's CEO Bernardino
is also the second wealthiest man on the
planet with a net worth of around 180
billion dollars looking at the success
of today you would never guess that the
company was started by a man who was
homeless during his teenage years had no
education and slept in a forest Louis
Vuitton is a true rags to richer story
but the company would also be subject of
a hostile takeover countless lawsuits
and a host of other controversies this
is the insane story of Louis Vuitton and
how a tiny family business evolved into
one of the most powerful brands in the world
world foreign
foreign [Music]
was born in 1821 and grew up working on
his family farm in France in a small
village called ankai in the middle of
nowhere they had no electricity and no
running water Louie's father Xavier was
a Miller and farmer whilst his mother
Corrine made hats to help make some
extra cash there are no records showing
that Louis ever received an education
the nearest school was in a village six
miles away and it's believed he worked
full-time on the Family Farm without
learning how to read or write Louis
would have been working in the fields
every day From Dusk Till Dawn just to
make enough food to help feed his family
needless to say the batons were
struggling financially and young Louis
was born into a situation that should
have doomed him from ever having a
bright future and then things got much
worse Louie's mother died when he was
just 10 years old and his father quickly
remarried another woman but Louie's new
stepmother was incredibly controlling
and manipulative towards him and he
constantly got into fights with her and
so when he was just 13 years old he ran
away from home with plans to go to Paris
he slipped out in the middle of the
night without even saying goodbye there
was just one problem Paris was 225 miles
away and Louis had no money or food so
he was forced to walk along dirt roads
most nights he slept in the woods with
an empty stomach and just a cloak to
keep him warm every time he ran into a
new Village he would do odd jobs in
exchange for food or coins however there
have money left over for housing so he
continued to sleep in the woods or
wherever he could find shelter for the
night through these various odd jobs
Louis was able to pick up skills from
Craftsman and he learned how to work
with metal Stone fabric and wood this
collection of various skills would later
transform his life but at this rate
travel was incredibly slow it took him
three years to reach Paris foreign
not long after he arrived in Paris Louis
was able to work as an apprentice
boxmaker and Packer box makers would
make custom sized boxes for clients as
well as pack and unpack them whenever a
client was about to go on a trip this
job allowed him to meet many people from
the upper class who were looking for
custom-made luggage for their travels
and Louis worked here for several years
learning the craft and working as hard
as he could in fact in 1851 the Empress
of France ended up being a customer and
took notice of his fine craftsmanship
she appointed him as her personal box
maker and Packer for most box makers
this would be the highest honor anyone
could ever achieve in their career Louis
had gone from a homeless teenager with
nothing to his name to now working a
prestigious job amongst royalty that was
a massive achievement on its own but
Louis Vuitton had an even bigger vision
for his future after getting married
when he was 33 Louis used his savings to
start his own business and opened up his
own box making Workshop in Paris to
begin selling his own products you see
Louis had noticed a major flaw in the
luggage of the day all of the boxes were
made of leather and had a rounded
dome-shaped tops so that rain would roll
off the top of the luggage the major
issue was that it was impossible to
stack them so a Packers had to carry the
boxes one by one Louis began
experimenting with different materials
to use instead and found that canvas was
lighter durable and more water resistant
which meant the trunks could have flat
tops Instead This made everything more
efficient as it was now possible to
stack them up in a pile and pack
multiple trunks at the same time and
they were also more compact Louie's new
suitcase design brought on the dawn of
modern day luggage at this point Louis
had already built up his professional
reputation as well as connections to the
upper class so once he launched his new
line of luggage it was immediately a
huge success he even created a Louis
Vuitton catalog so the customers could
look at products that he had available
and have them made before sending it to
their homes within two years of creating
his new suitcases they were considered
an elegant a must-have accessory amongst
the wealthy as it became a status symbol
and the brand it becomes so popular that
he was receiving orders from around the
world he even began receiving orders
from Royals as far away as Egypt in 1859
Louis made enough profit to hire a team
of Craftsmen to help fulfill his orders
he opened a new workshop outside of
Paris where he hired 20 employees around
that time more and more people were
beginning to travel by train and boats
so the number of his potential customers
increased exponentially traveling was no
longer a hobby exclusive to the rich
people from all walks of life were now
in need of high quality luggage it would
seem as though Louis had made it and
would go on to succeed for the rest of
his life unfortunately that was not the
case France was heading to war and
tragedy was about to strike once again
for Louis Vuitton
before we get to the next chapter I have
a question for you have you heard about
the sneaker company vesi now here's the
thing if you get caught in the rain
wearing sneakers normally your shoes can
get ruined and your feet are going to
get soaked but today's video sponsor
vessi has the solution with their 100
waterproof sneakers that will keep your
feet dry no matter what the weather I've
been wearing my own pair of Vettes for a
little while now and they're actually
really comfortable I've also found them
useful for travel as they're so
lightweight but the best part is they're
made from dimatex which is a dual
climate material which will keep you
cool in summer and warm in Colder
Weather so it's a great investment as
you can wear the shoes all year round
plus if you use the link in the
description and enter code magnates
you'll get 25 off your pair of Bessie
shoes so if you want a comfortable
stylish sneaker you can wear in All
Seasons check out Bessie today by
clicking the top Link in the description
below that's vesi.com magnates with the
promo code magnates to get your discount
today and after you've done that let's
get back to our story [Music]
[Music] foreign
foreign
in 1870 when Louis was 49 years old the
franco-prussian war broke out Louis had
to flee his home and live in a cramped
shelter with thousands of others Food
Supplies were extremely low and he
feared for his life when Louis could
finally return to his shop in 1871
everything was destroyed windows were
smashed equipment was stolen and he had
lost everything he'd worked so hard for
but instead of giving up he decided to
use his savings to rebuild the business
and vowed that it would be even better
than it was before with so many people
displaced from the war there were far
more empty shops available for rent
throughout the city so Louis Vuitton
took advantage of this by opening his
new shop in a much more wealthy
aristocratic location in Paris it was
perfect because it was right next to the
railway station and the Grand Hotel so
Travelers who needed new luggage didn't
need to go far to find the Louis Vuitton
store by 1872 he came out with a brand
new design luggage made out of a beige
canvas with stripes this became
incredibly popular and people loved
showing off the modern style many other
brands tried to copy his style but his
back eyes were such ridiculously high
quality the customers still preferred a
true Louis Vuitton bag for the next 20
years Louis continued to work at his new
shop in Paris until his death when he
was 70 years old but his legacy was able
to live on through his son George who
took over the family business George
sought out to expand the brand globally
such as opening a popular store in
London at this point Louis Vuitton
luggage was so popular that many other
box makers were beginning to make
counterfeits so in 1896 Georges Vuitton
brought out the now iconic LV monogram
to make it harder to copy the LV were
his father's initials in honor of the
man who started the brand but he also
came up with the idea of adding a
revolutionary new lock on the trunks
that would make it impossible for
thieves to pick them by the year 1900
the company had 100 employees and it
continued to grow year after year all of
the employees were trained for a very
long time in order to become expert box
makers even to this day Louis Vuitton
employees trained for 18 months to two
years before they're trusted to make one
of the products on their own the company
also began to expand into a whole new
line of product because of another
Fashion Icon Coco Chanel in 1925 she
commissioned a small dome-shaped handbag
at first this was a design that she
personally came up with and it was just
for her however it would go on to be
mass-produced and it was given the name
Alma this was massively successful so
Louis Vuitton decided to make more small
leather bags like the keeper speedy and
no before Louis Vuitton handbags were
often seen as quite in elegant and bulky
but the company played a big role in men
being seen as much more fashionable
George Vuitton died in 1936 and the
company was then passed over to his son
Gaston Louis however Gaston took over
the company at a very difficult time
because in just a few years France was
once again heading to war during World
War II contracts were canceled and
Gaston was forced to shut down the Louis
Vuitton Factory Paris was under siege
again the only way Gaston baton could
save the business was to collaborate
with Natsu Germany an author named
Stephanie Bon Vinci wrote a book called
Louis Vuitton a French Saga during her
research of the company archives she
asked if she could see records from
World War I 2 almost immediately the
representatives from the company tried
to avoid showing her the information
they claimed that all of the documents
from 1930 to 1945 were destroyed in a
fire but after doing a lot of digging
into other historic documents Stephanie
discovered that Louis Vuitton was able
to open a glamorous ground floor shop
front in the hotel to park throughout
the Nazi regime as they collaborated
with them meanwhile several other brands
were forced to shut down because they
refused to cooperate with the Nazis
clearly the company was ashamed of this
part of their history but they would
argue Gaston did what he needed to do in
order for the company to survive other
fashion designers like Coco Chanel also
collaborated with the Nazis in order to
make sure her business in Paris was not
destroyed if it were not for their
choice to work with the Enemy their
brands likely would no longer be around today
today foreign
passed away in 1970 his son-in-law Henry
rackamere took over managing the Louis
Vuitton brand so we're now on to the
fourth generation but unlike his
ancestors Henry already had a lot of
business experience from a company he'd
run before so when he took over Louis
Vuitton he was able to elevate the brand
to a whole new level Henry began making
major changes to the Louis Vuitton brand
in order to grow it from a family-owned
company to the massive corporation that
it is today he switched Louis Vuitton's
business model from wholesale to retail
by 1978 he'd expanded Louis Vuitton into
many other countries including Japan and
over the course of six years and
accounting for modern inflation sales
went from 20 million dollars to 260
million dollars and so in 1984 Henry
decided to take the company public and
Louis Vuitton sold out the 1 million
shares valued at 63.63 each Henry took
this momentum and influx of cash and
began opening more stores all across the
globe by 1987 Louis Vuitton reached 1
billion dollars in sales it was far
beyond what Young Louis could have ever
dreamed of when he first opened his
first store in Paris Henry also decided
that the company should combine with
mower Hennessy a luxury drinks company
which produced champagne and Cognac and
together they formed a new luxury
conglomerate called lvmh in theory by
joining together it would allow them to
pull resources and expand even faster
unfortunately after the merger Henry
didn't end up getting along well with
the president of MOA Hennessy so Henry
asked a successful property developer he
knew named Bernardino to help him manage
the situation unfortunately inviting him
in as an investor would backfire in a
huge way Bernard secretly bought 43 of
the shares of Louis Vuitton and got
support from the Moet and Hennessy
families to gain more power in lvmh
Henry felt he'd been betrayed by the man
he'd brought in to help him and so took
Bernard to court demanding that he
should no longer have the majority stake
in Louis Vuitton but the courts
ultimately sided with Bernard Henry was
so angry about being backstabbed by his
friend that he decided to quit working
for Louis Vuitton completely now for the
first time in nearly a hundred years no
one from the Baton family was involved
with the brand after all of this drama
of Bernard's hostile takeover sales of
Louis Vuitton began to crash journalists
were no longer covering the brand and
for a while they looked as though the
company might fail however Bernard knew
how to turn the fortune of the company
around Louis Vuitton was able to make a
comeback when it began to collaborate
with several fashion designers during
its 100th Anniversary Collection big
names like Vivian Westwood and Isaac
mizra all created their own take on the
iconic LV monogram logo they created
products that customers had never seen
before and people were once again trying
to get their hands on a Louis Vuitton
bag ultimately Bernard's investment in
Louis Vuitton paid off in a massive way
he is now the CEO of lvmh and in 2021
Forbes officially dubbed him the richest
man in the world with a net worth of
over 180 billion dollars now of course
as stock prices move these rich list
rankings change but he's almost always
in the top five richest people in the
world however how of the wealthiest
people like Bezos musk Gates Buffet
Bernardino is definitely the least known
as he prefers to stay out of Spotlight
what we do know is he has such a
ruthless reputation in business he is
known as the wolf in Kashmir which is
why today lvmh has over 70 different
brands it owns through all of the
Acquisitions of mergers Bernard has
pulled off this one company owns so many
of the most luxurious brands in the
world and yet it all started with a
broke homeless teenager [Music]
[Music]
in the modern world Louis Vuitton
continued to expand its brand with new
colorful styles that resonated with a
younger audience in 1997 Marc Jacobs
became the creative director he designed
the first ready to wear line and also
created the popular monogram Vernis line
of handbags Marc Jacobs also expanded LV
into watches jewelry and sunglasses
although he eventually would move on
from Louis Vuitton and come out with his
own line of clothing and accessories of
course the company is not without its
issues Louis Vuitton has an entire team
of lawyers searching for copyright
infringement and they don't hesitate to
sue someone if they believe that They're
copying the brand logo they've even sued
Google for search results and
advertisements leading people to fake
bags Google won the case though arguing
they can't control what their users put
on the internet Louis Vuitton has also
gone on to collaborate with Brands like
Supreme which expanded their demographic
like never before believe it or not
though Louis Vuitton actually sued
Supreme as well for copying their logo
until they realized how profitable a
collaboration would be now Louis Vuitton
Supreme items resell for a small fortune
for for example the leather trunk is on
sale for 125 000 or even an LV Supreme
hoodie is over five thousand dollars of
course the counterfeit problem Louis
Vuitton had since the early days of the
business is still an issue for the brand
today they estimate that every year they
lose hundreds of millions of dollars to
counterfeit versions of their products
however even after being in business for
168 years they don't seem to be slowing
down anytime soon Louis Vuitton
continues to be a brand that many people
aspire to wear and it's a staple among
the Rich and Famous currently they are
the number one fashion brand in the
entire world valued at 39 billion
dollars with more than 400 stores you
can find a Louis Vuitton in nearly every
major city around the globe but what do
you think of Louis Vuitton do you think
it's overpriced by all the hype or do
you feel that the quality of the
products justifies the massive price tag
comment below and then make sure you
click on the next video in my series of
luxury Brands which is the story of the
orphan who built Rolex and answers the
question why is Rolex really so
expensive the Rolex video is the perfect
video to watch after this one so we'll
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
