The Homeless Teen Who Created Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton is the most valuable luxury fashion brand in the world. Its CEO, Bernard Arnault, is also the second wealthiest man on the planet with a net worth of around $180 billion. 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 riches 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. Louis Vuitton 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. Louis' father Xavier was a miller and farmer, whilst his mother Corinne 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 6 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 Vuittons 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. Louis' mother died when he was just 10 years old, and his father quickly remarried another woman. But Louis' 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 was never enough 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 craftsmen, 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 3 years to reach Paris. Not long after he arrived in Paris, Louis was able to work as an apprentice boxmaker and packer. Boxmakers 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 boxmaker and packer. For most boxmakers, this would be the highest honour 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 boxmaking 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 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 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. Louis' 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 catalogue so that customers could look at products that he had available and have them made before sending it to their homes. Within 2 years of creating his new suitcases, they were considered an elegant and must have accessory amongst the wealthy, as it became a status symbol, and the brand had become 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 fulfil 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 boat, so the number of his potential customers increased exponentially. Travelling 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 Vessi? 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 Vessis 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 Dymotex, 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 MAGNETZ, you'll get $25 off your pair of Vessi shoes. So if you want a comfortable, stylish sneaker you can wear in all seasons, check out Vessi today by clicking the top link in the description below. That's Vessi.com slash MAGNETZ with the promo code MAGNETZ to get your discount today. And after you've done that, let's get back to our story. 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 travellers 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 bags were such ridiculously high quality, that 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 Georges, who took over the family business. Georges 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 honour 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 train for 18 months to 2 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 products, 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 Keepall, Speedy and Before Louis Vuitton, handbags were often seen as quite inelegant and bulky, but the company played a big role in them being seen as much more fashionable. Georges 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 cancelled, and Gaston was forced to shut down the Louis Vuitton factory. Paris was under siege again. The only way Gaston Vuitton could save the business collaborate with Nazi Germany. An author named Stefanie Bonvinci 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 II. 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, Stefanie discovered that Louis Vuitton was able to open a glamorous ground floor shop front in Hotel du Parc 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. When Gaston passed away in 1970, his son-in-law Henry Rackamere took over managing the Louis Vuitton brand. So, we're now onto 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 6 years, and accounting for modern inflation, sales went from $20 million to $260 million. 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 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 Moët 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 pool resources and expand even faster. Unfortunately, after the merger, Henry didn't end up getting along well with the president of Moët Hennessy. So, Henry asked a successful property developer he knew, named Bernard Arnault, 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 Moët 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 100 years, no one from the Vuitton 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, it 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 Misra 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 Now of course, as stock prices move, these rich list rankings change, but he's almost always in the top 5 richest people in the world. However, out of the wealthiest people like Bezos, Musk, Gates, Buffett, Bernard Arnault is definitely the least known as he prefers to stay out of the spotlight. What we do know is he has such a ruthless reputation in business, he is known as the wolf in cashmere, which is why today, LVMH has over 70 different brands it owns through all of the acquisitions and 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. In the modern world, Louis Vuitton continued to expand its brand with new colourful 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, jewellery 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 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 realised how profitable a collaboration would be. Now, Louis Vuitton Supreme items resell for a small fortune. For example, the Leather Trunk is on sale for $125,000. Oop, even an LV Supreme hoodie is over $5,000. 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. 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 hopefully see you there, cheers!