La Martina

For anyone drawn to authentic polo heritage, it carries a credential few rivals can match: La Martina is the official supplier to the Argentina polo teams and to the Federation of International Polo at all international tournaments. You're buying into the kit of the sport at its highest level, not a preppy lookalike.

Authenticity is the brand's known sore spot — in January 2009 German police seized 20 tons of clothing after complaints about La Martina holograms washing off shirts bought on eBay. Treat the hologram and label as your first checkpoints, buy from official stores or trusted retailers, and be wary of anything sold loose on marketplaces.

The difference is purpose. Where many polo brands borrow the sport as a motif, La Martina actually started by making polo equipment — saddles and boots — before moving into apparel, and it still equips national teams. That working-gear lineage is what sets its polos apart from purely fashion-led competitors.

La Martina opened its first London store in 2015 and has additional stores across North America, South America and Asia. Its products have been available to buy online since around 2000, so both in-store and direct online shopping are options.

La Martina was founded by Lando Simonetti, who had worked in the fashion industry in the United States until 1985, when he moved back to his native Argentina and started the company. Simonetti also founded the Polo Management Group, which ran international polo tournaments in partnership with La Martina.

It began with leather products such as saddles and boots for the sport of polo, then expanded into apparel like shirts and caps. That equipment-first origin is the foundation of everything the brand does and a big part of its luxury polo reputation.

Yes — it is an Argentine luxury sports and leisure clothing manufacturer, founded after Simonetti returned to Argentina in 1985. About 65% of the materials used in its products are sourced locally in Argentina, keeping the brand close to its roots.

Beyond the Argentina, UK, US, Brazil and Dubai national teams, La Martina supplies the university teams of Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge, as well as Guards Polo Club, Polo de Paris and the Milano Polo Club. It also produced technical clothing and equipment for the Royal Salute team.

Because it has deliberately protected that positioning. As sales grew over the 2000s to around $200 million, the company refocused on polo equipment and reorganised in Europe specifically to lessen the dilution of its luxury reputation — choosing slower, steadier growth over mass expansion.

The two co-sponsored the Maserati Centenary Polo Tour, which drew 65 players from 12 countries, and in 2014 La Martina created a luxury saddle for the event. Those partnerships reinforce how the brand lives inside high-end polo culture rather than just dressing for it.