The Tommy Hilfiger Rugby
When Kanye West was a kid, he saw a Snoop Dogg performance on TV that changed his life.
Snoop Dogg wore a Tommy Hilfiger rugby shirt while performing on Saturday Night Live in 1994, and Kanye took to Instagram to share the image and explain how much of an impact it had on him from a marketing standpoint. Kanye said, “Snoop wearing this Tommy Hilfiger rugby was the most impactful marketing moment of my young life.” Snoop responded with the following, “Love u king. Let’s make. A move. Call the play.”
“Lodi Dodi” is a cover of “La Di Da Di” by Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick that Snoop Dogg performed on SNL in a Tommy Hilfiger shirt a few months after his album Doggystyle was released.
Tommy Hilfiger wasn’t originally a Hip Hop brand, but in the ’90s Grand Puba mentioned the brand on Mary J. Blige’s “What’s the 411?” and it became a staple in Hip Hop fashion.
Tommy Hilfiger’s VP Reacts to Snoop Doggs Interview
Andy Hilfiger, former VP of marketing, said in an interview that Snoop’s performance on SNL made Tommy Hilfiger more popular.
Hilfiger and Tommy invited the Death Row rapper to their showroom after meeting him at a Grammy Awards after-party in 1994, where they hung out and gave him free clothes, as Hilfiger explained. Snoop called him asking for more clothes two weeks later.
Andy said, “He’s like, ‘I’m rehearsing for Saturday Night Live. Can you come to my hotel tonight?’ Hilfiger recalled. “It was pouring rain. I went to Hilfiger and I undressed the mannequins and then headed to the Hotel Macklowe at midnight. I brought him these new logos and these new rugbys.” He added, “The next night, at about quarter to 12, Tommy calls and says, ‘Andy, turn on Saturday Night Live. Those guys we met, Snoop, they’re wearing my clothes.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know. I forgot to tell you, I went to their hotel last night.’ He said, ‘Oh, my god.’”
The shirts were sold out the next day, according to Tommy Jeans’ former marketing director.
Andy continued saying, “I went back to work on Monday, and our sales people from around the country for Hilfiger were like, ‘Did something happen because everybody wants more rugbys? Everybody wants more of our logo’d items,’ Andy said. “I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. Snoop Dogg was on Saturday Night Live.’ So, as much as [Grand] Puba made it cool on the streets, Snoop brought it to the national level.”
