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Hermès makes Birkins. It also makes a $192,900 foosball table.
My vote for the weirdest thing Hermès currently sells goes to the foosball table, mostly because you can add it to your cart like this is a perfectly normal purchase.
It is not new-new. Hermès first presented the table in a capsule collection in 2017 and says it is now “back in the spotlight” in a bright Nata lacquered-wood version.
The current table weighs 352.7 pounds. With its case, 489.4.
That is a lot of foosball.
Foosball, But Make It 24 Faubourg
The materials are where this stops sounding like a game-room purchase and starts sounding extremely Hermès.
The frame is lacquered wood with sycamore maple detailing and Swift calfskin. The handles and pocket divider are covered in Gold Pippa cowhide. The metal players are hand-painted. The four balls are cork.
Even the playing surface gets the treatment: the leather game mat has marquetry representing the number 24, a reference to Hermès’ address on Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
There is also a horse’s head printed on the side, inspired by the late-19th-century American “diving horse” attraction, because apparently a $192,900 foosball table can still find room for one more detail.
And yes, Hermès currently lists it with an Add to cart button.
The Competition Was Severe
Calling this the weirdest Hermès object is obviously an editorial judgment, and the field is not exactly empty.
Hermès currently sells $15,600 headphones, $20,100 all-mountain skis, a $27,800 surfboard, a $17,200 mahjong set and a $2,325 dog bowl. Its Horizons world goes stranger still: Hermès itself describes bespoke possibilities including boxing gloves, surfboards and even sailboat or aircraft interiors.
So the foosball table does not feel like an accident. Hermès has been applying its leatherwork, hardware and craftsmanship to objects that absolutely did not ask for it for quite some time.
Still, the table wins for me.
Maybe it is the hand-painted players. Maybe it is the cowhide handles. Maybe it is the fact that somewhere between the cork balls and the 489-pound shipping case, foosball acquired an Hermès vocabulary.
The Birkin may be what gets you through the door.
The $192,900 foosball table is what happens when you keep walking.
Photo: Courtesy of Hermès Source
