Eddie Bauer Changed Its Logo Because Gen Z Doesn’t Read Cursive

Source: Fast Company, Grace Snelling
Photo: Eddie Bauer

After nearly 60 years of its distinctive cursive script, the outdoor retailer is ditching the script for blocky text and a goose.

After 59 years, outdoor outfitter Eddie Bauer is trading its cursive logo for something a bit more tangible: a goose.

But not just a goose. The bird is accompanied by a simplified version of the brand name, now written in all-caps block lettering. On the full stack logo, additional details include the company’s date of establishment (1920) and the phrase outdoor outfitters. It’s a major rebrand that launches on Eddie Bauer’s digital platforms today and will start to appear at international brick-and-mortars on a rolling basis. By fall 2024, all Eddie Bauer products will begin to feature the updated logo.

The change comes during a period of flux for the brand. Just over a year ago, CEO Tim Bantle joined Eddie Bauer after an extensive career in the outdoor goods industry, having worked at Patagonia, Black Diamond Equipment, North Face, and VF Corp. As he researched the brand’s history and spoke with employees, he created a three-pronged approach for expanding Eddie Bauer’s efforts: focusing more on wholesale retail, increasing international distribution, and reaching a new generation of customers. Achieving those goals, Bantle says, requires an instantly recognizable logo that will still resonate 50 years from now.

What results is a mix of something old with something new. The goose pays homage to Eddie Bauer’s heritage, hearkening back to the company’s earliest years. In 1936, founder Eddie Bauer was the first to patent a down jacket in the U.S., which happened to be stuffed with goose feathers. Versions of those jackets went on to furnish soldiers in World War II and explorers on Himalayan expeditions.

Since then, the goose has popped back up in Eddie Bauer’s branding materials, from T-shirts to print ads. But beyond its sentimental value, the bird also serves a psychological function. “Part of what I realized is that we were trying to take this word, [Eddie Bauer], and make it an icon—which is really hard for people versus having an icon itself,” Bantle says.

Then came the issue of legibility. Though Bantle and his team initially toyed with the idea of keeping the script font, the general reaction they received was that it looked dated and, to some, confusing. “A big part of what I’m going to need to do here is reintroduce this great heritage brand to the next generation,” Bantle says. “And kids don’t even learn to read cursive in school anymore.”

To avoid a potential communication barrier, he opted for a custom block font created by the design agency Carrewyn Creative. The pivot to sans serif comes just weeks after healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson also retired its 130-year-old script, reflecting a larger trend toward more minimalistic branding in recent years.

Though it requires a bit of zooming to see clearly, each letter in Eddie Bauer’s new typeface incorporates some imperfections to preserve what Bantle calls “a hand-drawn quality”—an integral aspect of the former logo, which was inspired by Bauer’s own signature. Ultimately, Bantle wanted something approachable both to extreme-sports enthusiasts and people who enjoy simply spending some time outdoors with their pets or loved ones.

“It’s very clear that we need to be focused on being a broadly inclusive and democratic outdoor brand,” Bantle says. “That’s our opportunity. If you were to try to capture the essence of other brands in the space, those are not the things you would say; they have a different opportunity. It’s distinct for those businesses and brands—and admirable and very cool—but Eddie Bauer is really a brand for everybody. I wanted to make sure that we positioned the brand that way going forward.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/90963252/eddie-bauer-new-logo-ditches-script-and-adopts-a-goose