2024October 11
From a shoe brand to a fashion brand
After eight years of making shoes for young people, Hunter completely revamped its identity and expanded its product range to include clothing, backpacks, and accessories.
Change component(5)
- Product range. Expanding from footwear to clothing, backpacks, and accessories.
- Positioning. A shoe brand transitioning to a fashion and lifestyle brand.
- Slogan. No step forward, nothing new.
- Sign system. A complete overhaul, which according to the announcement is simpler than the old system and embodies a spirit of innovation, dynamism, and youth.
- Scope. Announced for the Hunter line, not announced for the parent brand Biti's.
Read at the professional level(4)
- Changing everything is a rare amplitude. Almost every case in this record retains at least one piece. Hunter discarded everything, and that choice is only correct when what you are selling has completely changed, not just because the old image looks outdated.
- The fashion industry requires a different set of working signs. A shoe brand needs a sign that stands on the sole and the box. A fashion brand needs it to run on woven labels, on waistbands, on zippers, on hangtags, and to be printed directly on the fabric. Each material presents a unique challenge.
- Printing on fabric is the most stringent threshold. Fine lines are lost when embroidered, color transitions cannot be woven, and small details blur when printed on silk. Any brand entering fashion must simplify details and present a new description that is simpler than the old one, in that direction.
- A short and rhythmic slogan. Both parts are of equal length and contrast with each other, making it easy to read and remember. This type of phrase can work on both woven labels and packaging, where there is not enough space for a longer sentence.
Why change(2)
- Hunter was born in 2016 as a line of sports shoes for young Vietnamese, and those eight years taught the market that Hunter is shoes. That is both an asset and a ceiling.
- Selling clothing and accessories is a significant step into the fashion industry, where buyers choose by collections rather than individual items, and where brands must communicate style rather than just functionality. The old identity was created to represent shoes, so it cannot support the new offerings.
Within the brand system(2)
- Hunter is the sub-brand, Biti's is the parent brand, and this change is only announced for the sub-brand. This is a two-tier architecture with intentional misalignment: one tier completely shifts to a new industry while the other remains unchanged.
- Intentional misalignment is a strategy, as the sub-brand can go far without dragging the parent brand, which serves a different customer base, into risk. However, it also raises the question of how much longer the two names can coexist.
Trade-off(2)
- What you have to pay is a well-established position. On the Hunter shoe shelf, the name is what young Vietnamese remember, while on the fashion shelf, you have to start from scratch, alongside brands that have been there longer.
- What you buy is a broader position for the same customer base. Someone who trusts Hunter when buying shoes is someone who can buy more, but only if the brand looks like a place that sells more than just shoes.
Professional assessment(4)
- Can be closed. The correct order: decide what to sell first, then design the brief. This way, the new collection is evaluated by a measurable question: can it carry clothing and accessories?
- Changing everything is consistent with changing industries. Retaining half in this situation would create a half-hearted message: wanting to be recognized as a fashion brand while still maintaining the form of a shoe brand.
- Still open-ended. Letting go of the old identity just as you step into an unfamiliar shelf. Two difficult tasks at once: being recognized and being recognized as something different from before.
- Sources only describe the new identity in simpler terms and embody a spirit of innovation, without specifying any particular component. The readable part at the professional level stops here, and this page does not make further guesses.
Takeaway(1)
- The order here is the lesson. Hunter did not change their identity because the old one looked outdated, but because they decided to sell something different. The business decision comes first, so the design brief has measurable criteria, instead of falling into the debate of beauty and ugliness. Any business looking to refresh its image should first answer this question: after the change, what will we sell that we are not selling today?
Similar case(1)
- MoMo 2024 In the same year, with the same story of entering a different industry, MoMo changed its messaging while Hunter changed its entire product display.