Freshjive flushes its identity down the toilet

by Eli Altman

Rick Klotz thinks branding is bullshit.

Yeah, sure, lot’s of people think and say that branding is BS, but Rick is actually doing something about it. After 20 years of running Freshjive apparel, he recently decided to drop the name and logo from everything the company makes. In 2010, he’s also pulling the identity from the Freshjive web site and all promo material.

To me, this is cool because it’s an idea that exists only in opposition. As Rick says, it’s punk. If there were a bunch of clothing companies that didn’t have visual identities, you would be hard pressed to figure out the differences between them. That’s the point of having an identity in the first place—It’s a way to establish territory in a crowded market. But since everyone in streetwear uses their identity to exhaustion, not having an identity at all stands out more than any logo could.

This isn’t a totally new idea. American Apparel and Muji are two companies that come to mind—Neither of them put their name conspicuously on anything they make and they both seem to be doing pretty well. I think where Freshjive and Rick are different is that they’re dropping their identity mid-stream.  They’ve spent 20 years building a brand and now they’re throwing the symbols of that brand out the window. They aren’t changing or modernizing their logo, they’re killing it. This takes balls.

While identities are relatively tangible and pretty easy to shed, a brand is almost impossible to ditch. It’s a little like a shadow. Trying to run away or outmaneuver it will only make you realize you’re out of shape and should probably get a Stair Master and stop smoking. Your brand can change over time, but as long as you’re around—it’ll be around. In the case of Freshjive, their brand will continue to work for them even when their identity is long gone.

Even without logos, it’s a lot easier for Freshjive to get their clothing into stores than it would be for some newbie brand. Why? Because, Freshjive and the people behind it have a solid reputation which opens doors and gets people to sign checks. This is the real brand: the personality, craftsmanship and design sense that will allow Freshjive clothes to sell without any corporate identity on them.

So I guess only time will tell if Freshjive’s identity shedding will work. Either way, it’s different, and it definitely makes you think. Those sound like pretty good brand attributes from here.