Can Athleta make waves? Gap introduces a new brand.

We would like to extend a warm welcome to Gap’s newest brand: Athleta— a yoga/surf/adventure line of women’s clothing that Gap is throwing into the mix. Before we get ahead of ourselves, I’m not sure how to pronounce it. Is it athlete-a, or ath-let-a? Either way, this is not a good first question for people to ask about your new brand.

Irrespective of the clothes, Gap actually has some well-named brands: Banana Republic, Old Navy… Piperlime isn’t even that bad. The Gap itself is a great name. Unfortunately, Athleta doesn’t really fit. It’s way too obvious. Although the name wasn’t theirs to begin with, (Gap acquired the brand,) someone had to figure out that the name doesn’t work.  They took the word athlete and added an ‘a’ to make it feminine (or maybe just less masculine). There’s no story, which is surprising given the subject matter. They could have named it after a cool yoga position, or a surf spot, or a beach town, or a million other things, but they took the path of least resistance. Gap never took the boring route with naming before, why start now? Athleta sounds better suited to a line of discount women’s sports bras at Wal-Mart.

The logo and colors they picked aren’t helping either. Purple and Teal, really? It feels like a 24-Hour Fitness from 1994. The logo looks like some sort of avant garde ninja star. While this might be construed as athletic in a Denise Austin meets Bruce Lee way, it doesn’t fit the coastal California aesthetic they’re going for at all.

Having surf and yoga centric clothing is a pretty good idea considering there isn’t a female under 40 in the Continental United States who doesn’t own at least two pairs of yoga pants. However, the competition is pretty fierce. Between Lululemon, Patagonia, Nike, Lucy, and Roxy (if you’re 14,) there are a lot of big names in this arena who are pretty good at communicating with their customers. While Gap knows a thing or two about making clothes, I imagine they have Lululemon laughing instead of sweating. The opportunity is there, but the execution is off the mark by a few nautical miles.