The Evolution of the Boathouse Brand Mark
The Early Days
In the early days of Boathouse Sports, before we became a manufacturer, we were a small retail store servicing the very diverse group of athletes surrounding Fairmount Park, Kelly Drive and Philadelphia’s landmark Boathouse Row. During those early days, our brand mark was our home–Boathouse Row–lit up at night. The “lighting of Boathouse Row” was designed just in time for the Bi-centennial celebration taking place in Philadelphia, and around the entire USA.
The Late 80’s
In the late Eighties, John’s Olympic rowing heritage inevitably led Boathouse to focus on the rowing industry, which began a prolific new period that inspired a fresh, new trademark. This new mark became four oar blades, stacked and inverted, to create a simple design that illustrated where the brand lived. This was the first use red, white & blue to pay homage to the flag. We unveiled this new mark during the opening ceremonies at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
The Early 90’s
In the early 90’s we decided to become “the best custom outerwear company in the world”. At this stage we committed to manufacturing our product ourselves in our hometown of Philadelphia, USA. From 1992–2007 Boathouse grew continuously as the premier company manufacturing & supplying the best teams worldwide. As we moved into this much broader market, we evolved our new brand mark to combine our heritage “modernized oar blades” with the new Boathouse “B”. Our colors remained red, white and blue.
The New Millennium
In 2002 Boathouse hit its stride as a custom outerwear company responsible for outfitting the best teams in the world including most Pro Football teams, 50 of the top 60 D1 programs, 19 of top 20 Lacrosse programs, 9 of the top ten collegiate Track & Field programs, Six top International Soccer teams, along with many more (we could go on…). Innovative fabrics like GORE-TEX® jackets helped fuel our growth as we continued to develop products to help athletes in their pursuit of greatness. The moving “B” along with the Boathouse name becomes our primary mark. The moving “B” can be used in conjunction with or without the full word, and its iconic design stands alone on many of our garments. The moving font reminds us that we only design product that performs with the athlete and provide total freedom of movement. We remain red, white and blue.
PRESENT AND FUTURE
In 2017, we introduce our new brand mark to align with our new mission of taking this great, little athletic company to a much broader base of consumers, and to build a new and different athletic brand. I believe it to be a more elegant, bold mark that incorporates our rich history but symbolizes the forward-thinking nature of an evolved Boathouse brand. The Boathouse name remains primary to the brand mark. The red & white flag on the left edge of the mark is the international symbol of the letter “B”. This flag plus our name on a blue field ties our history together but positions the brand to take our core competency to a much broader world of athletic enthusiasts.
