After my hockey practices as a kid, I remember me and my dad would always stop by McDonald’s or Roy’s Western Smorgy for food, and then take a shop walk through Sportsman’s Warehouse on Canal Drive. This was one of two places where people in the Tri-Cities and Umatilla county could count on finding the latest and greatest in hunting, fishing, and general outdoor equipment. I grew up going to this store, and because of that, have seen this location sell itself to another franchise, change its identity, and all the while, maintain its famous cork ‘bragging board’, where photos from local outdoorsmen show the best hunting and fishing harvest from the around the area.
When I was six, I viewed anyone not in elementary school as being old. Therefore, I considered the majority of Sportsman’s Warehouse customers to be old. As I look back though, the old logo with its beige gradient and an awkward scaling of letters leads me to believe I was right all along. It truly is synonymous with the word “Grandpa”. While this look may provide a sense of nostalgia and comfort, I believe that the new logo with its reworked type and flat color palette accurately represents the marketed hunting majority, which is currently men in their mid-to-late twenties making a decent living, who may or may not be in a relationship where their spouse is less enthusiastic about hunting and fishing as they are. That being said, the official Sportsman’s Warehouse statement on company values brings images of entire families and men much older:
“We’re committed to being good stewards of the outdoors and wildlife habitats. Sportsman’s Warehouse supports the communities we serve by donating to local causes and partnering with wildlife and conservation groups like the Mule Deer Foundation, NRA, National Wild Turkey Federation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and Ducks Unlimited, among several others. Many of our employees are also contributing, active members of such groups, volunteering their own money and time for the causes we collectively cherish and believe in.”
While the talk of service to the community keeps consistent with images of active young adults, the mention of active members in the listed conservation groups bring images of men and their families who are closer to middle-age. Being that this group is realistically first in client demographic to that store, you can say that Sportsman’s Warehouse pretty much covers its bases with this statement.
ATTENTION: After further deliberation, author now yeets prior opinion out the window.
Okay, so after investing about an hour after the first word of this essay and thinking more on the logo, I believe that there are a few design choices that actually do represent the TRUE (not marketed) majority of Sportsman’s Warehouse clients. Let me explain.
Firstly, the choice to keep the iconic serif typeface was a smart one. This is what makes the logo “multi-generational” so-to-speak. This retains the image of family. A sans-serif typeface of any kind and then BOOM, the logo screams young twenty-something year old guy like I originally believed. It is clear that whoever remastered this logo for Sportsman’s Warehouse understood the old logo’s problems and fixed them. They made the new logo digital-ready and overall better by the simplification of the mountain illustration, the elimination of gradient and list of product categories the store sells, and through correction warping/arching of type (the old logo had this awkward rescaling of individual letter thing going on).
To wrap this thing up, I’ll start by saying this logo redesign was a success. I believe it accurately represents its target audience all the while paying homage to the old Sportsman’s Warehouse logo. While I stated prior that the logo represents the 20-something-year-old guy making a nice chunk of change, I think that there could have been other choices made that would have made this opinion more accurate. For example, the new logo could have used sans-serif type, appear more aggressive (young guy hunting shows used a lot of aggressive, heavy metal-esque vibes). All in all, I believe this logo redesign is a rather successful one.
