• by Karl Greenberg , May 25, 2007

Everlast Worldwide, N.Y.-based manufacturer, marketer and licensor of athletic gear, is creating a unified global marketing program for the first time in its 97-year history.

The company has been something of a Floyd Mayweather Jr. brand in boxing: pound-for-pound leader winning on points with at-venue signage, sponsorships and strategic print efforts in vertical pubs like The Ring (ads featuring fighters like David Tua, Arturo Gatti and Fres Oquendo). Now, it is finally going for the 11th-round knockout.

The effort will include Everlast's first logo update in several years, as well as a new brand icon, corporate colors and tagline, "Greatness is within." The campaign includes print, out-of-home, packaging and Internet advertising campaigns.

The new logo features the same concave all-caps lettering as before, but it's more modern, with a swerving "E" underneath in yellow. Brandon Emerson, creative director at Everlast, says the logo has gone through several variations in its history.

"I've seen old photos of the logo on heavy bags where the top of the logo is flat and the bottom is arched," he said. "I've seen instances where the typeface used in the logo is a modern serif face as opposed to the current slab serif face. In the mid-seventies a border was added, initially as a guide for sewing labels, and evolved into a part of the logo, essentially making it a rectangle."

Emerson says that in 2000, the classic ascending/descending logo shape was redrawn in-house. "Also, at that time a logo for professional equipment was designed to differentiate it from our retail product."

He says that last year the box surrounding the Everlast logotype was removed, reflecting more of the original design and accentuating the iconic ascending/descending shape.

Adam Geisler, senior vice president/marketing, says the company is aiming to become a "premiere active-lifestyle brand, beyond only the boxing niche. From product extensions and communications, we now have a clear, concise, cohesive brand strategy-we will have worldwide messaging, with a very similar, thematic approach to communications" in each market.

The company is using Philadelphia-based Kanter International. Geisler says the effort will continue to be print-heavy, but also with out-of-home and online, some lifestyle advertising and marketing within gyms.

Though creative has not been developed, he says new marketing efforts won't efface Everlast's core equity in boxing. "Boxing is our authenticity, and it will be very important to the brand and ethos. It's something ownable by our brand."

While Everlast is targeting Nike, Reebok and Adidas as competitive brands, the company will eschew a sports-vertical approach along with ads featuring star athletes, depending on the vertical.

"Our goal is not to go after, say, basketball or football or endorsement deals," Geisler says. "Our goal is to go after consumers in gyms and focus on publications and media targeting those consumers."