camper
My friend Stef sent me a fascinating article called "Growing up Camper".
I’ve been really interested in the Camper story lately. Particularly as a brand with a lot of heritage that isn’t afraid to continually reinvent itself. Creative destruction. I think that many heritage brands wind up getting trapped by their own story. As if the brand attributes are chiseled in marble. It creates a suffocating environment of "that’s not how we do it, that’s against the brand standards." And, then the brand slowly loses relevance and interest.
The company originated in 1877 in Majorca and the brand officially launched as Camper in 1975. All the while, it’s been managed by one family. But no ancestor worship or resting on laurels. They experiment wildly on shoe designs and exploratory retail concepts. Rather than extend a model that works well in one market, they push the bounds further for each launch, even deviating from their signature brand colors. They’ve even tried to push the bounds further from shoes with a hotel concept called Casa Camper, that brings their overall brand philosophy to life in 3-D. This just might be pushing it too far, but I admire their fearlessness to change. I also admire that their brand is based on such a deeply rooted philosophy that they are able to extend the values beyond the simple shoe.
