Guys what’s your idea about the naming and logo of this brand? Is an Italian brand using a misspelled finnish word and a Norwegian flag (for some reasons). I find it VERY silly but I am just a geography nerd so i was curious about your point of view.

29 comments

  3. Apparently there’s also a company called Apple, which doesn’t sell any kind of fruit, let alone apples. Still they’re quite successful I’ve heard. Go figure.

    Jokes aside, I think Napapijri is a good example of leveraging a country’s image in branding a product. Another classic example one would be Häagen-Dazs – an American company that wanted a name that sounded Danish, because “Denmark was also known for its dairy products and had a positive image in the United States” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A4agen-Dazs).

    I feel using country as a brand is something Finnish companies do poorly if compared to Sweden for example. Ikea, Volvo, Saab are branded with being Swedish – reliable, smart, high quality etc. That’s why there’s a Norwegian flag, not a Finnish flag in Napapijri’s logo (and of course the image of Roald Admundsen and others). Finnish flag would stand maybe for high quality education or people who move quickly in a car or on ice.

    All in all: is it silly? Yes. Does it work? Yes.

  4. A weird move, definitely. The brand itself has nothing to do with Finland aside from the misspelled name, no idea what the logic behind that was.

  5. It is very stupid. My Italian mate bought it thinking it’s a Finnish brand – why would an ITALIAN think that fashion from Finland is better, beats me. But so, it’s stupid and it works. Their market is not Finland obviously.

  15. I’m Italian, and I always cringe so hard when I see this brand around. The best thing is that (at least until some years ago) you would also see Antarctica in the logo. It kind of looks like it was already so chaotic, that a little extra chaos wouldn’t have hurt anyone 😂
    I like that the founder had also created a Swedish restaurant in Milan, and it also included a little shop with actual Swedish food. I bought a couple things there and it was good, but I think it closed a few years later.

  20. The J just doesn’t work for my brain. It just wants to skip the problem and then we have Napapiri which is ultimately much more fun. Isn’t references to drugs in clothing quite popular? I think they should have done that. It would have been funnier. “I am the connoisseur of drugs. If you want the best speed it simply must be sourced for the arctic circle.”

  24. This is not very common brand here in .fi. Most folks here like cheaper stuff. Tourists from southern Europe wear these.

  27. They make overpriced subpar outdoor gear and use a Finnish word and norwegian flag to try and invoke the idea of “extreme winter”

  28. I always thought that it was just the Northern Norwegians having a bit fun with their beloved neighbors and approved but now that I learn that it’s the Italians I’m outraged by the cultural appropriation.

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