American clothing retailer Gap will change its new logo back to the classic design after users erupted on social media and criticised the company for the change.
While the backlash initially prompted the company to announce a crowdsourcing project that would allow users to submit their own designs, the sheer amount of criticism on Twitter and Facebook has forced the company to back down.
Gap will now use its previous logo that had been part of the company’s branding for the past two decades, it said in a statement and on its Facebook page. Gap president Marka Hansen said in a statement the decision was made as a direct response to the user backlash.
“Since we rolled out an updated version of our logo last week on our website, we’ve seen an outpouring of comments from customers and the online community in support of the iconic blue box logo,” she said.
“Last week, we moved to address the feedback and began exploring how we could tap into all of the passion. Ultimately, we’ve learned just how much energy there is around our brand. All roads were leading us back to the blue box, so we’ve made the decision not to use the new logo on gap.com any further.”
Hansen also said the company “learned a lot” during the process and admitted that, “we did not go about this the right way”.
“We recognise that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community. This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing. There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way. “
Users have responded to the announcement on Facebook with praise.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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