- Walmart just unveiled its latest brand refresh — the first major change in 17 years.
- The new logo draws retro inspiration from one of founder Sam Walton’s iconic trucker hats.
- Walmart said blue and yellow evoke the retail giant’s past and look forward to a more digital future.
What’s old is new again.
With Walmart’s latest brand refresh — the first major change in 17 years — the company is harkening back to the styling of its founder Sam Walton.
The company said its new logo draws retro inspiration from one of Walton’s iconic trucker hats, which is featured in his portrait for the cover of his autobiography “Made in America.”
Gilles Mingasson/Getty Images
“Walton was known for preferring baseball caps to staid business clothes, exemplified in this trucker-style hat he wore,” says the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, where another design is exhibited.
Walton’s hats also served a practical function as he famously flew his small airplane around the country, sometimes dropping in unannounced from the sky on stores to check on their operations.
Walmart Museum
“This update, rooted in the legacy of our founder, Sam Walton, demonstrates our evolving capabilities and longstanding commitment to serve our customers of today and tomorrow,” Walmart’s US chief marketing officer, William White, said in a statement.
“While the look and feel of our brand is more contemporary, our refreshed brand identity reflects Walmart’s enduring commitment to both Sam’s principles and serving our customers however they need us,” he added.
Walmart
The new font is bolder and blockier than its predecessor, and the blue is a deeper hue than the slightly teal version of before.
The company says the “True Blue” and “Spark Yellow” evoke its past and look forward to a more digital future as the company aims to push beyond traditional brick-and-mortar retail and take a bigger bite of the e-commerce market.
The last time Walmart rebranded was in 2008, when it dropped the punctuation between “Wal” and “Mart,” which it had for 44 years.
That year also saw the arrival of the yellow spark, an icon that the company says represents six key facets of its commitment to customers and associates.
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