Esprit Visual Strategy Guide

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CONTENTS 2 / ES PR IT / VI S UA L STR ATEGY G U I D E

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OUR HISTORY Esprit Overview

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Esprit Timeline

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Past Competition

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OUR FUTURE Esprit’s Mission

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New Horizons

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Who We Were

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Who We Became

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Who We Are

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Esprit’s Audience

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New Competition

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OUR HISTORY VI S UA L STR ATEGY G U I D E / ES PR IT / 5

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In 1963, Susie Russell was driving near Lake Tahoe and picked up hitchhiker Doug Tompkins. They hit it off, married in 1964, and settled in San Francisco. In 1968, Susie and her friend Jane Tise decided to start a line of dresses to sell in California.

They sold the dresses out of the back seat of the Tompkin’s station wagon. Doug joined the company and they changed the name to Esprit, which laid the foundation for one of the world’s most important fashion companies in the 70s and 80s.

EST. 1968

For Esprit, it was never just about fashion.

Fashion was a vehicle for creating awareness about important social and environmental issues in Esprit’s employees and customers.

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Esprit De Corps: the feeling of camaraderie among members of a group or organization.

ESPRIT OVERVIEW

One of the most unique things about Esprit were its innovative employee programs and provocative campaigns that often focused more on messages than on the apparel itself. Seminars were held that helped employees learn about leadership, brainstorm ideas beyond their job descriptions, and learn how to conduct audits of their own eco habits. Community service and volunteerism were strongly supported, with each employee being granted up to ten hours of paid leave per month to volunteer. Esprit also initiated a lecture series to educate and inspire its employees about current world affairs that featured figures such as Dave Foreman from Earth First and feminist Gloria Steinem.

Esprit was also a pioneer in developing an education campaign to combat the bigotry associated with AIDS. The company was also a first to use real people as models in ads and to promote responsible consumption.

Esprit also shared a campaign featuring women sharing how they would like to change the world.

The brand became wildly popular almost more for what it stood for that for its clothing, but by the mid-1990s things at Esprit began to suffer when Susie and Doug left the company. They divorced and had management disagreements that caused them to both leave. Then, the company underwent a series of different leadership directions. The brand also extended too far beyond its roots of offering just women’s clothing. Over time, the brand slowly lost its soul. In 2012, Esprit began closing all retail stores in North America due to the stores losing money. Today, a Chinese investment firm owns Esprit and the brand bares very little resemblance to its humble roots of the late 60s.

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“Be informed, be involved, and make a difference.”

—ESPRIT’S FOUNDING MISSION

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ESPRIT HQ Esprit’s headquarters were located in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood The office was nicknamed “little utopia” because employees received various perks: subsidized tickets to the theater, ballet, and opera, free vacations to the mountains and a variety of foreign language lessons.

HUSBAND & WIFE TEAM Esprit was led for more than 20 years by the husband and wife team of Susie and Doug Tompkins. Here, they pose by the headquarters with their daughters and below right they take a break during a fashion shoot in 1985.

ICONIC LOGO The memorable Esprit stenciled logotype was designed by a John Casado in 1979. John trained under legendary Saul Bass and was a rising star in the California design scene at the time.

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LAKE TAHOE Esprit offered employees free trips to the mountains. Lake Tahoe, where Susie and Doug met, was a typical destination. Here, Esprit employees and models pose after a photo shoot.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO? CAMPAIGN The campaign surveyed young people about how they would like to change the world. The $8 million campaign featured quotes from America’s young people on such issues as racism and REAL PEOPLE AS MODELS

access to abortion.

Esprit was one of the first companies in the fashion industry to use real people instead of professional models in some of their campaigns.

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1960

1970

1980

ESPRIT TIMELINE

1963

1971

1987

offered hitchhiker Doug Tompkins

under the name of Esprit de Corps

attention to the AIDS epidemic with

a ride back to San Francisco.

and seven lines were created.

a campaign that combated bigotry

1964

1972

associated with AIDS.

and settle in San Francisco.

abroad to Hong Kong.

Esprit experienced losses for the

1968

1976

first time in history.

clothing line that they name Plain

quickly developed into one of the

Doug launched an environmental

While at Lake Tahoe, Susie Russell

Susie and Doug Tompkins marry

Susie and Jane Tise start a women’s

The company was incorporated

Manufacturing operations moved

Esprit expanded into Germany and

Susie and Doug Tompkins drew

1988

1989

most successful lifestyle brands in

campaign to encourage customers

selling clothes out of the back of a

the European market.

to reduce consumption. Esprit told

station wagon.

1978

customers to think twice before

Jane. Doug joins in and they begin

For the first time ever, turnover exceeded 100 million US dollars.

The same year, independent Esprit companies were founded in both Germany and Hong Kong.

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buying Esprit products. Doug left the company later that year.

2010

2000

1990 1990

2000

2012

and social issues was started.

into mens clothing, sleepwear,

markets, reduced stores in China,

1991

and intimate apparel and began

Australia, Hong Kong and closed

to court an older demographic.

stores in North America.

2004

2017

you do?” Campaign was produced.

global expansion plans, particularly

US by going back to its founding

1992

in Europe.

soul to establish a new organization.

clothing launched.

Esprit reported shrinking profits in

A lecture series on environmental

Eco Desk, an environmental and community affairs department, was created by Susie. The “What would

The eco-friendly Ecollection line of

1993

Esprit diversified the product line

Esprit embarked on aggressive

Esprit pulled out of most global

Esprit successfully relaunches in the

2009

Europe, where it was making fourfifths of its sales.

Susie stepped down as creative director, but remained an advisor.

Esprit’s US sales shrunk from $360 million/year to $200 million.

1996

Jay Margolois took over and Susie left Esprit.

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By 1989, Esprit had grown increasingly concerned about the negative environmental side effects caused by the retail industry. That year, we launched the “A Plea for Responsible Consumption” campaign.

The campaign brought bold thinking for the time—it encouraged consumers to only buy the things they needed. Leading up to the campaign, Doug’s interest in environmental conservation within the space of the fashion industry was growing. His research led to a new marketing strategy that advised customers not to buy Esprit clothing if they didn’t need it. Doug argued that consumerism, especially in the fashion industry, was leading to the demise of natural resources and that Esprit should introduce clothing that would outlast the seasonal fads. Doug’s “buy only what you really need” campaign included hang tags with a warning on each article of clothing, as well as a new line of fashions featuring colors that were more muted and traditional.

The line was profitable initially, but it soon declined and, during this time, critics noticed that Doug seemed to be more interested in ecology than in fashion.

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“We could make the decision to reduce our consumption or the decision will be made for us.”

—EXCERPT FROM THE PLEA FOR RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

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PAST COMPETITION

Related: Fashion Companies Focused on Social and Environmental Causes

Employs at-risk female artisans,

Leases their clothing to customers

uses sustainable practices in their

and recycles it for new use when

materials and design process,

customers are done wearing the

and donates funds to their artisans.

clothing and send it back.

Defends environmental ethics in

Removes one pound of trash from

the activewear industry and is one

oceans and waterways for every

of the first adopters of recycled

product they sell.

materials and organic cotton.

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Offers clothing made by a com-

Donates shoes each time it sells

Sells eyewear and donates a pair

pany that advocates for fair and

a pair and backs initiatives around

to someone who is in need each

safe workplace conditions in all

vision and maternal health, safe

time they sell a pair.

its countries of operation.

drinking water, and anti-bullying.

Sells clothing and was a pioneer in

Uses recycled materials and offers

Sells clothing and has provocative

establishing both workplace ethics

educational materials on sustain-

ads around social issues including

and employee benefits.

ability to its audience.

the death penalty, race relations, AIDS, and child labor.

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PAST COMPETITION

Adjacent: Product Companies Focused on Social and Environmental Causes

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Offers convenience food and

Features bottled teas and donates

frozen meals with organic and

proceeds from one of its products,

non-GMO ingredients.

ChariTea, to local non-profits.

Focuses on non-toxic household

Shares an array of green chic

products to supply the market-

fashion topics through a magazine

place for ethical consumerism.

and an online community.

Sells home goods made from

Offers all natural and ethically

Sells bikes made from bamboo,

organic cotton and silk made by

produced beauty products.

which is a more renewable and

artisan women.

green material.

Offers beauty and personal care

Creates funky, trendy watches for

Produces organic food and drinks

products focused on using natural

women that are eco-friendly.

and has donated to promote

and organic ingredients.

organic seed research and conserve crop genetic diversity.

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“The Esprit customer is of above average intelligence and knows the difference between substance and superficiality.

Women who wear Esprit are the new feminists.�

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—DOUG TOMPKINS, ESPRIT CO-FOUNDER

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ESPRIT’S MISSION

Our mission is to empower young women to stand up for environmental and social issues by being catalysts of change and conscious about the choices they make as consumers.

01. EMPOWER WOMEN 02. REDUCE CONSUMPTION 03. PROMOTE TOGETHERNESS

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NEW HORIZONS

Esprit was about sharing an attitude and point of view on social and environmental issues. Now we will offer young women the chance to take direct action.

Esprit will draw from the journey the founder’s started to promote environmental and social causes important to them and expand on this thinking to fit the critical needs of today. With the new US administration and the threats to women’s rights and environmental rights, we feel its crucial to harness our connection with young women and empower them to really take matters into their own hands. Through a combination of activism, education, and innovation initiatives, and a strong commitment to using recycled and 100% non-toxic materials in the retail channel, we believe Esprit can serve as a partner for women in today’s difficult world. We also believe that we can serve as a model for what it means to be a truly sustainable, responsible, and engaged company today.

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01

AFFECT POLICY CHANGE LOCALLY & NATIONALLY We will empower young women to learn about and stand up for policies that help women and the environment.

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ACTIVATE COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVES

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We will encourage young women to be active in their communities by volunteering and by taking actions to make their workplaces and schools pro-women and pro-environment.

INNOVATE WITH TECHNICAL & PRACTICAL EDUCATION We will offer educational opportunities to teach young women technical and practical skills that they need to contribute to a more sustainable society.

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REINVENT RETAIL THROUGH RECYCLED AND BIO MATERIALS We will offer women products that are harmfree and teach them to extend the longevity of the products they buy. This will take retail to a new level of responsibility.

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WHO WE WERE

Vibrant Youthful Free-Spirited Confident Esprit’s past look was full of life and casual. The Esprit brand also had a playful element to it, despite the fact that Esprit engaged in outreach campaigns that could be provocative at times. Ultimately, when Esprit started it was more about an attitude and an ideal. Today, both environmental rights and women’s rights are being threatened. That means Esprit needs to build on our original positive attributes and take more of an actionoriented approach to address the challenges of today.

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WHO WE BECAME

Muted Constrained Grown-Up

Esprit’s look after the founders left the company grew to bare little resemblance to the brand’s roots. Esprit became increasingly generic instead of featuring the uniqueness the brand was once loved for. Today, Esprit does little to activate and inspire customers to make a difference in the world. The time has come to turn this trend around and go away from being passive and instead become more aspirational and active.

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WHO WE ARE

Vibrant

+

Active

Youthful

Conscious

Confident

Empowered

The new approach will go away from the detour Esprit took to a muted and passive look and instead show women in active and empowered situations. Esprit will tie in more references to environmental and scientific advancements related to creating truly sustainable products and lifestyles. We will also reference women standing up for improved women’s rights issues in the US. These references will help showcase that Esprit is now much more than a fashion brand.

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ESPRIT’S AUDIENCE

In the beginning, Esprit was a brand that focused on American women. Today, we have gone back to these roots.

Esprit began by focusing on a young American women audience and we believe that it is a critical time in the US to go back to these roots and empower young women to create lasting change. Young women in this age range are typically forming the foundation of their studies, careers, and adult habits. They are more targeted by advertising pressures to consume, more likely to be subjected to sexism, and more affected by climate change related issues, such as viruses, than men. Now is the time to guide these young women to stand up for environmental and women’s rights issues.

Our greater network relies on business professionals, educators, politicians, researchers, and parents who will teach, support, and encourage these young women to engage in Esprit’s initiatives. Together, we can build a rich community of conscious, friendly, active, and empowered people.

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Our main audience is women in the US who are between 18-30 years old.

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The Conscious Consumer Rita Hernandez •

Rita is into making her own soaps as gifts for her friends because she is interested in removing toxins from her life.

•

She is part of her local community garden so she can connect to nature while living in the urban environment in Berkeley.

•

She canceled her Stitch Fix membership because she started feeling guilty about buying clothes she didn’t need.

•

She tries to reduce the water she uses and food she wastes at home because California’s drought

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and wildfire issue alarms her.

•

She enjoys going to environmental talks held at UC Berkeley to continue learning and gain current knowledge to share with her students.

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

•

She wishes there were more options for buying products made from recycled materials because she thinks this could make a little difference with climate change issues.

•

She enjoys books about simplifying her life such as The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up because she thinks it’s important to work on being more conscious of possessions.

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“The media tells me to buy more stuff every day. I can’t be a hypocrite to the students, so I resist.”

—RITA HERNANDEZ, STUDENT TEACHER

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“My daughters, they amaze me each day.

The climate change fight should be led by women.”

—PAUL JOHNSON, RETIRED ENGINEER

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The Environmental Educator Paul Johnson •

Paul frequently gives talks at environmental conferences, corporate events, and political meetings to help spread the importance of climate change.

•

He has an organic garden and also raises his own chickens in his backyard because he wants to know how his food is grown.

•

He enjoys traveling abroad and taking in street markets of different cities so he can meet the artists and farmers making the things he buys.

•

He believes that many companies need to be held more accountable for the waste they produce after spending years at a hardware company that promoted consumerism.

•

He enjoys playing sports with his two daughters when they visit because he believes sports are empowering for girls and young women.

•

He worries about his daughters getting promoted in their companies since they complain about male co-workers being paid more.

•

He is disgusted with how obsessed people are with technology because he feels face-to-face encounters encourage more conscientiousness.

•

He enjoys camping and hiking with his wife to connect to nature and appreciate quiet.

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The Women Empowerer Blaire Davis •

Blaire wants to find ways to improve her company so that more women can gain leadership positions because she thinks it would create a more positive, functional work environment.

•

She currently shares an apartment with a roommate, but hopes to buy a place some day so she can feel independent.

•

She recently started taking boxing classes to help relieve stress and feel empowered.

•

She got her office to stop using paper coffee cups and buy a set of mugs after she became upset

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about all the waste.

•

tests in honor of important women’s rights issues.

POLITICAL ACTIVIST SEATTLE , WASHINGTON

She recently has started attending peaceful pro-

•

She tries to go to networking events to meet other women working in HR because sometimes she could use more resources about how to combat sexism in the workplace.

•

She enjoys reading memoirs about women leaders to gain inspiration in her daily life.

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“I want a woman president so we can break through the glass ceiling once and for all.”

—BLAIRE DAVIS, HR MANAGER/POLITICAL ACTIVIST

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“I love learning about sustainable materials. I hope to find a fashion job with meaning.”

—ESTHER SMITH, FASHION DESIGNER

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The Hopeful Designer Esther Smith •

Esther enjoys shopping at flea markets to take inspiration from vintage clothing and wares.

•

She loves traveling to India and Turkey to explore the rich patterns and materials used to make clothing and various home wares.

•

She tries to attend sustainable fashion conferences when she can to understand what she can do as a designer to make a difference.

•

She is sick of working for a fast-fashion brand because she thinks they are environmentally reckless most of the time.

•

She has gotten into researching her makeup brands after learning her lipstick had lead in it because she is worried about toxins in her life.

•

She volunteers to clean up the local beach in Santa Monica each year because she feels that it is a little something that she can do to help her community.

•

She donates old clothes to her local thrift store so they don’t end up in the landfill.

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The Concerned Mother Joanna Mulvaney •

Joanna is working to detox her home since having a baby and also experiencing worse allergies.

•

She walks as much as she can because she knows that driving is bad for the environment.

•

She is interested in switching to a job that is in a materials innovation lab, where she can use her background to make more of an impact and build products that are 100% renewable.

•

She volunteers with Environmental Working Group when she can because she believes the work they do to rate how toxic products are is very important

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to people’s health and the environment.

•

She rents dresses from Rent the Runway sometimes for weddings she attends so she doesn’t own things she doesn’t really need.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

•

She enjoys talking with the smart people in her lab who are from different countries because she enjoys learning about their perspectives on world events and various environmental issues.

•

She is working on becoming more confident as a woman so she can pass on good habits to her young daughter.

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“My baby daughter changed me. I want to use my science background to help the environment.”

—JOANNA MULVANEY, SCIENTIST/NEW MOTHER

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“I love empowering young women to take on more ecoleadership roles.

—INGRID LARSEN, BUSINESS CONSULTANT

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The Sustainable Business Mentor Ingrid Larsen

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•

Ingrid works with companies to help them become more sustainable in their practices and after all the waste she has observed, she feels this should be a law that all companies should improve there practices.

•

She enjoys researching different options for prefabricated homes because she wants to live in a home that saves more energy and water.

•

She frequently attends conferences about new developments in using recycled materials because she finds this innovation important.

•

She is trying to live a plastic-free lifestyle in her home so she can reduce the amount of environmental toxins that her family is exposed to.

•

She is involved in local politics because she wants businesses to feel more pressure to become green.

•

She enjoys taking landscape photography to appreciate the nature around her.

•

She encourages clients to bring their own travel coffee mug as a first step to becoming more environmentally friendly.

BUSINESS CONSULTANT AUSTIN, TEX AS

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NEW COMPETITION

Product & Service Companies Focused on Social and Environmental Causes

Develops different circular recy-

Hosts a directory of certified

cling technologies for the textile

organizations that meet strong

and clothing industry.

sustainability requirements.

Offers hands-on sustainability

Transforms the way we make, use

solutions through workshops, field

and throw away stuff to be more

trips, good food, gardening and

sustainable, healthy and fair.

community festivals.

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Invents product ideas that utilize

Works to build a positive future

Aims to fights sexism and expand

recycled, recyclable, renewable,

circular economy through various

women’s rights, from within the

or bio-based materials.

education and research initiatives.

government and politics to media and pop culture.

Offers a platform via MIT where

Helps all women achieve their

Uses film and media content to

people work with experts and

ambitions in life through an online

expose injustices created by gen-

each other to create, analyze, and

community and onsite events.

der stereotypes and shift people’s

select detailed proposals for what

consciousness towards change.

to do about climate change.

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“We are either going to have a future where women lead the way forward to make peace with the Earth or we are not going to have a human future at all.�

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—VANDANA SHIVA , ACTIVIST

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COLOPHON

TYPEFACES Sofia Freight SOFTWARE Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator & InDesign PRINTER California Office Service, San Francisco DESIGNER Katherine Wallenta DESIGN CONSULTATION Hunter Wimmer Academy of Art University PHOTOGRAPHY The images in this book are used in accordance with the Creative Commons License. This book is a noncommercial work produced as a student project for educational purposes, and as such is considered a derivative work under the Fair Use Clause of the US Copyright Law.

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