Athletic & Lifestyle Brand Guidelines: Running, Outdoor and Lifestyle Footwear and Apparel
Thirty brand guides to athletic and lifestyle brands — running shoes, outdoor shells and the lifestyle icons.
Athletic and lifestyle brands sell identity as much as performance. These guides look at how each built its look.
Marks and stories
Arc’teryx’s logo is an Archaeopteryx fossil skeleton; Hoka is a 2009 French founding now under Deckers; Brooks pivoted to running-only in 2001 and is owned by Berkshire Hathaway; Birkenstock traces a family lineage to 1774; and Timberland’s Yellow Boot dates to 1973.
How to use these guides
Each guide covers a brand’s visual identity — its logo, palette and typography — as design commentary. The table at the end gathers the essentials.
Footwear and lifestyle
Crocs, Timberland, Fila, Champion, Carhartt, Birkenstock and Columbia.
- Crocs — The official Crocs green (#84BD00), the mascot ‘Duke’ (named after a co-founder), the Croslite clog, and the ugly-cool cult brand.
- Timberland — The tree logo, the wheat-nubuck Yellow Boot (1973), black as the only official colour, and the organic hip-hop crossover.
- Fila — The navy-and-red wordmark with the linked ‘L’ and ‘A’, the F-box mark, the Italian 1911 origin, and the Korean-owned global comeback.
- Champion — The red-white-navy ‘C’ sleeve patch, the script wordmark, the Reverse Weave heritage, and the 1919 collegiate-athletic roots.
- Carhartt — The amber-yellow wordmark and brown duck canvas, the 1889 workwear heritage, and the Carhartt WIP streetwear branch and its square ‘C’.
- Birkenstock — The plain all-caps wordmark, the cork footbed as the real brand, the 1774 family lineage, and the anti-fashion-to-luxury arc.
- Columbia — The blue wordmark, the woven-thread diamond ‘bug’, the 1938 Columbia-River origin, and the ‘One Tough Mother’ campaign.
Performance and outdoor
On, Hoka, Salomon, Arc’teryx, Brooks, Gymshark and Alo Yoga.
- On — The ‘On’ wordmark with its switch uptick, CloudTec cushioning, the Swiss monochrome palette, and the 2010 Zurich founding.
- Hoka — The winged flying-bird mark, the maximalist midsole, the bold colourways, and the 2009 French founding under Deckers.
- Salomon — The mountain-like ‘S’ badge, the black-and-red palette, the 1947 ski-binding origin, and the XT-6 fashion crossover.
- Arc’teryx — The Archaeopteryx fossil-skeleton logo, the black-and-white palette, the technical-gear heritage, and the 1989 Canadian founding.
- Brooks — The chevron ‘Run Happy’ mark, the Brooks blue, the 1914 founding, the 2001 running-only pivot, and Berkshire Hathaway ownership.
- Gymshark — The shark-and-arrow logo, the monochrome palette, Ben Francis’s 2012 garage founding, and the influencer/DTC model.
- Alo Yoga — The lowercase ‘alo’ wordmark, the ‘Air Land Ocean’ name, the neutral LA palette, and the 2007 founding.
European sportswear
Umbro, Kappa, Diadora, Lotto, Joma, Hummel, Le Coq Sportif and Ellesse.
- Umbro — The football kit maker founded in Wilmslow, Cheshire, in 1924 by Harold and Wallace Humphreys, whose double-diamond mark dates from a 1974 redesign; owned by Nike from 2008 and by Iconix since 2012, with Lancer Capital owning Iconix since 2021.
- Kappa — The Turin sportswear brand that grew out of Calzificio Torinese, a sock maker founded in 1916, whose back-to-back “Omini” figures came from a 1969 photo shoot for Robe di Kappa; launched as a sports line in 1978 and owned by BasicNet since 1994.
- Diadora — The Italian sportswear brand founded in 1948 by Marcello Danieli at Caerano di San Marco as a mountain-boot workshop, named after the ancient name of Zadar, marked by an emblem drawn by Sergio Gallina in 1973, and bought by the Moretti Polegato family’s LIR in 2009.
- Lotto — The Italian sportswear brand founded in Montebelluna in 1973 by the Caberlotto brothers, which began with tennis shoes, was bought by a group led by Andrea Tomat in 1999 and renamed Lotto Sport Italia, and whose worldwide brand rights WHP Global has owned since 2021.
- Joma — The Spanish sportswear brand founded in 1965 by Fructuoso López in Portillo de Toledo, named after his son José Manuel, which turned to sports shoes in 1968, ran a 1992 campaign for coloured football boots, and which El País described in 2020 as run by the López family.
- Hummel — The sportswear brand that began with the Messmer family in Hamburg in 1923, took its name from the German word for bumblebee, gained its chevrons under Bernhard Weckenbrock, passed into Danish hands and has been owned by Christian Stadil since 1999, with its base in Aarhus.
- Le Coq Sportif — The sportswear brand that grew from Émile Camuset’s 1882 knitwear workshop in Romilly-sur-Seine, put the Gallic rooster on its labels from 1948, set it in a triangle on Tour de France jerseys, and passed through Adidas and Airesis to a Dan Mamane-led group in 2025.
- Ellesse — The Perugia sportswear brand founded by Leonardo Servadio in 1959 and named for his initials, L.S., which made ski trousers, adopted its half-ball logo in 1975 as it moved into tennis, and has belonged to Britain’s Pentland Group since the 1990s.
Athletic apparel and sneakers
Russell Athletic, Starter, AND1, Avia, K-Swiss, PONY, British Knights and LA Gear.
- Russell Athletic — The Alexander City, Alabama, knitting mill Benjamin Russell founded in 1902, which grew into team uniforms and fleece, became part of Berkshire Hathaway under Fruit of the Loom in 2006, and left team uniforms in 2017 before returning through Augusta Sportswear.
- Starter — The New Haven licensed-apparel company David Beckerman founded in 1971, known for satin team jackets and the S-and-Star logo on sleeves and caps, sold out of bankruptcy in 1999, owned by Nike from 2004 and by Iconix since 2007.
- AND1 — The basketball brand Seth Berger, Jay Coen Gilbert and Tom Austin started in 1993 as Wharton graduate students, known for the faceless Player logo, trash-talk T-shirts and the Mixtape Tour, and owned by Galaxy Universal since 2021.
- Avia — The athletic shoe brand founded in Oregon in 1979 by Jerry Stubblefield, named from Latin to suggest flight, known for its cantilever sole, sold to Reebok and then American Sporting Goods in 1996, and later held by Galaxy Brand Holdings, Sequential Brands and Galaxy Universal.
- K-Swiss — The tennis shoe brand founded in California in 1966 by Swiss brothers Art and Ernie Brunner, named for the Swiss maker Künzli, known for the five stripes of the Classic, owned by E-Land from 2013, Xtep from 2019 and KP Global since its 2024 privatisation, rebranded in 2014.
- PONY — The athletic shoe and clothing brand founded in Manhattan in 1972 by Uruguay-born Roberto Muller, named as an acronym for Product of New York, worn by Spud Webb in 1986, owned by Pentland, The Firm and Symphony Holdings, and held globally outside China and Taiwan by Iconix since 2022.
- British Knights — The sneaker name Jack Schwartz Shoes of New York launched in 1983, shortened by wearers to “BKs”, marked with a diamond BK badge, advertised with rappers on television and revived in 2014 with Scooter Braun and designer Darren Romanelli.
- LA Gear — The Los Angeles label Robert Greenberg launched from a Melrose Avenue shop in 1982, built on fashion sneakers for young women, sunny Los Angeles advertising, a diamond logo and L.A. Lights, and a licensed brand since its 1998 reorganisation.
At a glance: founding, base and signature
Taken from each guide’s fact panel. Follow the link for detail and caveats.
| Brand | Founded | Based | Signature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alo Yoga | 2007 (Los Angeles) | See guide | See guide |
| AND1 | Philadelphia area, Pennsylvania (1993) | See guide | The Player logo, trash-talk T-shirts, the Mixtape Tour |
| Arc’teryx | 1989 (Vancouver) | See guide | Archaeopteryx |
| Avia | Oregon, by Jerry Stubblefield (1979) | See guide | The cantilever sole |
| Birkenstock | See guide | See guide | Wordmark |
| British Knights | By Jack Schwartz Shoes, Inc., New York (1983) | See guide | BK sneakers and the diamond BK badge |
| Brooks | 1914 (Philadelphia) | See guide | See guide |
| Carhartt | 1889 (Detroit) | See guide | Wordmark |
| Champion | 1919 (Rochester, NY) | See guide | The “C” |
| Columbia | 1938 (Portland, OR) | See guide | Diamond |
| Crocs | 2002 (Boulder, CO) | See guide | Croslite |
| Diadora | Caerano di San Marco, Veneto (1948) | See guide | Football boots, tennis and running shoes, Utility Diadora |
| Ellesse | Perugia, Umbria, Italy (1959) | See guide | Ski trousers, tennis clothing and the half-ball logo |
| Fila | 1911 (Biella, Italy) | See guide | Linked L-A |
| Gymshark | 2012 (UK garage) | See guide | Shark |
| Hoka | 2009 (France) | See guide | Maximalist |
| Hummel | Messmer & Co, Hamburg, Germany (1923) | See guide | The bumblebee logo and the double chevrons |
| Joma | Portillo de Toledo, Spain (1965) | See guide | See guide |
| K-Swiss | California, by Art and Ernie Brunner (1966) | See guide | The Classic tennis shoe and its five stripes |
| Kappa | Turin, Italy (1916 (Calzificio Torinese)) | See guide | The Omini, two figures back to back |
| LA Gear | See guide | See guide | Fashion sneakers, the diamond logo and L.A. Lights |
| Le Coq Sportif | Knitwear workshop, Romilly-sur-Seine, Aube, France (1882) | See guide | The Gallic rooster, set in a triangle on its jerseys |
| Lotto | Montebelluna, Treviso (1973) | See guide | See guide |
| On | 2010 (Zurich) | See guide | See guide |
| PONY | Manhattan, New York, by Roberto Muller (1972) | See guide | Athletic sneakers worn across basketball, football, baseball and boxing |
| Russell Athletic | Alexander City, Alabama (1902 (as Russell Manufacturing Company)) | See guide | Cotton sweatshirts, fleece, team uniforms |
| Salomon | 1947 (Annecy) | See guide | The “S” |
| Starter | New Haven, Connecticut (1971) | See guide | Satin team jackets, pullover jackets, the S-and-Star logo |
| Timberland | See guide | See guide | Tree |
| Umbro | Wilmslow, Cheshire, England (1924) | See guide | Double-diamond mark, football kit |
Frequently asked questions
What is the Arc’teryx logo?
An Archaeopteryx fossil skeleton, according to our guide.
Who owns Brooks?
Berkshire Hathaway, according to our guide.
See also our fitness, cycling and running and outdoor apparel brand guidelines.
Part of our Sports & Outdoors brand guidelines. See also all collections.