US retailer Gap does U-turn on new logo

US clothing giant Gap has shelved a new version of its trademark blue-and-white logo, after the attempted rebranding sparked a firestorm of online protests, the company said Monday.

The California-based retailer, which sells clothes around the world, introduced the new logo only a week ago, replacing its distinctive tall upper-case Gap lettering in white on a blue square background.

The new version had "Gap" written in black with lower-case "ap," and a small blue square laid over the top of the "p."

But critics were scathing about the rebrand, and took to social networks and other online forums demanding the return of the internationally successful brand's traditional logo.

"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," said Marka Hansen, president of Gap Brand North America.

"We've been listening to and watching all of the comments... We heard them say over and over again they are passionate about our blue box logo, and they want it back.

"So we've made the decision to do just that - we will bring it back across all channels," he added in a statement on the retailer's website.

And he admitted: "We've learned a lot in this process. And we are clear that we did not go about this in the right way.

"We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community... There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we'll handle it in a different way."

mt/ao