Jack Wills rebrand

Jack Wills is attempting to appeal to young people, but no one can forget its posh past

The brand has been slammed for trying to rebrand as ‘cool and trendy’


If you’ve so much as opened your TikTok lately, you’d know that a bunch of UK TikTokers are out skiing, all courtesy of Jack Wills. Or if you’re not all that into TikTok, you’ve probably seen an advert for it on every billboard or advertisement possible. While Jack Wills is trying to appear more in touch with the youth and relatable, everyone seems to have forgotten how incredibly posh it once was. It literally had the words ‘fabulously British’ slapped across the chest of every single shirt and hoodie, which seems a hard one to erase from your memory.

Here is a look at Jack Wills’ incredibly posh past as they try to rebrand and appear relatable to the younger generation:

Jack Wills is all anyone wanted to wear in the early 2010s

In the early 2010s, Jack Wills used to be all a lot of young people wore in a bid to look cool and dressed up. Peter Williams, the founder of Jack Wills, once said his original plan for the brand was about “what being at a British university is all about and all the cool amazing stuff that goes with that”. The brand did a lot of promotion at the poshest universities across the country, including Oxford and St Andrews, making it clear of the target audience Jack Wills had.

According to Vice, Jack Wills commodified “what it meant to be posh, white and privately educated in the 2010s,” and wearing something by Jack Wills often associated itself with being posh and it did not reflect the wider and more diverse society it was in.

According to someone who worked at Jack Wills, the brand wanted to sell ‘British identity’

Speaking with Refinery 29, a former employee at Jack Wills said during the Made In Chelsea era, the brand was incredibly popular. Elena said: “It was popular during th Made In Chelsea era, there were a lot of Union Jacks everywhere – poshness was the British ‘identity’ they wanted to sell.” She believed that the fashion brand came in through the ranks through “small pockets of elite society, like boarding school kids.”

Another employee said Jack Wills was ‘pertaining to a certain aesthetic’

Another former employee said Jack Wills was “all about people in rowing clubs or playing polo and other private school sports.” The fashion brand did all this while having Skins type parties in posh schools, “pertaining to a certain aesthetic.”

In 2019, Jack Wills fell into administration

Over the years, Jack Wills has failed to evolve as part of the ever changing society and in 2019, the brand went into administration after it reported annual operating losses of £14.2 million. Sports Direct CEO Mike Ashley later bought Jack Wills and its clothes can now be found amongst sportswear brands in Sports Direct stores.

Jack Wills is now trying to rebrand itself by appearing relatable to young people

In 2022, Jack Will’s It’s A Vibe campaign was quickly critiqued by people on social media. One Twitter user said: “Jack Wills trying to rebrand itself as a cool, urban, trendy clothing brand makes me laugh. Company spent years branding itself as a brand for poshos and toffs and it’s now trying to capture the streets.”

Jack Wills has been sending TikTokers and social media influencers abroad to promote the brand

Over the summer, Jack Wills sent a number of popular TikTokers and social media influencers to Ibiza and has recently sent another group to go skiing. While they’re out partying and having a blast, the creators were also creating content for the brand, which didn’t sit well with a lot of people. Many people called out the creators for flaunting their all expenses paid trip during the cost of living crisis. While Jack Wills attempts to rebrand and shake off its posh elitist past, not everyone seems to think it’s going to work.

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Featured image credit via Shutterstock.