It was the 1960 U.S Open in Cherry Hills that consecrated Arnold Palmer “the immortal with alligator shoes” as Mark McCormack wanted to call him. His business empire was about to explode all over the world. In 1961, Arnold Palmer Enterprises, Inc.
was born. as part of a business strategy. Now that there was a company, however, it was also necessary to have a logo. Palmer and the partners of the “APE” were gathered around a table in the middle of a brainstorming, looking for an original logo that could be used on clothing, accessories, golf equipment and so on and so forth.
Arnold Palmer, history
In the previous days the proposals that had followed, ranged from crossed golf clubs to bay leaves, but fortunately (in my opinion) all those symbols had already been used by other organizations and were still very common symbols.
The level of lucidity in the meeting was inversely proportional to that of frustration, so Arnie (Arnold Palmer n.d.a.) went out to get some fresh air, and discovered that he was raining. However, her attention was immediately captured by a beautiful girl (the sly ..) who, when getting out of her car, opened a multicolored umbrella.
Arnie quickly returned to the conference room. “How about an umbrella?” he said. And someone retorted :” what kind of umbrella?” Arnie suggested one with lots of colors. A few heads started nodding, but no one was even close to considering it a good idea.
And someone also told Palmer not to start “flying too high” right away since someone probably already could have registered the trademark. Lawyers were hired to investigate the symbol. A few weeks later the legal department was surprised and delighted to learn that no one in the world had registered the trademark.
Immediately Arnie had his logo: an open umbrella colored red yellow white and green. An image born of a fortuitous accident turned into one of the most recognizable icons in the world. In the Asian market, in particular, the Arnold Palmer umbrella is legendary.
One reason for the logo’s popularity and ubiquity was Palmer himself. Arnie has always understood the importance of building and maintaining a brand. In the last 50 years we have rarely seen him dress without his beloved logo of him.
The same goes for his partners. At every meeting or public gathering, the employees of Arnold Palmer Enterprises proudly displayed the umbrella pin.
