After a few successful promotional drops (including a collaboration with arguably Canada’s most famous son after Wayne Gretzky), Tim Hortons launched a full online store to rival the competition in the food space who have fully embraced the lifestyle brand double-life.
The TimShop.ca store includes apparel items like sweaters, T-shirts, and joggers, all with a “retro feel” while showcasing the brand’s history and identity. It’s heavy on neutral and earth tones, creating an all-season look.
— CanTechNews.ca (@CanTechNewsCa) September 5, 2023
Right now, the store is broken into three categories: Always Fresh, Always Tims, and Always Fun.
The Always Fresh line is made up of comfort wear items like sweats, joggers, and crewnecks, in colors called “Oat Milk” and “Black.” The branding is fairly minimal, giving it a modern streetwear look.
The Always Tims line leans into the branding more heavily, with retro logos placed on T-shirts, hats, and sweatshirts (both hooded and crewneck). A shade of brown dubbed “Coffee” is used heavily.
Finally, the Always Fun line goes with more color and more bold branding, slapping bigger designs and slogans, and straying away from the neural colors by using a royal blue and pink for hoodies.
“There are so many Canadians from coast to coast to coast who have told us they would love to see more apparel from us that celebrate the nostalgic look of Tim Hortons and a more modern reflection of the brand today,” Markus Sturm, Tim Hortons senior vice president of consumer goods, digital, and loyalty, said in a press release.
The plan is for the store to expand on National Coffee Day on September 29, so there will surely be more coffee tie-ins through apparel.
Tim Hortons launches https://t.co/K45iTVyXaD with NEW limited-edition merch #Business #Canada #Food https://t.co/Wnv9nmgoJS
— Weekly Voice (@Weeklyvoice) September 6, 2023
This whole trend of food brands doubling as lifestyle brands isn’t exactly new. Chipotle introduced a whole online store called Chipotle Goods, and was soon joined by the likes of Sweetgreen and more. Rather than relying on periodic drops for special occasions, they choose to have merchandise available at all times, but with a rotating collection of products to tie into things like new menu items, holidays, or partnerships.
What Tim Hortons did really well here was incorporate the brand story – coffee – into the apparel by using colors that invoke that experience, whether you drink it black or with cream (or oat milk). It all goes back to the core of the brand through the apparel. And with special launches around things like National Coffee Day, they stay top of mind where they want to be with customers, and give people a reason to keep checking back periodically to see if anything new came out.
