Most people know Burberry for that iconic check pattern.
Most people know Burberry for that iconic check pattern.. Here is the announcement as we covered it, with the key details pulled out below.
The announcement
Most people know Burberry for that iconic check pattern.
But in the early 2000s, that same pattern almost destroyed the brand.
It started as a lining inside a trench coat in the 1920s. Hidden. Exclusive. Only the person wearing it knew it was there.
Then Burberry got greedy.
They put the check on everything — caps, bags, accessories — and made it so affordable that anyone could get it.
Sales went up. But the brand’s value went down.
Fakes flooded the market. The upper class walked away.
And Burberry became associated with the wrong crowd entirely.
So they brought in Christopher Bailey to fix it.
His first move: pull the check back from 20% of products to just 5%.
Remove the cheap items. Make it rare again.
And it worked.
The lesson? In luxury, less is always more. The moment everyone can have it, nobody wants it.
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