Academic

Harvard Yard Transformed Into Plaid Blazer

By Dan Filler

Neville Longbottom, the notoriously incompetent young wizard from Harry Potter, must have just materialized in Cambridge, Mass.  How else can we explain the fact that Harvard Yard has just been convered into a plaid blazer.   And a pair of khaki shorts.  And a short sleeve button-down.

It seems that Harvard University, in an effort to gin up some cash, has trademarked Harvard Yard   According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the school submitted its first Harvard Yard trademark application on December 5, 2007 seeking to use the term for "Clothing, namely, shirts, pants, coats, jackets, blazers, ties, sweaters, suits, vests, scarves, hats, gloves, socks, and briefs."  No trademark appears to have been registered, perhaps because the office was worried about confusion (or downright deceit) when men starting wearing briefs boasting a "Harvard Yard".   A bit less ambitiously,  Harvard submitted the term again in June, 2008, this time for use in ""clothing, namely t-shirts."  The mark was issued for that purpose last December. 

It has now been licensed it to a manufacturer of preppy clothing.  From the Harvard Crimson:

Wearwolf [Group] will use the phrase as a brand name for an international line of preppy clothing, beginning with men's wear selling for prices ranging from $160 for shirts to $495 for sport coats. The clothes will not bear a Harvard logo or shield, but will include crimson trim around button holes and zippers as well as the "Harvard Yard" brand on the neck label and the hangtag, according to Wearwolf Executive Vice President Jeffrey D. Wolf. Many of the line's clothes are named after buildings around the Harvard campus, he said. For example, shirts will be called Yenching and Holyoke.

 The clothing was inspired by photographs of students lounging in Harvard Yard during the 1950s and 1960s and is aimed at males between 25 and 45, Wolf said. At first, only men's clothing will be offered, but Wearwolf plans to introduce products for women and children soon. Wolf said that the men's products will include trousers, shirts, scarves, topcoats, trench coats, and outerwear.

What's next?  A line of stretch-waist pants marketed under the name Widener?

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on August 19, 2009 (boomark / email).