Some of Duluth’s Duluthiest beanies. (Photo by Matthew James)

Perfect Duluth Day is indisputably Duluth’s Duluthiest website but what is Duluth’s Duluthiest brand? This post takes a look at some contenders for the brand that best conveys a sense of Duluthiness.

In the contest for the Duluth flag, the goal was to create a design that would stand as a symbol for the city. A brand is a bit more complicated. When invoking Duluth, the goal isn’t to represent the city but to combine positive associations of the city with a product. At the same time, through its association with the city, the product itself becomes some part of the idea of what Duluth is. In this sense, the brand that best represents Duluth would be the one that both reflects and creates some idea of Duluth.

For many, Duluth’s Duluthiest brand will be one that is integrated with its sense of community. This could be a place aligned the values one believes that the city should hold, like Positively 3rd Street Bakery, or a place that reflects some deeper history of the area, like the soon to be opened Niiwin Indigenous Foods Market. Or maybe it’s Mountain Spirits Liquors because your dad picked up a six pack of Schlitz Beer there every time he took you to see your grandparents, making the feeling of entering that store inseparable from the feeling of arriving in Duluth. There is obviously no single answer for what Duluth’s Duluthiest brand is. The suggestions here are brands that make a conscious effort to represent the city in some way. Most have Duluth in their names, but not all. A company can represent the city without ever invoking its name. And conversely, Duluth Painting Company may use the city’s name but I don’t think it is suggesting a Duluth style of painting. The name just lets you know its location. The brands below don’t use Duluth to tell you where they are, but rather who they are.

Duluth Pack

It has been in Duluth since 1882 and is still making packs in the city. It has a large store in Canal Park right by the bridge. And its brand reflects the outdoorsy, gateway to the North Shore idea of Duluth. Even if you don’t have a Duluth Pack that has sat at the bottom of a canoe in the Boundary Waters, you might have a Duluth Pack hoodie that conjures up the idea of tossing a Duluth Pack into the bottom of a canoe. Hosting a member of the Trump family back in 2020, and some other politically suggestive choices, may have affected the unifying nature of the brand among Duluthians, but now that the company has new owners, the associations some people hold with the brand might shift.

Frost River

One wouldn’t expect a city of Duluth’s size to have more than one local manufacturer of canvas bags, but Frost River has been selling locally made outdoors products in Lincoln Park since 2011. The company itself was founded in 2001. It is one of the few nominees on this list not to have Duluth in its name. I thought for a time that the name was just invented to invoke the perpetually cold water of northern Minnesota, but the catalogue that came with my new Frost River wool blanket told me the name refers to a river that makes up one of the most remote routes in the Boundary Waters. And while the name might not have Duluth in the title, many of the company’s products, like the Skyline Rolldown Backpack, WestEnder Waist Pack, and the Brighton Beach Tote, invoke specific places in the city. The store is also located in Lincoln Park instead of Canal Park, suggesting an orientation toward those who live in the city rather than tourists. But of course tourism is part of Duluth, which raises the question of whether Duluth’s Duluthiest brand is the one locals know the best or the one best known by people with little knowledge of the city itself.

A Duluth Trading Company retail location in Rhode Island. (Photo by Matthew James)

Duluth Trading Company

Duluth Trading Company is the only company on this list not based in Duluth. While founded by two brothers from Duluth in 1989, it currently has its headquarters in Belleville, Wisconsin, just outside of Madison. Even though the company doesn’t operate out of Duluth, it does have a large store downtown on Superior Street, an increasingly rare example of a retail chain opening downtown rather than closing. And of all the companies on this list, it certainly has the widest distribution of stores. Last winter, I went to a Duluth Trading Company store just outside of Providence, Rhode Island, where the employees greeted everyone with, “Welcome to Duluth!” Many times when outside of Duluth and wearing something Duluth-related that is not from Duluth Trading Company, someone has said to me, “Oh, I know them … they have those crazy underwear commercials!” Duluth Trading Company is a brand known by many who probably couldn’t tell you what state Duluth is in and yet may still know something about the area’s general vibe from the Hamm’s Beer underwear. Also, many companies sell Duluth branded beanies, shirts and hoodies, but few others sell Duluth-branded shoes, jeans and underwear. If you want to be a Duluth-branded outfit completest, you kind of have to shop at Duluth Trading Company.

DLH Clothing

For most companies, the question of whether the brand is for locals or tourists is open for debate, but for DLH, the whole purpose was to create a brand oriented toward people who live in Duluth. In a sense, the company has nearly the same goal as the Duluth flag — to create a symbol that stands for Duluth. Or as stated on the DLH website, the founders “wanted to create a line of apparel that celebrated the pride they had for Duluth without being touristy or gimmicky” with a “focus of the brand on the spirit and feeling of the Twin Ports instead of the word ‘Duluth.’” Now that it is an online shop without a physical store in Duluth, the company’s Duluth presence is a bit more ephemeral but the brand is still one of the most Duluthiest.

Bent Paddle Brewing Company

The above suggestions for Duluth’s Duluthiest Brands all involve products purchased either online or from retail locations. Bent Paddle Brewing offers a product, beer, but it is also a third place. And one that is located in a neighborhood the business itself helped to transform. One of Frost River’s owners said he decided on the store location after a conversation with Bent Paddle. The former West End is now filled with other similar contenders for Duluthiest brand such as Duluth Cider and Ursa Minor Brewing. In the case of bars, restaurants and tap rooms, the brand doesn’t simply reflect an attribute of the place but is a part of the place itself, somewhere people have returned repeatedly and created memories that are interwoven with their idea of the city. While the Bent Paddle brand specifically refers to the outdoors of northern Minnesota, one could easily suggest other third places that might not be directly Duluth branded but invoke the idea of the city simply by existing across generations. This could include an upscale restaurant like the Pickwick, a rather low-key place that has just been around forever like Deluxe Coney Island, or a place that both displays and is a part of Duluth history, like the Kom-on-Inn. While I’ve selected Bent Paddle Brewing for its prominence, many likely consider their neighborhood bar to be Duluth’s Duluthiest brand.

Misgen Design Company

Misgen Design Company adds a historical element to the competition for Duluth’s Duluthiest Brand, suggesting that for some the Duluthiest brand might not be where they go for a drink, but the place where their parents, or even grandparents, once frequented. Perhaps the brands that best represent Duluth aren’t the ones that have survived the test of time, but the ones that invoke a sense of collective history. Any single shirt from Misgen’s collection might not be the best representation of Duluth, but by throwing Saints Roller Rink, Johnny Ray Pizza, Mr. Nick’s and the Bellows all into one webshop, perhaps Misgen both invokes and creates a shared history of the city in a way no single Duluth brand can compete with.

Think of Us … Ride the Bus! (Photo by Matthew James)

Duluth Transit Authority

This one is a bit of an outlier on the list of candidates, but still a strong competitor for the title. It has been around under its current name since 1969 and its logo is on display every few blocks across the city from Gary-New Duluth to Lester Park. Even those who rarely ride the bus or pay much attention to the bus-stop signs still share the streets with the busses themselves. Nearly all of the submissions for the Duluth flag competition, including the winner, used something pretty close to the three basic colors from the DTA logo, which makes sense given how many Duluthians spent at least some part of their lives waiting for a bus next to that logo. The DTA doesn’t sell a lot of merch but it does give away promotional items with its logo. My DTA pizza cutter works surprisingly well.

The Duluth FC logo designed by Kevin Joseph of KJ Branded.

Duluth Football Club

Given people’s strong feelings and loyalties around sports, a local team’s logo is an obvious choice for Duluth’s Duluthiest brand. One could make an argument for the Bulldogs but they seem to represent the university more than the city. The high schools don’t have particularly Duluth-oriented mascots with the exception of the Hilltoppers. But just definitionally, whatever a Hilltopper is, it would at best only aspirationally represent anyone in the hillside neighborhoods or along the lake. Of course some sports, like curling, hockey and broomball, are intertwined with Duluth history. But I’m choosing to nominate what may be one of Duluth’s somewhat less Duluthy sports for Duluth’s Duluthiest brand because I really like the logo. Duluth’s soccer team invokes the beauty of the city so well that I feel like it’s my civic duty to attend a game.

Perhaps a poll could be made or an award given for Duluth’s Duluthiest brand, but I’m not sure it’s a question that has or needs a single answer. As the costumer for Merry Kiss Cam demonstrated, the best way to create a sense of Duluth through branding is to just throw it all together.

Geoguessr Challenge

This month’s Geoguessr takes a look at the reach of Duluth Trading Company, visiting five retail locations across the country:

Geoguessr Challenge: The Duluth Trading Company

A guide to playing Geoguessr can be found here.