HEDiGEAR Brand Guide · v1 · Voice, identity, and messaging in one place · hedigear.com

HEDi Brand Guide
HEDiGEAR · Brand Guide · v1

Moments
Make Us

One reference for how HEDi looks, sounds, and shows up. Built for the website, social, blog, and email.

"Life is short, but our memories are everlasting. At HEDi, we invite you to carry a piece of your story with you wherever you go. Because in the end, it's the moments that make you who you are."

01The Brand

What HEDi is

HEDi is not a backpack company. It is a memory company that happens to make the best canvas for carrying your story.

The one idea

People have always needed to commemorate who they are and what shaped them. HEDi makes that visible and portable. The HEDi-PACK is a canvas. The patches are chapters. Together they become a living narrative you write in public, one moment at a time.

Founder story

HEDi was founded by Bret Hedican, a two-time Olympian and Stanley Cup Champion with a 17-year NHL career and more than 1,000 games played. Those credentials are the brand's strongest trust signal, and they lead the copy.

The origin is simpler than the resume. As a kid, Bret had a hockey coat that meant everything to him. His mother cut it into patches and sewed them into a quilt. That quilt held his whole childhood. The lesson stuck: we do not need to keep everything, we need to keep what matters, and we need something to carry it with us. That is HEDi.

Why people buy

In a world of disposable, forgettable stuff, a HEDi-PACK means something. It is a conversation starter, a memory container, and a quiet public declaration of who you are and what you care about. The backpack is the canvas. The patches are the soul.

03Color

Color palette

The system is disciplined: near-black and white do the heavy lifting, one warm signal color does the pointing. Supporting tones add warmth for editorial and social.

Primary (live site)


Ink
#111111
Primary buttons, logo, headlines.

Body Text
#1c1d1d
All body copy and links.

Paper
#ffffff
Primary background.

Paper Dim
#f2f2f2
Cards, input fields, section fills.

Signal
#ff4f33
Accent only: cart dot, small markers, one point of emphasis.

Border
#e8e8e1
Hairline dividers and outlines.

Supporting (warmth for social & editorial)


Slate
#4B4D61
Quiet contrast, quotes, muted UI.

Mist
#D5D6D6
Soft backgrounds, dividers.

Sand Gradient
#ECE3D1 → #DDCEB0
Warm backdrop, product framing (from the beach-at-dusk reference).

Rule of thumb: if a layout has more than one loud element, it has one too many. Signal color earns attention because it is rare.

04Typography

Typography

Heavy, confident headers. Clean, humanist body. The contrast between the two is the personality.

Headings · Azbuka Extra Bold
Wear your story
Letter spacing 25 · base 37px · line height 1.2 · not capitalized by default. Web fallback: Archivo 800/900.
Body · Harmonia Sans (Regular)
Every patch on a HEDi-PACK is a moment you did not want to forget. The backpack carries your stuff. It also carries who you are.
Regular for running text · keep line length readable · web fallback: Mulish / a clean humanist sans.
Utility / data · monospace accent
SKU · specs · labels · 2.5" x 3"
Use sparingly for specs, labels, and small data, echoing the stitched-tab feel of real gear.

On file, alternate direction: the Type & Style Guide specifies Causten Bold / Causten Light with OCR as an accent face. That does not match the live site (Azbuka + Harmonia Sans). See Confirm before locking.

05Voice

Voice & tone

HEDi writes like a thoughtful friend who gets it. Someone who has lived moments worth remembering and wants to help you recognize yours. Authentic, grounded, never hyped.

Personality

We are

  • Warm, but professional
  • Authentic, not corporate
  • Thoughtful, not impulsive
  • Community-aware, not self-promotional
  • Story-first, product-second

How we build a sentence

  • Mostly short. One to four words for impact. Then a longer one for context.
  • Concrete details over abstractions.
  • No jargon. No corporate speak.
  • Conversational, but tightly edited.

Four tones by context

Tone 01

Empowering

Product pages, hero copy, about.
"You're a skier. You're a parent. You're a friend who shows up. Your backpack should say all of that. Ours does."
Tone 02

Story-telling

Blog, email narratives, customer spotlights.
"His mother cut the coat into patches and sewed them into a quilt. That quilt held his entire childhood."
Tone 03

Practical

Patch copy, product specs, how-to.
"This patch is 2 in. by 3 in. It sticks to the hook-and-loop. Your Summit already has space for it."
Tone 04

Conversational

Subject lines, social, replies.
"Your backpack isn't finished. Your story is still being written."
06Word Rules

Words we use, words we lose

Core language

  • Moments (not experiences or memories)
  • Your story (not journey or narrative)
  • Carry (not transport or bring)
  • Patch always (not emblem, badge, or icon)
  • Celebrate (not showcase or feature)
  • Hook-and-loop (never Velcro)

Red lines

  • No em dashes. Use periods, commas, or parentheses.
  • No "Velcro." Always hook-and-loop.
  • No exclamation points in copy.
  • No ALL CAPS.
  • No buzzwords: game-changing, revolutionary, premium, luxury.
  • No military or tactical language: warriors, battle-tested.
  • No fake urgency: limited time, act now, only X left.

Note: the older Brand Style Guide PDF still says "Velcro." The confirmed standard is hook-and-loop everywhere, for both brand consistency and trademark reasons.

07Copy Formulas

How we write it

Every patch tells a story. This is the engine behind patch and product copy.

01
Recognize
Help them see the moment. Paint the specific scene, not a generic category.
02
Claim
Make it theirs. Use "you" and "your," not marketing-department language.
03
Carry
Move it forward. This travels with them, it does not stay stuck in the past.

Patch copy

Penn State Hockey patch

You bled blue and white. Four years. Home games and away games. That playoff run that went too far.

This patch is for you, not the marketing department. It is for the version of you that showed up for the team, even when it was hard. Now it comes with you. To your job. To your next adventure.

2.5 in. x 3 in. Official Penn State Hockey licensed.

CTA: Add the patch

Product page (structure: Hook, Scene, Spec, Close)

HEDi-PACK Summit

Hook. This is the backpack that keeps up with you.

Scene. Weekend ski trips. Cross-country moves. That one road trip where everything changed.

Spec. 45L capacity. Water-resistant exterior. Reinforced hook-and-loop panel for patches. Durable nylon.

Close. Your adventures are too good to be forgotten. This backpack makes sure they are not.

Email

Subject line + opener

Subject: Your backpack's story isn't finished

That tournament trophy is in a box somewhere. But the friendships? The late-night drives? The moment you realized you belonged on that team? Those are still with you.

We made a patch for exactly that, because trophies go in drawers, but your backpack goes with you everywhere.

CTA: Add the patch

Social

Instagram, UGC repost

Sarah's been collecting patches for 7 years. Hockey, travel, friends, milestones. Every patch is a chapter. What's the next one in your story?

#MomentsMakeUs

B2B outreach

Team and corporate

Most team merchandise ends up in a closet. We make gear your team actually wears. A tournament team in Colorado did 50 units with their logo on the hook-and-loop panel. Their players kept them.

Turnaround is 15 days for custom orders. Starting at 20 units. What's your timeline looking like?

08Naming

Naming conventions

Get these right every time. They are small, and they signal care.

HEDiGEAR
The brand, always one word. HED uppercase, lowercase i, GEAR uppercase. Never "HEDi Gear" as two words, never HEDI. "HEDi" on its own is fine as shorthand.
HEDi-PACK
The backpack. Hyphenated, "PACK" in uppercase. This is the product name for every HEDi-PACK.
HEDiPATCH
The formal term for patches HEDi designs, manufactures, or owns the license to. In everyday customer copy, the word is still just "patch."

Confirm: the source doc is ambiguous on the plural. Lock one styling now, either HEDi-PACKs (clean plural) or HEDi-PACK's, and use it everywhere. See Confirm before locking.

09Channels

How the voice flexes by channel

Channel Lead tone Job of the copy Watch-outs
Website Empowering + Practical Make them feel seen, then make the product legible. Bret's credentials lead. No Velcro. No iron-on language on NHL pages.
Blog Story-telling Build the narrative. One human moment, one insight. Scene first, product second. Never listicle-flavored.
Email Conversational + Story Reactivate and remind: the story isn't finished. No urgency language. One clear CTA.
Instagram / TikTok Conversational Celebrate the customer, invite the next chapter. Hook in line one. End on a question, not a hard sell.
LinkedIn / B2B Practical, warm Gear that builds culture, not closet clutter. Professional, never corporate. Short. They're busy.

Consistency checklist

  • Leads with emotion or story, not features.
  • Specific: real moments, patches, people. Not abstractions.
  • Sounds like a friend, not like marketing.
  • Acknowledges the customer's story, not just HEDi's.
  • Uses core language: moment, story, patch, carry, celebrate.
  • No buzzwords, no urgency, no exclamation points, no em dashes.
  • Says hook-and-loop, never Velcro.
10Open Items

Confirm before locking

Your materials carry two visual directions. This guide is built on the current live-site system, because that is what is shipping today and what the official Brand Style Guide PDF documents. Confirm the four items below and I will lock a clean final version.

Four decisions

  1. Color direction. Live site is near-black + white + the #FF4F33 signal. The Type & Style Guide adds slate #4B4D61, mist #D5D6D6, and a sand gradient. A third direction on record uses plum #6F295A. Which is canonical, and are the others supporting or retired?
  2. Typography. Live site uses Azbuka Extra Bold + Harmonia Sans. The Type & Style Guide specifies Causten + OCR. A third direction on record pairs Fraunces + Inter. Confirm the canonical pairing.
  3. HEDi-PACK plural. HEDi-PACKs or HEDi-PACK's. Pick one.
  4. Velcro to hook-and-loop. Confirmed as standard here. Flagging so the older PDF wording gets retired everywhere it still appears.
Moments Make Us

HEDiGEAR Brand Guide · v1 · Voice, identity, and messaging in one place · hedigear.com