Australian label AROHA changes name following backlash
"This isn’t a rebrand. It’s a reflection of who we are now," the brand said, announcing their new name this week.
Australian activewear label AROHA has changed its name after copping heat for using a Māori word despite having no connection to te ao Māori.
"This isn’t a rebrand. It’s a reflection of who we are now," the brand wrote on their social media account on Tuesday, alongside a tile sharing their new name, VYRA.
"As we’ve evolved, so has our purpose ... What once began with love has transformed into resilience, discipline, and power. The brand we started is no longer the brand we are becoming," they went on.
Australian activewear label once called AROHA has changed it's name to VYRA.
The word "Vyra" is an American girls' name meaning 'truth', according to ancestry.com.
Earlier this month, brand owner Katie Burke apologised for upset caused by using the word AROHA, saying they didn't do thorough research.
"Our intentions were never to offend any of you, it was purely based on the fact that we wanted our brand surrounded by love," Burke said on TikTok.
"This was never based on traditional culture, we've never branded as a Māori brand we've never exposed ourselves as a Māori brand, we've always been transparent .... especially to any Māori people that do come in store.
"Aroha" means "to love, feel pity, feel concern for, feel compassion, empathise" according to the Te Aka online Māori dictionary.
"We didn't want to use an Australian name of love, we thought it was quite boring," Bourke went on.
"We did want to use 'aroha' because it was different and unique, it was a surface research, we didn't thoroughly do research, so the cultural ties we were not aware of 'til six months ago."
Following Wednesday's news the brand was "moving into a different space," Burke said they have over $100,000 worth of stock that will need to be moved at discount. The business had been running for four years and had a physical store in Queensland.
"We took into consideration both sides of the people who were upset and hurt and the people who were happy about it and wanted to push for forward," Burke said this week.
"... we just didn't think it aligned with our business to have communities fight against each other, for something that's meant for love."
Last year, RNZ examined the branding of HOKA, a billion-dollar French American shoe brand that's exploded in global popularity in recent years.
In te reo Māori, hoka means 'to fly'. The company initially accredited their use of the word to the “ancient Māori language” in 2010, but there is no attribution to its roots now and the word is pronounced wrongly in its marketing videos.
