It does seem to be a shame to throw away hard-built branding, especially when much larger brands get bought and sold every day. It seems like a win to restore an old vintage brand (vintage in HN terms might be anything from the previous batch!)
This approach was cleverly used by a PC company in the 80s/90s, Packard Bell. That brand had been a radio company from the depression into the late 60s, when the company failed.
When PCs were starting to take off, parents of boomers were interested in getting a PC but unsure what to buy, so a familiar brand was attractive.
This was widely discussed in the business press at the time, and various other bramds were revived for this reason.
In the case of Shinola they aren’t reviving the brand in this fashion, but I assume they think a bit of familiarity, even as a joke, might help (I only knew Shinola from “can’t tell shit from Shinola” and only after I saw a Shinola shop a few years ago did I bother to even look it up).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinola
https://www.shinola.com/
It does seem to be a shame to throw away hard-built branding, especially when much larger brands get bought and sold every day. It seems like a win to restore an old vintage brand (vintage in HN terms might be anything from the previous batch!)