Between 2018 and 2023 we operated happily as Urban Plant Growers. But over time there were things about the name that made us question whether it was the right choice.
People kept getting our name wrong.
We'd have customers calling us "urban plants" or "urban growers" (even our parents got it wrong), we figured we needed a simpler name with one word that people couldnt forget.
Urban Plant Growers was about making space age tech.
When we initially started the business, Urban Plant Growers was intended to make the highest tech products to help people grow food. What we didn't realise, was that people don't want another damn appliance in their house, they just want to grow plants and live in peace. Urban Plant Growers' style and ethos was too modern and minimilast for the beautiful chaos that we wanted to unleash into the world, so we rebranded to a name and style which was warm and inviting, and belonged in your living room.
Many of our customers weren't urban!
Our initial assumption was wrong, its not just people living in apartments who want to grow their own food - it's also people living in mines in Kalgoorlie, or in the hot sun of Coober Pedy. Many of our customers love our products because it enables them to grow food in some of the harshest conditions on the planet, and we wanted to drop the "urban" to invite them into what we're trying to do.
Changing to gathera
After months of internal discussions, we landed on the name gathera, and the funky new style that came with it. We wanted to bring people's mind back to a simpler time of hunter-gatherers, where humans lived in harmony with their ecosystem, and didn't have to think about things like social media or inflation.
We liked that when you use our products, you become the "gatherer" - harvesting away at it over time and living in sync with your own hydroponic ecosystem.
Finally, we knew that we were going to drastically change our product look and feel, from white and grey products, to the funky greens that we have now - and the Gathera style matched our intent perfectly.
Closing note
Rebrands are hard, you have to have the right intent and do it for the right reasons. When we changed we were amazed at how many people had built such a strong relationship with Urban Plant Growers. We'd also done so many incredible things as Urban Plant Growers that we had underestimated the power of that name - even now as I write this in September 2024 a whole year after the rebrand, I still meet people who tell me my company sounds like a brand they heard of called "Urban Plant Growers". It's always quite surprise when I tell them why it's so similar!