# Sears new logo (2019)

> Sears launched a new logo in May 2019. May 2019: post-bankruptcy Transformco identity.

## Key facts

- Brand: Sears
- Launched: May 2019
- What changed: May 2019: post-bankruptcy Transformco identity.
- Industry: Retail
- Logos: https://rebrandlog.com/logos/sears-2019/before.svg (before), https://rebrandlog.com/logos/sears-2019/after.png (after)

## The rebrand, explained

By 2019 Sears was a struggling department store chain trying to reconnect with consumers, and was also opening smaller Sears Home and Life stores focused on appliances, mattresses and other hard goods, against a typical Sears of around 150,000 square feet.

In May 2019 it unveiled a new logo, first on social media. The symbol combined a house and a heart. Responding to users on Facebook, Sears said the shape also conveyed motion through an infinity loop, like someone getting their arms around home and life, while rings, like those of a tree trunk, showed longevity and radiated outwards to encompass its range of products and services.

The public read it differently. 'Why do I keep thinking Airbnb when I see the new logo?' one Facebook user asked, CNBC reported; another said Airbnb wanted its logo back. Sears declined to comment to CNBC. A retail marketing executive noted that a logo change can be expensive once signage and labels are involved, and it was unclear how quickly stores would be updated.

The story did not end there. Around nine months later Sears revised the symbol again, Creative Bloq reported, keeping the idea but turning it into something closer to a small house. The magazine cited a survey in which 79 per cent of people preferred the previous logo to the 2019 version, and judged the new one marginally less messy but not much better.

Business Insider, which first reported the backlash, set the logo in its commercial context. The slogan Making Moments Matter was aimed at baby boomers and young families, and chief brand officer Peter Boutros framed the whole exercise as back to the future, asking what Sears had once been good at. The company defended the icon on Facebook as a home and a heart, an infinity loop of arms around home and life, with tree ring circles for longevity. All that symbolism was carried by a chain just out of bankruptcy, owned by a subsidiary of Eddie Lampert's hedge fund, and planning stores a fraction of the old size.

The problem was never the Airbnb resemblance alone. A brand in decline needed a clear reason for people to come back, and the symbol tried to say home, heart, motion, infinity and longevity at once. The result said nothing, and fixing it twice in a year only underlined the confusion.

In short: Home, heart, infinity and Airbnb.

## Sources

- https://transformco.com/search/results/P160
- https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/08/sears-unveils-a-new-logo-as-it-tries-to-boost-its-business.html
- https://www.creativebloq.com/news/new-sears-logo-2020

## Cite this

Rebrand Log, "Sears new logo (2019)", https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/sears-2019/, last updated 2026-10-20.