More than a barbershop

Headquarters, Snipz, Steve’s Barbers, Traditional Barbers, Cutthroat. The list goes on. These are all genuine names of barbershops. Names that have been used over and over again by different barbershop owners. Which is fine, they do what it says on the tin. They stand out and immediately you know what the establishment is from the signage on the front of the shop. I’ve worked in four or five different shops all with similar names that all work on the same, to use the term loosely, branding ethos.

During the 2020’s there was a change within the industry, booking systems were taking off, we were moving away from that short back and sides phase and were in hot pursuit of the female hair salons, that for years had had appointments, that had had clean work environments, that had put time and thought into interior design. Barbershops were no longer a place where you begrudgingly had to spend 2 hours on a Saturday morning, blindly flicking through a 7 year old Top Gear magazine whilst you kept one eye on the barbers, wondering whether you were going to end up with the apprentice who was potentially going to ruin your wedding photographs for the rest of eternity. They became a place where the barbers didn’t need to rush, a place where a client could switch off for half an hour, an hour. A place they could unload in a relaxing atmosphere. A coffee is offered, a water, a beer and even a future appointment.

Those future appointments are what create the community around a barbershop. A client likely sees his barber more regularly than they see some of their friends. Clients that are tradies, mortgage advisors, university students, recruiters, software developers etc etc.

This thought process is what led to FORA. Creating a name for a brand is no easy feat. You begin with working out what it is you are. Firstly we were a barbershop. But what did that mean. How do we breakdown the simplicity of a barbershop? It’s a community. It’s a hub. It’s a destination. But for who? Everyone. People from different areas, people from different friendship groups, people from different industries. There is some contention with who actually came up with using the word FORA, but let’s not get into that.

Fora is the traditional plural form of the word forum. So more than one forum. The idea that so many different people from so many different walks of life are all connected through the barbershop. It led on from there as we realised we were in some way similar to the yellow pages. If a client is renovating a bathroom, we would know a plumber and we can connect them, if a client is buying their a car we would know a car salesman, if a young lad needed a job we would know someone who owned a bar. We, as barbershops, are the connection for there different forums to collide.

The other side of the blade to Fora, is the play on words. Book FOR-A haircut, Lovely day FOR-A trim.

We wanted a brand not just a barbershop, and FORA allowed us to bottle up the concept of barbershop that has been in use for millennia.