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Strategy

Sherwin-Williams Celebrates Least-Loved Color With Custom Apparel

With the help of fashion designer Dapper Dan, the paint company is looking to popularize its least-purchased shade, a golden color, through its latest campaign.

To sell its least-popular shade, Sherwin-Williams has dumped the typical bargain bin to paint a bigger picture. The paint company’s “The Loneliest Color” campaign looks to uplift its most overlooked paint – “Kingdom Gold” – with the help of fashion designer Dapper Dan and some custom branded apparel.

The burnt-yellow hue, according to Complex, has been tinted only 11,000 times throughout its 14-year lifetime. As the brand looks to “rediscover the beauty of color,” Sherwin-Williams hopes to shine a light on the hue with Dan as the campaign’s creative director.

Loneliest Color custom shoes

Sherwin-Williams teamed up with fashion designer Dapper Dan to create custom apparel featuring its least-popular paint shade.

“In design and fashion, every color has the potential to tell a story, change perspectives and inspire us,” Dan said on the brand’s website. “It’s about staying present so you can discover, or sometimes rediscover, beauty in places you may have initially overlooked.”

Sherwin-Williams connects Kingdom Gold to themes of “abundance, nourishment and the culmination of hard work.”

“[Kingdom Gold] represents achievement, accomplishment, going from zero to hero,” Dan told Complex. “It’s hard to imagine that it’s the least-tinted color. Everybody has some gold.”

Also curated by Dan, a color collection includes nine complementary shades, from the lilac “Brave Purple” to the muted red “Habanero Chile.” All colors are available for purchase online or in-person at Sherwin-Williams stores.

Dan, a New York-based designer famous for his imprint on luxury streetwear, also created a line of apparel featuring the golden shade. Clothing items include a bomber jacket color-blocked with Kingdom Gold alongside black and teal, a tracksuit featuring the word “Harlem” (Dan’s birthplace) and a pair of signed Puma sneakers. On jacket sleeves, a co-branded patch features the campaign, company and designer’s names.

Loneliest Color custom apparel

Sherwin-Williams will auction its Loneliest Color custom apparel on eBay to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity.

The pieces will be auctioned on eBay starting Thursday, April 4, and 100% of the proceeds at a minimum contribution of $100,000 will be donated to Habitat for Humanity, with part of the proceeds to benefit affiliate groups in Harlem.