Nike, Napapijri, Vaude – I bet you’ve been pronouncing these brands wrong

Every Wednesday, I listen to this German comedy podcast. One of the two protagonists recently got all worked up about how almost everyone in the German-speaking world mispronounces sports giant Nike. In his rant, he talked about how frustrating it must be for a company if so many people don’t care about your name and keep ignorantly pronouncing it the way they want to.

Well, I don’t feel too sorry for Nike. The pronunciation problem doesn’t seem to hinder the brand’s success. Nevertheless, after looking up the correct pronunciation, I realised I’ve been getting it wrong, too. Oopsie. To make sure the same mishap doesn’t happen to you, I’m going to clear up some common mispronunciations – including Nike.

Barbour

Founded in 1894 in South Shields, England, Barbour’s known for its weatherproof wax jackets. Many German-speaking people, including myself, pronounce it bar-bur. In British English, however,

the first «r» isn’t pronounced and the «bour» sounds more like «ba». Say baa-buh and you’ll come closest to the original pronunciation.

Levi’s

Although we’ve probably all owned at least one pair of Levi’s jeans, opinions still differ on the correct pronunciation. Well, if you speak German, that is. Is it lay-viss or lee-vice? The answer’s lee-vice. Why?

The legendary denim brand is named after a German – Löb Strauss. In 1847, he emigrated with his family from Buttenheim near Bamberg to the USA. As his first name presented Americans with a tongue-twisting riddle, the then 18-year-old changed it to Levi (lee-vyi). In 1853, he founded a textile company in San Francisco and called it Levi Strauss & Co. The short form’s Levi’s – lee-vice.

Napapijri

Speaking of tongue twisters, I own a winter jacket from outdoor brand Napapijri. I only realised it’s an Italian brand when I went down a Google rabbit hole recently. The obvious choice would have been Norway. After all, the Scandinavian country’s flag is on pretty much every single product.

What’s even more confusing is that the name, which is impossible to pronounce, is Finnish. The company created Napapijri from napa (meaning polar) and piiri (meaning circle). The letter «j» isn’t pronounced. So the brand’s name is correctly pronounced na-pa-pee-ree. Why make anything easy if it can be complicated?

Nike

Do you pronounce Nike like bike? Join the club – the club of fools. The correct pronunciation of the sports giant from Beaverton, Oregon, is nai-kee like «spiky».

I didn’t want to believe it, but the outraged guy in the podcast was right. Nike’s inspired by the Greek goddess of victory. In English-language mythology, her name’s pronounced nai-kee.

Vaude

Editor Michael Restin solved the mystery of the brand name Vaude in this article. I quote:

«Is it meant to sound French? German? Does it matter? The answer to this is one of the reasons why the brand has found its way into my good books. Vaude is pronounced fow-day – the German way of pronouncing v.D, the initials of the company’s founding family, the von Dewitzes.»

Napapijri could have taken a leaf out of their book.