2022 - Year of the Tiger

February 1st marks the first day of the Year of the Water Tiger - this Chinese New Year - the annual celebration of a sixty-year cycle. Check out our post from last year for more on the background of the Chinese New Year and its influence on other East Asian Lunar New Year celebrations and their collective recent prominence in global brands.

According to Chinese mythology, the Year of the Water Tiger will be a good one for ambitious goals, big changes, and social progress endeavors. Full of enthusiasm and vigor, the year could be full of unexpected changes, and big leaps. Those born in years of the Water Tiger are competitive and seek justice – wanting to pursue what’s best for everyone.

Beyond the tiger, symbols of the annual celebration - firecrackers, gold and red - appears prominently.

As the Korean influence in global pop-culture increases, we expect to see more awareness and interest in Lunar New Year, its celebration, and its meaning here in the U.S.

Here are some of the brands embracing 2022 - The Year of the Tiger ranging in scope from greetings and gifts, apparel to food/beverage, and toys.

Shoes and apparel

Vans, Brooks Brothers, and Moschino embraced the tiger with designs that spark conversation and pop-culture references.

Fashion and luxury brands

Chinese, and other East Asian consumers lean into luxury and high fashion as a driver for trends, lifestyle inspiration, and recognition or reflection of their economic aspirations and values. Gucci, Kate Spade, Louis Vuitton, and Marc Jacobs released small Year of the Tiger collections.

Toys

L.O.L. Surprise and LEGO were joined by Disney in releasing toys, and in Disney’s case, apparel and other lifestyle items for the new year.

Minted and Sugarfina

In a more practical approach, Minted released Lunar New Year cards for families to send and Sugarfina curated a box of sweets complete with traditional Lunar New Year flavors like tangerine and tea.

Venmo

This year Venmo is encouraging those who celebrate the New Year to use its app and brand-new gift wrap feature to send one another money. Traditionally red envelopes are used, but Venmo took a look at the data from last year noting, “as the pandemic caused people across the country to put in-person celebrations on hold this past Lunar New Year, many of our customers turned to Venmo to keep the tradition going. We saw the number of payments sent including the red envelope emoji during Lunar New Year 2021 increase by 69% percent compared to those sent in 2020.” (PayPal Newsroom). The “gift wrap” comes as an adorable animated greeting, which is sure to hit hard on social media and with the app’s most ardent generations - users are also entered to win $88 dollars (8 being a good luck number).

Next year we expect to see even more Lunar New Year presence with the growing interest, exploration, hunger, and acceptance of cultural celebrations, and norms from other parts of the world.

新年快乐 or Happy New Year!