It almost became an ibex. The honest story behind our honey badger.
For thirteen years, cross equip had no face. A mascot was never on a list here: no project, no budget, no need — just an idea that kept coming up and never made it to the top.
And when it finally got its turn, almost everything went wrong that could. Three obvious animals, all rejected. Forty image versions in two days, most of them scrap. In the end, the answer wasn't a new idea at all.
It started as a gift
Back in February we were playing around with image generators as a team. That turned into a small thing: an animal portrait for everyone — black and white, printed, pinned to the wall. Everyone got to pick the animal that fit them best.
Ben picked a honey badger.
The poster went up, we liked it, and that was that. Nobody was thinking about marketing. Most of those posters have long since gone home with people — taken off the wall and carried out. Ben's stayed.
The thought that kept coming back
An animal for cross equip — the idea kept surfacing. In passing, over coffee, after training. Never as a project. More like „that would be cool, actually".
And every time, the same names came up. Ibex — Swiss, alpine, tough. Bear — power, obviously. Bearded vulture — the largest bird in the Alps, majestic.
And every time, the same objections: too obvious. Too „Swiss". Too exotic. An ibex on an equipment logo could have been any second Swiss brand. So the thought was dropped again. As always.
The candidates — all rejected before any of them was ever officially in the running.
Looking back
The push came from outside. In April, a large Swiss online retailer ran a campaign with their animal character — and it worked. Not silly, not forced. Just good.
The next walk through the office, our eyes stopped at the poster.
The honey badger. He had been there all along.
And the longer we looked, the clearer it got: he doesn't just fit — he is it. If you know the famous video, you know why: the honey badger is the animal that isn't impressed by anything. No excuses, no hesitation, no „I'd have to first…". He just gets on with it.
That's exactly how we see training. And it's what we build equipment for: honest, raw, no frills. No bling — substance.
The name came quickly. Honey Badger → Badgi. Shortened the Swiss way. Short. Blunt. Fits.
De Badgi? Dem isch das egal. Er trainiert eifach.
(Swiss German: „Badgi? He couldn't care less. He just trains.")
Rules before pixels
We did have one worry: is this too much? Too raw? A grim badger next to honest consulting — does that add up?
The answer wasn't a different animal, but a clear role. Before the first real image existed, the rules were set:
- Badgi doesn't speak. He acts. We talk about him — never him about us.
- Badgi doesn't advise. Consulting stays with us humans. He shows what training means.
- Badgi is never cute. Not even at Easter. (He'll wear the bunny ears — and look straight at you.)
Strict for a made-up character, sure. But that's exactly what separates a figure built on purpose from a random gag.
Building him
Then we built him. With AI as a tool — as ordinary as the circular saw in the workshop. The tool doesn't do the work. It makes the work possible.
And honestly: plenty went wrong before it landed.
Back in spring — long before anything was decided — the first attempts tipped into bodybuilder cartoon: boxing gloves, a grin, mascot cliché. Exactly what Badgi was never supposed to be. The first serious attempt in June went wrong the other way: too long, too lanky — a badger in a human body.
In between were dozens of tries: wrong fur, dead eyes, proportions that just wouldn't sit. Between 30 June and 1 July alone there are forty time-stamped versions in the archive — most of them rejects, and that's exactly why it turned out well in the end.
Real rejects from the archive: the bodybuilder cartoon (March) · the badger in a human body (June).
In the end there he was: compact, powerful, two-tone fur with the pale mantle across the back, expression unimpressed. Approved.
What helped: we never argued about whether a draft looked „nice", only whether it met the three rules — doesn't speak, doesn't advise, never cute. That turns matters of taste into a checklist — and forty attempts into a path rather than wandering around.
1 August
13 years of cross equip. Swiss National Day. If there's a right moment to introduce him, it's this one.
So: this is Badgi. Honey badger. No costume, no cape — on 1 August he wears his headband, holds a glowing lantern, and looks the way he always looks.
He won't be our spokesman. He won't be our salesman. He just trains here — and you'll see him doing it regularly.
By the way: Badgi isn't the only thing we built this year. More on that soon.
→ Follow us on Instagram — that's where you'll keep seeing more of Badgi.