When thinking of popular pizza chains, Pizza Hut is top of mind for many Americans. And while its spongy-crusted, gooey-cheesy pies are widely beloved, the chain's brand recognition is thanks in no small part to its incredibly catchy and concise name. You might think a name like Pizza Hut must have been the product of an incredibly elaborate and well-orchestrated marketing scheme, but as legend (or at least corporate lore) has it, the name came from far more humble origins.
Pizza Hut's name was the result of a happy accident — when the Carney brothers borrowed $600 from their mother to open the first location of the now-ubiquitous pizza chain in Wichita, Kansas in 1958, the sign only had space for eight letters. The tiny building they rented to house their pizzeria was also a bit hut-like. Luckily, in this case, limitations really did breed creativity, and the Carney brothers christened their new restaurant Pizza Hut.
The origins of Pizza Hut's roof Many of Pizza Hut's more than 16,000 locations across over 100 countries are instantly recognizable because of their unique hat-shaped roof design, which invokes the idea of a hut. Whether or not Pizza Hut actually looks like a hut is debatable, but there's no question that the roof has been a powerful tool for brand recognition (even though the chain has moved away from this building style in recent years). However, the chain didn't implement the red roof until 1969, 11 years after its founding.
As they expanded into the intern.
