Edited still from Jersey Mike's Instagram reel
Jersey Mike's
Topics:
Franchise model marketing challenges
Central office creative support
Industry:
Quick Service (QSR) Chain Restaurant
A Sub Above. Mike’s Way.” Jersey Mike’s began in 1956 as 'Mike’s Sandwiches,' one of the early 'submarine sandwich' shops.
Fun Button
Image credit: Jersey Mike's
Now a QSR with over 2,800 North American franchises and a recent $8 billion Blackstone acquisition, it focuses on quality and consistency, driving popularity across the US and Canada.
Mike's Way. Peter's Vision.
Michael Ingravallo may have opened the door to opportunity all those years ago, but it was Peter Cancro's vision as a seventeen-year-old to buy the shop in 1975 and push for expansion. Quality, consistency, and a memorable experience all at a competitive price...those are the secret ingredients to building a sandwich empire. It's no surprise that the Jersey Mike's brand would read the same way – a fun, beach-inspired vibe with a solid visual foundation that can be replicated time and time again. Given the valuation in the billions, they've done a great job of keeping their licensing costs for creative assets minimal.
Asset Details
Jersey Mike's official account and website use an assortment of fonts, ranging from its recognizable block font, Berthold Block, to the popular sans-serif font Inter, to the versatile utility typeface Schibsted Grotesk, and to the chunky display font Passion One.
One of the trickier parts of branding for franchises is maintaining consistency – we noted several deviations from the official font selections in local/regional advertisements. While it would be interesting to track down all of the various fonts in use, it's virtually impossible to know what corporate guidance or oversight is like without knowing how the, uh, sandwich is made. Bad pun, we know.
Examples - Ads, Social, Partnerships, Products
Mockups created with images from Jersey Mike's Instagram
Brand Visibility Metrics
Stats as of June 2026
Paid Font License
The Way to Profitability
Full transparency: We expected a large franchise like Jersey Mike's to face high creative fees and brand-standard issues. However, they have avoided excessive licensing costs and maintained strong brand control by selecting free fonts and centralizing brand oversight through corporate-level creative support.
Three of their four typefaces fall under the SIL Open Source licensing structure – this keeps font licensing costs at a minimum.
Unsurprisingly, the visual imagery and illustrations feature their staff, stores, and products – all custom assets that don't require additional costs (beyond their creation).
A streamlined franchise marketing model with advertising creative centralized at the corporate level – this keeps costs low by centralizing asset creation and reducing licensing needs.
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