In this article:
- Abercrombie isn’t just for ‘popular teens’ anymore.
- In recent years, the retailer rebranded for the “off-brand professional.”
- CEO Fran Horowitz is responsible for reinventing the brand as more inclusive and higher quality.
Abercrombie & Fitch is no longer the shop where all the cool teenagers get their clothes.
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As one Twitter user Taylor Garron (@taylorgarron) said: “we are not talking enough about Abercrombie’s hard pivot.” In recent years, Abercrombie has made a shocking turn from the store that hired shirtless male models to sell ’00s-era clothes to a retailer for “the off-brand professional,” according to Business Insider. Here’s how Abercrombie changed course.
Abercrombie once prided itself on being the brand that was made for a certain echelon of teenagers: cool, skinny, and probably upper class. Even entering an Abercrombie store, which looked and smelled like another world, was intimidating. That was the goal of former CEO Mike Jeffries, who helmed the company from 1992 to 2014. In one interview, Jeffires said: Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong (in our clothes), and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”
But that exclusionary attitude backfired when a generation of kids grew out of the brand. Jeffires resigned from his position as CEO in 2014 as the company’s stock started to sink. In 2017, the share price fell to its lowest place since 2000, at less than $10 per share.
Jeffries’ replacement, Fran Horowitz, wanted to turn things around for the brand, focusing on a new era for Abercrombie. Horowitz is credited with focusing on millennials, who are now working, traveling, and going out, a big difference from social outings like high school football games. “We are a much more inclusive company, we are closer to the customer, we’re responding to the customer wants and not what we want them to want,” said Horowitz said in 2017.
And what customers wanted—and continue seeking— was better-quality, size inclusive-clothing.The company reportedly invested in better, more durable fabric, zippers, and buttons, and increased its denim sizes, offering jeans from sizes 23 to 37in extra-short and long lengths. The rebrand has been successful so far, with Abercrombie’s share price increasing 271% year-over-year, as of April 2021.
With its rebrand, Abercrombie successfully retained its status as a well-known brand, proving that exclusionary fashion is out of style.