Abercrombie & Fitch

• Date Founded: 1892
• Industry: Retail apparel
• Corporate Headquarters: New Albany, Ohio
• Type: Public

Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American retail company that makes contemporary clothes for young adults. Founded in 1892, the company transitioned from being a high-end sporting goods and men’s wear company to a brand targeting teenagers in the 1990s. In its efforts to grow as a brand for the so-called cool kids, the company was criticized for its discriminatory hiring and openly sexualized marketing campaigns. Mike Jeffries, who took over as the chief executive officer (CEO) in 1992, played an instrumental role in establishing A&F as a popular and controversial brand.

After Jeffries became CEO, sales doubled to $165 million by 1994, and A&F went on to achieve sales of about $1 billion by 1999. However, changes in consumer behavior, a controversial public image, and increasing competition from cheaper brands, such as American Eagle Outfitters, Forever 21, and H&M, led to a steady decline in sales in the early 2000s. In the first decades of the twenty-first century, the company largely maintained a revenue between $4.2 and $3.5 billion, operating in more than fifteen countries.

History

Abercrombie & Fitch started out as a sporting goods shop founded by David T. Abercrombie in New York in 1892. He was soon joined by Ezra Fitch in 1900, a high-profile Manhattan lawyer and a devoted customer of Abercrombie who bought a majority share in the company. The company was renamed Abercrombie & Fitch in 1904. By 1907, the two men had parted ways owing to their different visions for the company's growth. In the following decades, the company grew as a leading sporting goods store that boasted customers like aviator Charles Lindbergh, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, and author Ernest Hemingway.

In 1988, Columbus-based The Limited acquired A&F for $47 million. Under the new ownership, the focus shifted to making high-end men’s wear for the elite as the company moved away from sporting goods and camping equipment. As demand slowed, the firm brought in Mike Jeffries as the CEO in 1992 to resuscitate the company. Jeffries came over from Paul Harris Stores, a women’s fashion brand. By 1999, A&F had spun away from The Limited as an independent public company.

Jeffries controlled A&F marketing, product and store design, and hiring strategies. Under Jeffries, the company changed its focus, targeting what he considered to be the fastest-growing demographic—young adults. He introduced aggressive sexualized marketing campaigns that involved images of shirtless models with chiseled bodies on the bags, catalogs, and walls of the stores. The company also hired good-looking college men to serve as shirtless models wearing A&F jeans inside its stores. In 1997, Jeffries started A&F Quarterly, a racy catalog for teens featuring sexually explicit articles and photographs. Jeffries also wrote Look Book, which outlined in great detail the company’s hiring policies for sales personnel. This Look policy was attacked for being too narrow and discriminatory. In a 2006 interview, Jeffries said that A&F was a brand for "cool kids—the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends." He also said that he only wanted thin and beautiful people to shop in his stores.

A&F’s major labels consist of three brands: Abercrombie & Fitch for the college crowd, Hollister for teens between twelve and eighteen who love the outdoors, and Abercrombie Kids for those aged seven to fourteen. As part of the brand-building exercise, Jeffries chose to create stories around each brand, and the stores that sold the individual brands reflected those stories. In 2004, Jeffries launched Ruehl No.925, a brand aimed at postgraduates. The Ruehl stores resembled the brownstone buildings in Manhattan's Greenwich Village; this line was discontinued in 2010. In 2008, the brand launched its Gilly Hicks women's athletic line, and in 2022, it launched the sub-brand YPB (Your Personal Best), which specializes in activewear for men and women.

In the 2010s and 2020s, A&E operated headquarters in Columbus, London, and Shanghai.

Impact

A&F was the subject of controversy for most of Jeffries’s tenure as CEO, which lasted from 1992 to 2014. In 1999, parents objected to pictures of nude models that appeared in a Christmas catalog. After extensive protests, the company began mandating proof of age from prospective buyers of A&F Quarterly. In 2002, the company angered members of the Asian community when it brought out t-shirts with racially provocative messages such as "Wong Brothers Laundry Service, Two Wongs make it white." The t-shirts were later taken off the shelves. Parents also vociferously objected to the thongs and padded bikini tops that were sold to young girls at Abercrombie stores in 2011. In another controversy, Riam Dean, a British citizen, filed a lawsuit against the company for discrimination in 2009. She claimed she was not allowed to step into a client-facing or direct-interaction position because of her prosthetic arm; such a sales role would have permitted her to deal one-on-one with customers. In 2003, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) chose to represent the interest of racial minorities that were denied sales positions or were relegated to jobs in the stockrooms on racial grounds, and it took A&F to court for biases against minorities in the company’s hiring policies. Although A&F settled the case for $50 million, it refused to admit to wrongful hiring practices. As part of the settlement, A&F was required to hire a diversity officer and send diversity reports periodically to the courts.

Following two consecutive years of declining sales, Jeffries stepped down as the company’s CEO in 2014. The stock markets reacted positively to the news, signaling their belief that Jeffries’s leadership, his controversial image, and his inability to adjust product pricing in response to changing consumer behavior were stalling the company’s growth. Investors were also concerned that in contrast to the situation in other peer companies, Jeffries’s pay was far out of line with A&F’s revenues and returns to shareholders. Arthur Martinez, the non-executive chairman of the board, took over the reins from Jeffries in a temporary capacity that lasted until 2017, when former Hollister brand president Fran Horowitz, a woman, took over as CEO.

After the change in leadership, the company tried to adopt a more inclusive public image. Fully dressed brand representatives replaced the shirtless models at the firm’s stores. The company decided to manufacture clothes in more sizes. It also pushed its Hollister brand to quickly adapt to the changing fashion needs of youngsters while at the same time introducing floral prints, dresses, and logo-free clothing. The look of the A&F stores changed as well. The company did away with the black wooden slats, a common feature at its stores. In addition, the loud dance music that used to play in A&F locations was turned down, and the stores have more light. The company had already stopped publishing A&F Quarterly in 2003 after continuous protests from parents and advocacy groups. In 2022, White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie and Fitch, a documentary, was released, outlining the controversial nature of the company's past and its plan for the future. By 2024, many analysts hailed the company for its rehaul and rehabilitation, with the store becoming popular among Generation Z individuals.

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