Abercrobie & Fitch is trying to Revamp their Image!

Abercrombie & Fitch is trying to revamp their image in order to make up for their poor sales numbers. According to The Business Reporters profits for the past four quarters in a row have shrank to 77-percent last year. So to keep up with the changing shopping habits of its young demographic, AF has proposed the following changes:

1. Ditching “da club” atmosphere.
Both AF and its sister store Hollister will be changing their store layouts for a more welcoming shopping experience. The windows with blinds at AF will be replaced with actual window displays. The lights in both stores will also be brighter . 

No more loud, thumping music that always pissed parents off! Plus, less fragrance looming inside and outside of the store! By 25-percent! So does this mean the stores will only use three-quarters of an entire bottle of fragrance every time they open?

2. Back to black.
You may have noticed that black-colored clothing never had a home on the AF shelves. But now the store will start carrying this shade to increase profits. (Apparently, CEO Mike Jefferies never liked the color.) And that’s all we’re going to say about that…

3. Larger sizes are now available.
Abercrombie created a more “classic” fit T-shirt for men that’s looser than their usual muscle-hugging tops. The style is only available online for now in order to save you from face-to-face  fat shamming  by sales associates at the register.

4. Less logo-branded clothing, more outside brand offerings.
While logos are having its moments this year, the idea of having a moose, seagull, or the letters “A” and “F” on your clothes isn’t as appealing. Away they go, slowly but surely, while other brands that fit with the AF aesthetic will start to make its way on stores’ shelves, starting with Keds. 

It’s about time that AF started to adapt to the changes that are happening in the retail industry. But it’ll take some time to really see if these new methods will help make a comeback. Perhaps, for now, we won’t always  make a beeline for the opposite side of the street whenever we come across an AF brick-and-mortar.

Abercrombie & Fitch started its corporate life as nondescript sports equipment and menswear clothing division of Leslie Wexner’s The Limited. In the early ’90s, it was spun off from the parent company as its own individual tracking stock on the exchange. But its success was not a forgone conclusion. In the mid-’90s, new management took over and completely overhauled the company, eventually evolving into the moneymaking machine that it has become. 

   The first A&F Quarterly appeared in late 1997 or early 1998. As a marketing tool, it was an immediate success. Its mix of feature articles, pages displaying the product and page upon page of nearly naked flesh struck a chord with young people everywhere.

Much like Vogue and Architectural Digest, the quarterly served as a means of aspirational (and inspirational) living for young men and women all over the country. The girls lusted after the handsome, nearly naked boys on the pages and vice versa. The male readers, in addition to lust, bought into the idea that girls would find them even more attractive if they were wearing a pair of A&F surfer shorts, and the unspoken thought that sex (yes, sex) would follow.

And of course, the underlying concept of appealing to gay men wasn’t initially made clear or highlighted; but make no mistake, nothing was left to chance in mounting the rebirth of this company.

   I was a convert from the very beginning, and although I don’t shop from every catalogue, I appreciate every issue. I appreciate them even more when my friends would come into my home and my latest A&F would turn up missing after they’d left.

   Nothing succeeds like success and someone is always out there trying to spoil your fun. Hence the occasional controversy. The first full-blown controversy came after the summer 1999 issue. A ‘concerned’ parent group held a press conference to tell the world that Abercrombie & Fitch is the ‘devil trying the corrupt the innocent minds of their impressionable children’.

   If only they knew what their kids were doing when they weren’t around.