How ‘America’s most hated retailer’ turned itself around

The incredible turnaround of Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch is an American clothing brand .

Your impression of the brand probably depends on how old you are. If you’re between 60 and, say , 150 years old, you probably think of Abercrombie as a brand that sells outdoor clothing .

Founded in 1892, Abercrombie & Fitch spent its first decades as a retailer of high-end sporting goods . From a storefront in New York City, the company sold hunting rifles , fishing rods, boats, tents—and the clothes you’d need to use them in the great outdoors .

The writer Ernest Hemingway and the outdoorsman-turned-president Theodore Roosevelt used Abercrombie gear . But by the 1970s, the company’s sales were declining , and the company eventually went bankrupt . An investor bought the brand out of bankruptcy and positioned it as a mail-order retailer of clothing.

And this is when the second phase of Abercrombie started. If you’re between, say, 30 and 50 years old today, you probably remember Abercrombie as being a high-priced , exclusionary brand that catered to “cool,” good-looking teenagers whose parents could afford the best clothes at the mall.

Starting in the 1990s, Abercrombie focused on the teen market. But the company wasn’t interested in serving every teen. In the words of the former CEO, they were targeting the “cool kids.” And while that didn’t strictly mean “white,” it did mean kids that were popular, good-looking, and able to pay sky-high prices .

Here’s what the former CEO said: “We hire good-looking people in our stores because good-looking people attract other good-looking people…with a lot of friends. We don’t market to anyone other than that.” He then said that a lot of people “ don’t belong in our clothes.”

The store’s designs reinforced this exclusionary attitude . Most clothing stores have big window displays— Abercrombie stores had dark shutters . If you wanted to see the clothes, you had to go inside.

When you got inside, you heard loud electronic dance music . The lighting was low . Abercrombie’s expensive cologne was pumped into the store’s air ducts . The bags, posters , catalogs and advertisements featured shirtless male models and beautiful, thin women .

Walking into an Abercrombie store felt like being invited to an exclusive party at a rich person’s house. You could almost pretend the beautiful sales staff and other customers were your friends. Most shoppers in the store had a similar look and body type because Abercrombie didn’t even make clothes in larger sizes.

Wealthy teenagers stocked their wardrobes with expensive jeans, underwear, and polo shirts with the brand’s moose logo. Middle-class teens begged their parents to splurge on a few pieces from Abercrombie. And often, teenagers who didn’t have a lot of money to spend on clothes would spend it all on just one thing from Abercrombie. But regardless of wealth, the customers had one thing in common: they craved the social validation of wearing the most popular brand.

The company’s strategy worked—until it didn’t. That interview with the CEO—where he derisively said that some people “don’t belong in our clothes”—that interview went unnoticed in 2006, at the height of Abercrombie’s popularity . But in about 2013, the company’s exclusionary, high-priced branding was starting to wear thin .

The public mood turned against body shaming and exclusionary marketing. Several prominent celebrities called attention to the company’s toxic marketing and branding. It was as if everyone, together, woke up to the fact that this type of marketing was not healthy.

The CEO resigned in 2014. Soon, Abercrombie was called “America’s most hated retailer.” A few years later, its reputation in tatters , the company was looking to sell itself to other clothing brands. Their competitors in the clothing industry didn’t want it.

It was their loss . In 2024, Abercrombie & Fitch means something completely different. It’s one of the best-performing stocks in the American stock market since 2023—performing almost as well as Nvidia, the darling maker of AI computer chips .

How did that happen?

In 2017, Abercrombie hired a new CEO, Fran Horowitz. She and a new executive team reinvented the business over many, many long years. They rebuilt the brand image . Advertisements show a greater variety of people, in more realistic situations . They started stocking a wider variety of sizes . They invested in clothes that fit well, not just clothes that look good on models.

They expanded beyond sex-appeal products like low-cut jeans and tight t-shirts. They pulled the plug on partial nudity in advertisements. Now, Abercrombie sells clothes that are affordable , that fit well, and that are reasonably priced . The target market is no longer teenagers. Now, Abercrombie targets customers that are 25 to 40 years old—some of the same people who spent their lifeguarding money on Abercrombie clothes are now rediscovering the brand as adults.

The company has focused its inventory on wardrobe essentials —pieces that can be worn in multiple seasons, in casual, business, or even formal occasions . They don’t stock a lot of stuff that’s likely to fall out of fashion after just one season. The buyers at Abercrombie said they wanted to think of their customers’ entire week and provide something for every occasion—from weddings to work clothes to casual clothes on weeknights .

It worked. Now, incredibly , a 30-year-old shopper said in an interview that Abercrombie offers “more bang for my buck.” That means, she thinks it’s a good value.

That doesn’t mean low prices. Abercrombie is not a discount or fast-fashion retailer , pumping out low-quality clothes at bargain-basement prices . Shoppers say they go to online discounters or other low-cost brands to try new looks or keep up with the hottest trends . But they choose Abercrombie for longer-lasting , more versatile parts of their wardrobes.

What’s next? Now that the company has reestablished its brand in its home market, it’s looking to expand more into Europe and Asia. The company has hired local teams in London and Shanghai.

Jeff’s take

You know what—I would buy something from Abercrombie today. I have never owned a piece of clothing from Abercrombie & Fitch in my life, I don’t think. That would not have been allowed in my house growing up. And I never had any interest in overpaying for a status symbol after I started making my own money.

But I saw an Abercrombie store here in Mexico City a few months ago and I thought—why not go in? And I was shocked . I was shocked at what I saw. The clothes actually looked good. It’s expensive in Mexico because it’s all imported, but it’s higher quality than what you see in H&M and it’s not more expensive than comparable brands like Levis, for example. And I feel like I would buy something from Abercrombie today—I can’t believe I’m saying those words.

If you want to know what Abercrombie & Fitch was like in the 1990s and 2000s, watch the Netflix documentary “White Hot .” Everything they say in that documentary about the brand, about how it was seen, is true. “White Hot” on Netflix.