In 1892, outdoors enthusiast David T. Abercrombie founded a small business on Manhattan's at No.36 South Street, one that was meant to cater to New York's elite, before being joined by Ezra Fitch, the successful business manager, introducing Abercrombie & Fitch to our world, till this very day.
Even though Abercrombie & Fitch is one of the leading names in the apparel industry, it has faced a long history of controversies, ones that are still being discussed years after its pledge to adopt a new attitude and amend "past mistakes".
Streaming giant Netflix is releasing a new documentary film called White Hot, which sheds some light on Abercrombie & Fitch's business practices during the last 30 years, especially ones linked to its marketing and target audience. However, the company's controversies date back to many prior decades.
Abercrombie & Fitch: Facts and Controversies
1. Abercrombie & Fitch's founder (1892) was a civil engineer/topographer who was obsessed with exploring and excursions. In 1900, Abercrombie was joined by his regular customer, Fitch, a wealthy real estate businessman who had a knack for business development.
2. The founder Abercrombie was in favor of keeping the business as an exclusive place for New York's elites who share his love for the outdoors, focusing on expensive sporting and excursion goods, while Fitch tried to make it more appealing to average people, introducing reasonably priced apparel and fragrance products to the store.
3. It was due to the 7-year disagreement between the two men over the focus of their brand that Abercrombie left the company for good, but its name continued to honor him as the founder till today.
4. Fitch continued to lead the business, opening a new 12-story department store on Madison Avenue in NYC. The company also started mailing thousands of copies of its catalogs to its customers.
5. As Ezra Fitch prepared to retire, selling the business to James S. Cobb by the late 1920s, Abercrombie & Fitch's sales hit $6.3 million.
6. The Great Depression between 1929 and 1933 had slashed Abercrombie & Fitch back to around $2.59 million in 1933.
7. It was not until post-WWII (the 1950s and the 1960s) that Abercrombie & Fitch opened new stores across the United States, particularly expanding to Florida in the south and California in the west.
8. Amongst America's most famous figures who were loyal customers of Abercrombie & Fitch were US President Theodore Roosevelt who sported their outfits on safaris, aviator Charles Lindbergh who flew across the Atlantic in 1927 wearing their clothes, aviator Amelia Earhart who wore their jacket on her infamous solo-trip across the Atlantic, in addition to well-known novelist Ernest Hemingway, who, sadly, killed himself in 1961 using an Abercrombie & Fitch gun.
9. In the mid-1970s, Abercrombie & Fitch was struggling to make a profit, as low-priced competitors became harder to challenge. The brand filed for bankruptcy in 1977 and closed two of its earliest and most famous stores in New York City.
10. Between 1978 and 1988, Abercrombie & Fitch was purchased by Texas-based Oshman’s Sporting Goods.
11. In 1988, Abercrombie & Fitch was bought by Ohio-based LimitedBrands, whose management of the company made it one of America's leading apparel brands during the 1990s and 2000s.
12. In 1992, Mike Jeffries was hired by LimitedBrands to "redevelop" Abercrombie & Fitch. His efforts focused on rebranding it as a teen-focused apparel clothing brand, that exclusively targets the "cool kids" and "good-looking" people.
13. In 1996, Abercrombie & Fitch was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ANF, and included several brands such as Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., Gilly Hicks, discontinued Ruehl No.925, and Social Tourist.
14. During the 90s and 2000s, Abercrombie & Fitch was famous for "sexy" salespeople called "models", ads that featured nude people, and for hiring only "good-looking" people for staff in all stores.
15. In 2005, the brand began international expansion into Canada, Europe, Australia, and East Asia and was valued at nearly $5 billion.
16. CEO Mike Jeffries stirred viral controversy following his 2006 interview with The Salon Magazine, during which the 61-years old man clearly stated that his brand tries to promote its image as a sexy brand for good-looking people and its stores as "a sexual attraction", saying:
"It's almost everything. That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that." - Mike Jeffries
During the same interview, Jeffries also candidly states that Abercrombie & Fitch "deliberately excludes overweight and unattractive people", saying "they can shop elsewhere".
In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he says. "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. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either."
17. Abercrombie & Fitch also stirred several rounds of criticism over stereotypical race-linked messages appearing on its clothes, including the 2002 boycott by Asian Americans, and a pre-teen thong sold in the same year. A 2004 shirt sparked anger for the offending resident of West Virginia. A year later, another shirt line was discontinued after angering American gymnasts associations, in addition to many other scandals.
18. In 2013, Mike Jeffries was also accused of excluding women who wear XL and XXL sizes from the brand, as women's clothing lines didn't include these sizes. Meanwhile, they were available for men's lines, a practice the CEO then justified by saying "it was needed by large men athletes".
19. In 2015, the brand faced yet another major blow after several anecdotes of people who were fired or rejected during the hiring process over their looks, including many black people who were not told that rejection was based on race, but rather "not looking good enough".
20. Backlash against Mike Jeffries repeated statements resulted in his removal in 2014 and assigning Fran Horowitz in 2017, who has been rebranding Abercrombie & Fitch as "an inclusive reasonably-priced brand that target age group between 20-30 years old", pledging to amend past biases.
