Abercrombie & Fitch

Template:Abercrombie & Fitch brand Abercrombie & Fitch (/'æbɝkrɒmbiː ænd 'fɪtʃ/) (NYSE: ANF) (A&F) is an American lifestyle brand & company specializing in youthful consumer apparel. It encompasses five brands: namesake Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie, Hollister Co., RUEHL No.925, and Gilly Hicks. Its merchandise is considered as a status symbol among youthful culture, and are in result highly sought after among youth. Products often bear the moose logo and/or lable, and are made only available through A&F stores (found nationwide the U.S., Canada, and England) and homepage, not through franchises. Competitors of A&F include, but is not limited to: Gap, Limited Brands, American Eagle Outfitters, Buckle, Urban Outfitters, Rugby Ralph Lauren, and Polo Ralph Lauren.

Founded in 1892 by David T. Abercrombie, A&F had been an outfitter of sporting and excursion goods. It struggled financially from the late 1960s until it was purchased by The Limited in 1988 and repositioned, under the management of Michael S. Jeffries (current Chairman & CEO), as the "Casual Luxury" lifestyle brand in present day.

Prominent figures who patronized the company in its excursion goods days include: Teddy Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, John French Sloan, Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable, Cole Porter, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway (who is said to have bought the gun he used to commit suicide at Abercrombie & Fitch Co.), John F. Kennedy, Robert Peary, Duke of Windsor, Ernest Shackleton, and Dwight Eisenhower.

History

Foundation

See also: David Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch

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David Abercrombie

The company was originally established as Abercrombie Co. by David T. Abercrombie on June 4, 1892, as a small waterfront shop at No.36 South Street in downtown Manhattan, New York: wealthy New York lawyer Ezra Fitch was one of his regular customers. In 1900, Fitch left his law practice and bought a major share into the growing company, thus becoming co-founder. There afterwards, Abercrombie Co. moved into larger quarters at 314 Broadway, and Fitch began to implement experimental ideas on how to renovate the store. In 1904, Fitch's surname was incorporated and so the official name was changed to Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Partnership between the founders did not end well. The two men, envisioning different ideas for the future of A&F, quarreled frequently while the company continued to grow. Fitch wished to expand the company's appeal to the general public, whereas Abercrombie wanted to continue selling professional gear to professional outdoorsmen. As a result, Abercrombie sold his share in the company to Fitch in 1907 and returned to manufacturing outdoor goods. Fitch continued the business with other partners and was, for the first time, able to direct the company in a manner to his pleasing.

The Fitch years

Ezra Fitch

Cover of A&F catalog from 1909.

Ezra Fitch determined that the store ought to have an outdoor feeling, an ambient atmosphere, and displayed outdoor goods and campfire as if it was up for use. Part of Fitch's strategy to expand the company included the creation of a mail-order catalog. In 1909, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. mailed over 50,000 copies of its 456 page catalog worldwide (a staggering and costly amount of publication at that time, each cost a dollar to produce). Within, it featured outdoor clothing, camping gear, articles, and advice columns. The cost of the catalog nearly bankrupted the company, but it proved to be a very profitable marketing device. However, instore, the catalog was available free for customers. By 1910, the company became the first store in New York to supply clothing to women as well as men. In 1913, after moving into Reade Street, which was not a convenient shopping location for women, the store relocated to a more fashionable and easily accessible midtown address just off Fifth Avenue at 55/57 West 36th Street, expanding its inventory to include sports' clothing. In 1917, the store moved yet again into a twelve-story building at the corner of Madison Avenue & east 45th Street. The store occupied the entire available space (12 stories), thus it became "the largest and most impressive outdoor gear and sporting goods store in the world". Outside, a sign proclaimed, "Where the Blazed Trail Crosses the Boulevard."

Inside the 1909 catalog.

This Madison Avenue store included many different amenities. The basement roomed a shooting range while on the mezzanine (main floor), there was paraphernalia for skiing, archery, skin-diving, and lawn games. The second through fifth floors were reserved for clothing that was suitable for different climate or terrains. On the sixth floor, there was a picture gallery, a bookstore (focused on sporting themes), a watch repair facility and a golf school (fully equipped with a resident professional). The seventh floor was recognized as the finest gun department in the world. It included a gun room, stuffed game heads, about hundreds of shot guns and rifles, and a dog and cat kennel. The eighth floor was dedicated solely to fishing, camping, and boating. It also included a desk that belonged to a fly-and bait-casting instructor who gave lessons at the pool, which was located on the roof. The fishing section of the store alone was stocked with over 48,000 flies and over 18,000 fishing lures. On the roof, Fitch had ordered the construction of a log cabin: he often used it as a townhome. Beside it, there was a casting pool where customers tried out the company's collection of rods and flies.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. also became the first American store to import Mahjong. Ezra Fitch decided to import the game when a female customer looked for the game that she had played in China. He went to China for the game and translated the instructions into English. Mahjong became a fast selling product, and Abercrombie & Fitch became the epicenter of the Mahjong-craze. The company sent emissaries to Chinese villages to buy as many Mahjong sets as possible and eventually sold over 12,000 sets. In 1927, Abercrombie & Fitch outfitted Charles Lindbergh for his historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean. By now, the company drew in accounts with highly prominent figures.

Post-Ezra Fitch Era

In 1928, Fitch retired from the company and sold his shares to his brother-in-law, James S. Cobb. Soon Cobb became president and Otis L. Guernsey, an employee of the store, became vice president. Cobb acquired for the company Von Lengerke & Detmold and Von Lengerke & Antoine (the Chicago branch). Von Lengerke & Detmold was a well-respected company in New York (maker of fine European-made sporting guns and fishing tackle) which specified in the same industry as Abercrombie & Fitch. Cobb also acquired another gunsmith company, Griffin & Howe, and both Von Lengerke & Detmold/Griffin & Howe merchandise were placed in stock in the Madison Avenue store. At this point A&F also provided equipment for polo, golf, and tennis. By 1929, net sales was reported at $6.3 million USD with an income of $548,000 USD. Also during the 1920s, a summer-only store was opened in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

The Great Depression negatively affected the company in that it suffered from a drop in revenue. In 1933, sales fell to $2,598,925 USD. It is believed that Guernsey's negotiations with Abercrombie & Fitch saved it from collapse. A&F got back on its feet in the following years, and resumed paying dividends in 1938. Also in that year, sales from guns accounted for 40% of total sales at the Madison Avenue store. Clothing, shoes, and furnishings accounted for 45%, while inventory was valued at about 40% of annual sales (reflecting A&F's readiness to meet customer demands). 10% of the business was credited towards the catalogue mail orders. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. continued to expand. The company rarely sold products with a name brand during this period, preferring to label nearly everything with their own logo. In 1939, it adopted the slogan, "The Greatest Sporting Goods Store in the World". It offered the world's most valuable collection of firearms and had a massive assortment of fishing flies to accompany all of rods, reels, and other fishing tackle. Sporting personas of every field imaginable all found every conceivable type of gear.

The highest record for net profit was at $682,894 USD in 1947. Abercrombie & Fitch opened a store in San Francisco in 1958. Soon it opened small winter-only stores in Palm Beach and Sarasota, and summer stores in Bayhead, New Jersey, and Southampton, New York. Guernsey then succeeded Cobb as president and stated, "The Abercrombie & Fitch type does not care about the cost; he wants the finest quality." With so many locations now under operations by Abercrombie & Fitch, the Madison Avenue store remained as the Flagship store. In the 1950, the main floor of the flagship was remodeled to include heads of buffalo, caribou, moose, elk, and other big game, stuffed fish of spectacular size, and elephant's-foot wastebaskets. In 1960, net sales rose to a great $16.5 million, but, ironically, the net profit fell for the fourth straight year to $185,649. By 1961, net sales dropped to $15.5 million USD, and net profit to $124,097 USD. The new president and successor of Guernsey, John H. Ewing, worried not and paid little attention to the decline in sales. Ewing rejected the idea of a budget shop or "splash ads" for storewide sales. In 1961, he told an interviewer of Business Weekly that Abercrombie & Fitch enjoyed a special niche "by sticking to our knitting; by not trying to be all things to all people." Throughout the 1960s, A&F opened locations in Colorado Springs, San malls in Short Hills, New Jersey (1963), Bal Harbour, Florida (1966), Troy, Michigan (1969). It also opened small shops in other stores. Because of the difficult times the country has going through (riots in the ghettos, protests against the war in Vietnam, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy), Abercrombie & Fitch held a sale in the Madison Avenue flagship on one hot summer day in 1968 in which customers looked into bargains that included "pop-up tents bought so far in the past that no one remembered how to pop them up, boots made of long-haired goatskin hide, miniature antique cannons, leather baby elephants, and Yukon dog sleds."

In early 1970, A&F held another big sale. The company presented an offbeat newspaper advertisements that reflected a measure of desperation. Indeed, Abercrombie & Fitch continued to drop in revenue and reported a loss of about $500,000 USD in its previous fiscal year. Noticing the affect that the ads and sale-days had upon the Abercrombie & Fitch customer-base (bringing in customer's not of classic Abercrombie & Fitch material), the new president of the company William Humphreys stated in October 1970 that A&F would seize its mis-directing ads and sale-days. Humphreys was a former Lord & Taylor executive, and possessed expertise in the financial field. He focused prominently on A&F's inventory control and credit practices by cutting down the company's budget. He also expanded into the suburbs and opened a location in Oak Brook, Illinois in 1972. Presentation within the flagship changed as well to provide a more new look for clientele. Expensive sailboats were moved to from upstairs to the main floor, a discount clothing section was introduced on the tenth floor, sportswear lines were expanded, and new buyers for women's apparel were hired. The changes did no good on improving sales performance and the company continued to decline financially under the direction of Humphreys and his successor, the new president of Abercrombie & Fitch, Hal Haskell, who was a major stockholder of A&F. After losing $1 million USD in 1975, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the August of 1976 and finally closed doors in November 1977. Many criticized A&F executives for their lack of advertisement skills; saying that even after the obvious increase in sales of the first A&F television ad, Abercrombie & Fitch failed to see TV as a useful marketing tool of the time. Others claimed the A&F simply failed to transition from the sportsmen of the olden days to the new adventurers of the 1970s.

Oshman's, a sporting goods retailer, acquired Abercrombie & Fitch Co. soon thereafter in 1978. It opened a store under the Abercrombie & Fitch name in 1979 in Beverly Hills, California. Another store was opened in Dallas, Texas, which was bigger and sported $40,000 USD elephant guns and an "Abercrombie Runabout sports convertible" worth $20,775 USD. More stores were opened in locations such as South Street Seaport and Trump Tower. A&F stores now carried less of the old classic sporting goods, and more of the contemporary interest of golf, exercise, and tennis. Clothing collections for men and women carried business and casual dress, and also sportswear. Forbes gave a harsh statement of the new A&F saying that merchandise was "a hodgepodge of unrelated items" and that "sometimes it is better to bury the dead than to try reviving them." Nevertheless, Abercrombie & Fitch continued to on to struggle after Oshman’s struggled itself to develop a strong identity for the company.

1988 through 1999: Revival of Abercrombie & Fitch

See also: Abercrombie Kids and A&F Quarterly

In 1988, Limited Brands acquired the ailing company for $45 million USD (after having success in popularizing Express and Victoria's Secret.) Headquarters was moved to Columbus, Ohio, and all inventory was cleared out. The new president of Abercrombie & Fitch, Sally Frame-Kasaks, proclaimed, "We can't get caught up in guns and fishing rods," and so a strong emphasis was placed on apparel. Michael S. Jeffries, a clothing executive, took over as president in 1992. According to Jeffries, he wanted A&F to "sizzle with sex." He alone revolutionaized the Abercrombie & Fitch image from an ailing sports brand to a sexy and popular upscale teen apparel merchandiser. He believed that focusing the A&F brand towards the American teen market would be financially beneficial as that sector of retail economy was said to be growing at a record rate at the time.

The Chain store prototype (front)

Side view

The new Abercrombie & Fitch reopened doors soon afterwards with a playful-preppy outdoors image reminiscent to the company's original roots. Chain store prototypes were opened in upscale malls nationwide targeting teenagers and college students. Jeffries focused his brand strictly on high-quality casual wear, youth, good looks, and fun. He divulged that he desired to have Bruce Weber (known for his sexual beefcake photography) as photographer for the brand, but that it could not afford it on its opening. However, Weber joined the company soon afterwards. The apparel was heavily northeastern Ivy League preppy and consisted of woven shirts, denim, miniskirts, cargo shorts, wool sweaters, polo shirts, and t-shirts. Jeffries set the price points on Abercrombie & Fitch clothing as fairly high figures unprecedented in the teen apparel business. Nevertheless, sales skyrocketed from then on as the brand became synonymous with understated, sexy, classic, casual wear ($85 million in 1992, $111 million in 1993, $165 million in 1994). 49 stores were opened by 1994, 67 January 1995, and a 102 was aimed by the end of 1995. In 1994, new records for merchandise margin rate and profitability were established by Abercrombie & Fitch for its parent, The Limited. To maintain popularity and to keep up with teen trends, Jeffries hired executives to keep up on popular teenage clothing, music, and entertainment.

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The Canoe prototype adopted in the late 1990s. This version is still used for modern abercrombie kids stores with some alterations.

By the mid-1990s, there were dozens of Abercrombie & Fitch stores in the United States. On September 26, 1996, The Limited, Inc. took Abercrombie & Fitch public on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol "ANF" and with the per share offering as $16. In late 1990s, the company introduced the "Canoe store prototype" to accommodate its growth. The new canoe store prototype was strikingly different from the Chain store prototype: It bore white molding, navy awnings, metal glass doors, and was divided into five rooms. The first canoe store opened in June 1996 in Chesterfield, Missouri. From then, the company began to opt building stores only averaging between 8,000 to 20,000 square feet (700 to 2,000 m²) in high-volume retail centers around the country.

In 1997, Abercrombie & Fitch launched A&F Quarterly. The publication included photography, interviews and articles about sex, pop culture, and other teen interests. In 1998, the company introduced its first subsidiary, abercrombie. The concept was designed as the Abercrombie & Fitch for a younger clientele between the ages on 7-14. By the next year, Abercrombie & Fitch became a part of a lawsuit on the behalf of Saipan garment workers. Many brands were charged with responsibility for sweatshop conditions, including Abercrombie & Fitch. Revenue recorded for Abercrombie & Fitch at the end of fiscal 1998 is at $805.2 million USD. By 1999, Abercrombie & Fitch went solo as the brand completely spun-off to become its own company, and Mike Jeffries assumed the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Near the end of the decade, industry analysts began to speculate about how long A&F would manage to stay on top, suggesting that like all other clothing brands, it would soon fall of popularity. However, throughout the following years, Abercrombie & Fitch would come to prove them wrong. Competition was surely heated up when American Eagle Outfitters began to offer clothing similar to that of Abercrombie & Fitch. The Company filed a lawsuit against AE summer 1999, claiming trademark violations, but the case was dismissed after the judge concluded that "clothing style and image are not copyrightable." A&F did experience signs of slowing, but sales rebounded after a provocative Christmas 1999 in which the A&F Quarterly issue of the season features sexually explicit content that drew angry complaints. Revenue for fiscal 1999 is was at $1,030.9 billion USD.

The overall approach of Abercrombie & Fitch, by the end of the decade, to its customers seemed to please male shoppers more that females, who were reported to shop more at competitor shops. Throughout the 1990s, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. enjoyed sales of over $400/ft² ($4300/m²). By the end of the 1990s (December 1999), Abercrombie & Fitch operated a total of 212 stores nationwide.

2000 to today: expansion and growth

See also: Hollister Co., RUEHL No.925, and Gilly Hicks

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The original web format used since the website's opening to winter 2006; it features the summer 2006 main marketing image.

Entering into the 21st century, Abercrombie & Fitch was rated as the sixth most popular brand (in front of Nintendo and Levis) by teenagers in a survey held by Teenage Researchers Unlimited and reported about in Time. The company introduced its third brand, Hollister Co., in July 2000. The third concept was themed after a SoCal surf lifestyle, and was targeted towards high-schoolers. Hollister had a cannibalizing affect on the A&F brand, and so the company brought forth the high-end Ezra Fitch collection, and began producing A&F clothing with higher-grade materials, thus increasing the prices. $1,237.6 billion is the reported revenue for fiscal 2000. In 2001, the company moved into a new 300-acre (1.2 km²) Home office in New Albany, Ohio. That same year, Mike Jeffries refused to offer sales after the terrorist attack on September 11 upon the United States. This action was quite unlike his predecesdors whom offered sales during the events of 1968. Company sales suffered mildly because of this in September sales. Nevertheless, revenue was recorded at $1,364.9 billion USD for 2001, and at $1,595.8 billion USD for 2002. Headquarters were further expanded by 2003. Also in 2003, the company released its last issue of A&F Quarterly (after amounting lawsuits and moral complaints), and reported brand sales of up to $345/ft² ($3700/m²) with a 2003 revenue of $1,707.8 billion USD.

After commercial success with Hollister, the company introduced its fourth brand, RUEHL No.925, on September 24, 2004. This new concept marketed towards consumers after the A&F ages, 22 through 35. Jeffries stated RUEHL took years of planning for the brand's image and its stores' atmosphere. Renevue continued to escalade as sales are reported at $2,021.3 billion USD for 2004. In November 2005, the company completed construction of the first Abercrombie & Fitch flagship store on Fifth Avenue. By now, the trademark Casual Luxury was being used for promotion and designated e-commerce websites for the company's brands have been in operation. Revenue reported for 2005 was $2,784.7 Billion USD.

Abercrombie & Fitch began its Canadian expansion in January 2006 when the company opened two Abercrombie & Fitch stores and three Hollister Co. stores in Toronto and Edmonton. By fall 2006, a third Canadian Abercrombie & Fitch store opened in the Toronto Eaton Centre. The brand introduced a definition of Casual Luxury Christmas 2006. It was displayed instore, printed inside the Christmas 2006 catalog, and as a link on abercrombie.com. Revenue reported for 2006 is $3,318.2 billion USD, an increase of over $1.297 billion USD from 2005.

Early in 2007, the Canoe store prototype was revamped to include louvers (providing a more dark and private atmosphere for customers). The cost for the upgrade on A&F stores was at around $10 million. The company spent another $40 million on upgrading fixtures, flooring, and sound systems in every store, four brands across. On March 22, 2007, at 10:00am, Abercrombie & Fitch opened its first European flagship store in London at 7 Burlington Gardens at Savile Row. In regards to the opening, Mike Jeffries stated, "We are thrilled by the opening of the London store, which will truly become a worldwide flagship. Its location in one of the most historic districts in the retail world will provide an extraordinary showcase for the Abercrombie & Fitch brand." The location was built in 1725 as a home and after 300 years of alterations and additions, the building has kept some of its architectural designs onto which the lifestyle of A&F was incorporated upon. The store generated a volume of $280,000 USD (around £140,000 GBP) in its first 6 hours of operation. The flagship remains one of the most profitable A&F locations. During this "Spring Break 2007" season, A&F created its definition for Spring Break and marketed the Casual Luxury definition less than before. Revenue reached record heights in 2007 with an overall sales of $3,749.8 billion USD.

Entering 2008, Abercrombie & Fitch introduced its fifth anticipated concept, Gilly Hicks: Sydney, January 21. The store, in Natick Collection, became the target of attention throughout the day and the brand has enjoyed great success. By April 2008, A&F relaunched A&F Quarterly exclusively for the European market, reuniting the entire force behind the original publication for the release in the UK flagship.

Management and marketing today

Mike Jeffries says that today Abercrombie & Fitch is "all about sex," something "United States is cynical about".

Corporate officials

The follwing are the top corporate officials of Abercrombie & Fitch Co.

Name	Office	Notes
Michael S. Jeffries	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer	The driving force behind all of Abercrombie & Fitch, Mike has held this position since the 1990s and was the man who ransformed A&F into what it is today. He oversees every aspect of the entire company (including all brands) from clothing designs to store layouts. He personifies his brand as he pursues a youthful image through dyeing his hair blonde, working out and wearing A&F clothing with flip-flops. He is 63 years old.
Michael W. Kramer	Chief Financial Officer Chief Accounting Officer and Executive Vice President
Diane Chang	Executive Vice President of Sourcing
Ms. Leslee K. Herro	Executive Vice President of Planning and Allocation
David S. Cupps	Senior Vice President, Sec. and General Counsel
Thomas D. Lennox	Head of Corporate Communications

Stores

The Modern Canoe with wooden louvers (featuring the Spring Break 2007 marketing campaign picture).

The modern Canoe store prototype (see image above) features only white molding and louvers on the exterior. The interior, as always, features light gray walls, further white molding, dark gray ceilings, and abraised dark wooded flooring. Only the entrance hall features polished concrete flooring. The main marketing image lies against the front wall facing the entrance. Large framed imagery is otherwise supported on inlays in walls. Retail space is walled off into five rooms, and clothing is organized in designated men’s and women’s division. The interiors are highlighted with dim ceiling-lights and spot lighting. Distinguishable aspects are the potted foliage (used to associate A&F brands to their parent), leather couches, worn rugs, the lingering scent of an A&F fragrance, and the blasting electronic dance music.

Abercrombie & Fitch stores are notorious for blasting music at loud decibel levels. An undercover inspection which measured the noise levels in teen stores in a randomly selected mall, revealed that the noise level in Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Abercrombie kids stores was as loud as 90 decibels, which is comparable to heavy construction machinery noise and harmful to the ears. However, 90 decibels is the corporate store policy sound level.

Most Abercrombie & Fitch stores are modern canoe stores although a few chain stores still exist, featuring plaid carpeting and preppy wallpaper. The company operates 1,035 stores across all five brands. The A&F brand holds over 353 locations nationwide the United States, three in Canada, and one in London.Three flagships are in full operation: on Fifth Avenue in New York City (located alongside Fendi, Prada, and Chanel), within the The Grove in Los Angeles, and at Savile Row in London.

Employment

The brand representatives are responsible for customer service. Select Abercrombie & Fitch stores have "store greeters". For years, the representatives were required to wear only Abercrombie & Fitch apparel, but such regulations have been loosened following lawsuits. The "Impact Team" was created in 2004 in order to better control merchandise within each store and maintain company standards. Impact Team members are less responsible for customer service and more responsible for ensuring that the sales floor is appropriately filled with merchandise from stock supply. In 2005, full-time stock positions which had been previously done away with were re-added in order to better control back-stocked merchandise. Another full time position, visual manager, is responsible for standardizing the store visually. Forms, lighting, photo marketing, fragrance presentations and brand representatives complying with the "look policy" are key aspects of the "visual manager" position. Only higher volume stores have this position, however.

Many lawsuits have been placed against the company in the past years due to discrimination practices on employment. In 2004, the company was sued in the major lawsuit, Gonzalez vs. Abercrombie & Fitch (see Controversy and Criticism below), for opting to give desirable positions to white applicants. After losing the major lawsuit, the company began to promote employment diversity by establishing a branch with the purpose of seeking employees with minority backgrounds.

Advertising

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The trademark, Casual Luxury.

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The Abercrombie moose.

Abercrombie & Fitch markets through means of sensual photographs in grayscale. Bruce Weber is the official photographer for A&F. He is renowned for his sexual photography for fashion companies such as Calvin Klein and Polo Ralph Lauren. Photography is normally shot with a beach or Adirondack backdrop. Certain photography deemed "classic" is taken in a gray background. Models and the photos pertaining to them were previewed seasonally on "A&F New Faces", a previous feature on abercrombie.com. After only featuring select photography, it was renamed "Photo Gallery". "A&F Casting" was introduced in place of "A&F New Faces" to advertise and to give information on being cast for marketing campaigns. The company only casts "brand reps" (store associates) for campaigns. This branch of employment was also deemed as racist, as photography noticeably features white models exclusively.

The official logo of Abercrombie & Fitch is the gray moose. The moose is a great marketing tool and is now recognized universally as an entity of the Abercrombie & Fitch brand.

One model in particular, Matt Ratliff (Christmas 2005 model), has been used to market numerously. His face was on cologne Ezra Fitch, cologne Proof, A&F gift cards, and the main marketing image of Christmas 2005.

Merchandise

Abercrombie & Fitch clothing is "self-walking advertising" simply because of the noticeable logos embroiled or screen printed on the fabrics. The clothing labels assure "Authentic Vintage." The company uses trademark Casual Luxury to promote the brand. Casual Luxury is defined as using "the finest cashmere, pima cottons, and highest quality leather to create the ultimate in casual, body conscious clothing." "Implementing and/or incorporating time honored machinery and techniques (as antique denim looms and handcrafted tear and wear) in order to produce the most exclusive denim ever created" is also a meaning of Casual Luxury among many others.

The brand carries colognes Fierce and Cologne 41, and perfumes 8, Classic, and Perfume 41. Released at the same time, Fierce and 8 and Cologne41 and Perfume 41 are marketed to compliment one another. High-end fragrances Ezra Fitch (cologne) and Ezra parfum were described as the embodiment of "the Abercrombie & Fitch heritage," until they were discontinued. Cologne Proof was released in Christmas 2006 to be removed a year later. Perfumes Ready is also among the retired fragrances.

Fierce and 8 are the most heavily marketed fragrances as they are the signature scents of the brand overall.

Other Abercrombie & Fitch Co. brands

A&F currently has four other concepts apart from its namesake, Abercrombie & Fitch. The brands are referred as subsidiaries in wiki articles. However, contradictory to the definition of a subsidiary, A&F brands do not operate separately: All aspects of all brands are completely managed under the same Abercrombie & Fitch workforce. In so saying, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. holds full rights and ownership to every trademark of the following brands:

Name	Consumer Age Target	Theme	Logo	Description
abercrombie kids	preteens, 7 through 14	"classic cool".	The a92 navy Moose	Children's version of Abercrombie & Fitch. Uses blue (against the A&F gray), blasts music from young artists, and spells marketing trademarks all-lowercase.
Hollister Co.	Teenagers, 14 through 18	"So Cal"	The HCO Flying Seagull	For high-schoolers, Hollister is moderately priced compared to its parent brand. The brand's stores resemble surf shacks with dim lighting, and blast rock/punk music. It is also the first of these brands to offer a personal body care line.
RUEHL No.925	Post-collegiate, 22 through 35	"Greenwich Village"	The R925 French bulldog, Trubble	With the highest price range among A&F brands, RUEHL is targeted towards older customers. This is the first brand to offer genuine leather purses and bags for women.
Gilly Hicks: Sydney	Women, 18 and up	Down Under	The GH Koala	Gilly Hicks is the latest brand from Abercrombie & Fitch and opened January 21, 2008. It offers underwear marketed towards the A&F collegiate female offering both casual and sexy loungewear and underwear.

Other affiliations

Inferno Elite Racing Team

Abercrombie & Fitch is a sponsor of the Inferno Elite Racing Team, a non-profit cycling team. The 2007 team uniforms have the "A&F" logo across the chest of their uniform which is accented with camouflage patterns.

A&F TV

In 1999, the company launched "A&F TV", which featured young people engaged in sports and leisure activities. A&F TV was originally developed to run on cable television and on monitors in Abercrombie & Fitch stores, but was offered only on the company's website until recently.

Scholarships

Abercrombie & Fitch partnered with the National Society of High School Scholars at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia on December 1, 2007 to offer a $75,000 scholarships NSHSS members.

Future plans

Throughout 2008, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. plans on increasing its gross square-footage to 11% by adding 110 additional stores by the end of this year (domestically and overseas combined); Abercrombie & Fitch will open 3, abercrombie 17, HCO 67, RUEHL 6, and GH 16.

International expansion

Canadian expansion

Canadian expansion will continue, with more mall store locations for both brands in upcoming years, possibly in Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa. In 2008, abercrombie kids stores will open with the first store to open in Sherway Gardens on August 21, 2008. Later in 2008 abercrombie kids will open in Toronto Eaton Centre.

European expansion

The company has been considering European expansion for years and decided to enter the European market believing that the demand for Abercrombie & Fitch has grown strong there. After its expansion into the United Kingdom in 2007, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. plans to continue expansion in the area with key locations - preliminary talks about opening a store in Dublin, Ireland have been held. Currently, Abercrombie & Fitch is in the process of securing key locations in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark and Sweden. For fiscal 2008, the Company is in plans to open four Hollister Co. Stores as well in the UK. Furthermore, the company anticipates a further Flagship store opening (along with the HCO in SoHo and the A&F in Tokyo) in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009. Located at Kobmagergade 11 in a 16,000sqft space (first constructed in 1910), the flagship has been designed to implement old neoclassical Danish architecture along with the A&F lifestyle.

PBS Real State LLC (and its principal Laura Pomerantz) are the company's exclusive real state consultants to identify locations that best support the Abercrombie & Fitch brand and are leading A&F through its European expansion. Pomeratz has helped the company in the past in securing key locations, more specifically the flagship location in Fifth Avenue and the RUEHL No.925 accessories store on Bleecker Street between Charles and Perry. The company management is proud to have her as partner on the project, feeling that she has an excellent understanding of the Abercrombie & Fitch brand and location attributes needed to ensure a successful expansion throughout Europe. Pomeratz has said that there are numerous ideal locations for the company's brand, but that their (PBS Real State) global reach will aid greatly in the ongoing search.

Expansion into Asia

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. will as well open its store in Tokyo, Japan around late 2009. The location is to become the fourth overall and the second international flagship of the Abercrombie & Fitch brand. Centrally located in Tokyo's Ginza district, the lease for the location has been signed. Hiroyuki Tanaka presented the company with the deal. Annabelle Selldorf will be in charge of designs for the flagship.

Controversy and criticism

Since its re-establishment in 1988, Abercrombie & Fitch has faced numerous accusations in regards to its employment practices, merchandise, and advertising campaigns which have been described as sexually explicit and homoerotic.

A&F Quarterly

Main article: A&F Quarterly

See also: Nudity in art and Sex in advertising

The original American publication of A&F Quarterly (published from 1997 to 2003) raised eyebrows from religious and moral organizations due to its racy and oh so sexually explicit nature. The magazine was plastered with nude photography by Bruce Weber (often taken as soft-porn and homoerotic), contained articles about sex, and gave recipes for alcohol beverages. It was also a catalogue and the merchandise was mostly displayed on separate pages with information and pricing. Print advertisements for the A&F Quarterly appeared in Interview, Out, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.

Despite a company policy restricting sale of the publication to minors, critics charged that the publication was readily sold to minors. In 2003, an array of religious organizations, women's rights activists, and Asian American groups organized boycotts and protests over the publication, and the "Christmas Edition" of the catalog was removed from stores.

Product criticism

In 2002, controversy erupted over shirts featuring caricatures of Asians and other ethnic groups. One shirt featured the slogan "Wong Brothers Laundry Service—Two Wongs Can Make It White" with smiling figures in conical straw hats, a 1900s depiction of Chinese immigrants. The company discontinued the designs and apologized after a boycott by Asian American student groups at universities such as Stanford University. That same year, abercrombie kids removed a line of thong underwear sold for girls in pre-teen children's sizes after parents mounted nationwide storefront protests. The underwear included phrases like "Eye Candy" and "Wink Wink" printed on the front.

More T-shirt controversy occurred twice in 2004. The first incident involved a shirt featuring the phrase, "It's All Relative in West Virginia," an apparent jab at incest relations in rural America. West Virginia governor Bob Wise spoke out against the company for depicting "an unfounded, negative stereotype of West Virginia," but the shirts were not removed. Also, there was controversy over a t-shirt with the phrase "L is for Loser" written next to a picture of a male gymnast on the rings (the same shirt was worn by Tyson Ritter of The All-American Rejects in the music video for "Move Along"). The company stopped selling the shirt in October 2004 after USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi announced a boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch for mocking the sport.

In 2005, the Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania launched a “girlcott” of the store for selling T-shirts bearing sexist and degrading messages like "Who needs brains when you have these?", "Available for parties", and "I had a nightmare I was a brunnette." The campaign went national on NBC's The Today Show, and the company pulled the shirts from stores on November 5, 2005.

Bob Jones University and its affiliated pre-collegiate schools along with other Christian schools have prohibited Abercrombie & Fitch clothing from being "worn, carried, or displayed" on its campuses because of "an unusual degree of antagonism to the name of Christ and an unusual display of wickedness" in the company's promotions.

After the company opened its flagship in London, the brand was criticized in the UK because the merchandise that was offered to them was double (or even a direct $/£ swap) of the price found in the United States.

Employment practices

A 2004 lawsuit — González, et al. v. Abercrombie & Fitch Case No. 03-2817 US District Court Nor. Cal. — accused the company of discriminating against minority employees by offering desirable positions to White American employees. The company agreed to an out-of-court settlement of the class action suit. As part of the settlement terms, Abercrombie and Fitch agreed to pay US$45 million to rejected applicants and affected employees, include more minorities in advertising campaigns, appoint a Vice President of Diversity, hire 25 recruiters to seek minority employees, and discontinue the practice of recruiting employees at primarily white fraternities and sororities.

Dwight A. McBride has written Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch: Essays on Race and Sexuality, which explores greater American intergroup relations while criticizing Abercrombie and Fitch.

Parody

Improv Everywhere, a comedy group that pulls public pranks en masse, parodied A&F's ads featuring bare-chested male models by having 111 "agents" enter the A&F store in New York City and remove their shirts. This drew mixed, but mostly amused, reactions from customers and staff, but store security quickly ejected the IE members.

MADtv, a sketch comedy television series, parodied A&F's homoerotic advertising images and hiring practices. In these skits, three Abercrombie & Fitch Employees are depicted as vain, vapid, unhelpful and overly coifed gay men.

Wizards Of Waverly Place, a children's television show based on wizards and Magic. The oldest daughter is seen mentioning the store, "Abercrombie and Witch", referring to Abercrombie and Fitch. Shrek 2 also parodies A&F as "Abercrombie & Witch" at the Far Far Away strip mall.

The Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department and Trauma Center

In 2008, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio plans to rename its emergency room the Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department and Trauma Center in exchange for a $10 million donation from Abercrombie & Fitch. A letter written by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, and signed by over 100 doctors and children’s advocacy groups urged the hospital not to go ahead with the renaming, arguing that, "Given this company's appalling history of targeting children with sexualized marketing and clothing, no public health institution should be advertising Abercrombie & Fitch."

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