👉 Background: Abercrombie & Fitch started back in 1892 with a focus on outdoor and sporting goods, like fishing rods, fishing boats and tents. In 1988, Abercrombie and Fitch was acquired by L Brands, and they leaned into the teen boppy culture.

👉 What happened: The downfall of Abercombie began in the early 2000s. It settled a $50 million discrimination lawsuit against staff and by 2016, it was voted America’s most hated brand. But in 2019, Abercrombie overhauled its products and marketing to distance itself from…itself.

👉 What else: Over the past two years, Abercrombie has made a major comeback. In fact, it has now seen its net sales jump to over $1.1 billion USD for the quarter and it expects to continue growing in coming quarters. But despite this, its share price dropped 17% because it warned of an “uncertain environment”.

What's the key learning?

💡For some retailers, the best way to maintain relevance is to grow with your customers. The problem for Abercrombie was that it failed to keep up with the changing trends and societal views of the youth market.

💡So rather than trying to appeal to a new demographic, brands like Abercrombie are revamping their clothes to cater to their customers from the 2000s - with the styles they need today. Think: office wear and wedding attire. As a result, A&F has seen its share price jump more than 520% since the start of 2023.

💡And they ain’t the only old-school brands making a comeback:

• American Eagle reported a record revenue of $1.29 billion USD for the quarter
  
• Gap also beat estimates and raised its annual profit forecast

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