Latest / Building Brands with Fexingo: Identity, Reputation, and Long-Term Business Equity / How Abercrombie Rebuilt Its Brand from Exclusion to Inclusion
Transcript
- Lucas: If you walked into an Abercrombie & Fitch store in 2005, you were hit with three things: club-level bass, cologne so thick it felt like a fog, and a wall of giant black and white photos of shirtless models. Luna: And a massive moose logo on every single item. I had a hoodie with that moose. I was fifteen and I thought it was the peak of cool. Lucas: Right. That moose was everywhere. And the brand was built on a very specific image — tall, thin, white, conventionally attractive. Mike Jeffries, the CEO at the time, famously said in 2006 that Abercrombie only wanted 'cool, good-looking people' in its stores, and that they excluded people on purpose. Luna: And that eventually became a liability. By 2014, the brand was a punchline. Sales had dropped for years, the stock was in the single digits, and Jeffries was ousted. Lucas: Fast forward to today — June 2026. Abercrombie & Fitch is a completely different company. Revenue hit four point five billion dollars last year. Same-store sales grew eighteen percent in 2024. And the brand is now considered a quiet-luxury staple for women in their late twenties and early thirties. This is one of the most dramatic brand reinventions in modern retail. Luna: What changed? Because it wasn't just new marketing. They fundamentally rethought who they were selling to. Lucas: Exactly. The shift started around 2016, 2017, under new CEO Fran Horowitz and creative director Corey Darby. They basically asked: who actually shops at Abercrombie now? And the data told them it was women — women slightly older than their original teen demographic — who wanted better-fitting, higher-quality basics. So they killed the moose. Luna: They literally removed the logo from most of their clothing. That's a huge bet. The logo was the brand. Lucas: Right. But the logo also signaled that you were wearing a uniform. It was exclusionary in a very obvious way. By stripping the branding, they made the clothes more versatile. And more importantly, they started listening to fit complaints. One specific product became the catalyst: women's jeans. Luna: The Curve Love line. I've read that they redesigned the jeans to have a higher rise and a wider waist to hip ratio — essentially for women who are not straight up and down. Lucas: That's right. In 2017, they launched Curve Love jeans with a specific fit: an extra inch in the hip and thigh, but a snug waist. It was based on customer feedback that their old jeans gaped at the back. The line now accounts for over sixty percent of their women's denim sales. And they offer sizes from triple-zero to size 37. Luna: And they did that without making a big political statement. They just quietly expanded sizing and listened to what women actually wanted. Lucas: That's the key. The brand didn't do a big 'we're inclusive now' campaign. They just started making clothes that fit more bodies. And the word of mouth did the work. On TikTok, Abercrombie haul videos exploded — not because the brand paid influencers, but because women were genuinely excited to find jeans that fit without a gap. Luna: It also helped that the quality improved. I bought a pair of their trousers last year — the 'Sloan' pant — and it genuinely feels like a two-hundred-dollar trouser for ninety bucks. Lucas: Exactly. They moved from cheap, logo-heavy fleece to higher-quality fabrics — wool blends, better denim, structured knits. The price point went up, but the perceived value went up even more. And they started targeting a customer who had been ignored by the old Abercrombie: the professional woman in her late twenties who wants to look put-together but not flashy. Luna: That's the quiet luxury angle. No logos, better materials, classic silhouettes. It's the same trend that boosted brands like The Row and Khaite — but Abercrombie offers it at a fraction of the price. Lucas: And the numbers back it up. Their women's business now drives over sixty percent of revenue. Men's has also evolved — away from the frat-boy graphic tees and into more tailored, minimalist pieces. But the real growth has been driven by women aged 25 to 34. Luna: That is a completely different customer than the teen who bought the moose hoodie. How did they not alienate their old base? Lucas: They pretty much let the old base age out. Teenagers stopped shopping there anyway when the brand became uncool. So by the time Horowitz took over, the old customer was already gone. The risk was that nobody would come back. But they rebuilt trust by being consistent — same fit, same quality, season after season. Luna: And they also cleaned up the stores. No more dark lighting, no more loud music, no more perfume fog. It's bright and open now, with wood fixtures and soft lighting. Lucas: That physical retail shift was crucial. They closed hundreds of underperforming mall stores and opened smaller, more curated locations in better shopping centers. The flagship on Fifth Avenue in New York looks like a minimalist boutique, not a nightclub. Luna: It's interesting — they basically did the opposite of what many legacy retailers do. Most brands chase younger customers and try to stay cool. Abercrombie let go of cool and went for timeless. Lucas: They let go of the old identity entirely. And that's hard. Because the moose logo was still recognized by millions. But they knew that recognition was tied to negative connotations: exclusion, faded glory, mall bankruptcy. Luna: Speaking of which — and this is a quick aside from the brand story — it's worth noting that this kind of deep, long-term transformation takes resources. Not just capital, but the ability to experiment without being beholden to quarterly pressure. And that's something we think about a lot in making this show. Lucas: Yeah, we've been doing Building Brands for almost 50 episodes now, and it's only possible because a small group of listeners chips in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That direct support keeps us ad-free and lets us dig into stories like this without chasing clicks. So if these conversations have been useful to you in your work or just as a curious listener, you know where to find that. Luna: And it genuinely makes a difference. Thanks to everyone who already does. Now — back to Abercrombie. One thing I want to dig into: the role of social media in this turnaround. Because they didn't rely on paid influencer campaigns. How did they rebuild awareness? Lucas: They leaned heavily on organic content. Specifically, they created a series called 'The Abercrombie Edit' — short videos showing real customers styling their clothes. No script. No models. Just regular people showing how they wear the pieces. That generated huge engagement because it felt authentic. Luna: And they also leaned into user-generated content. Hashtags like #AbercrombieHaul and #CurveLoveJeans took off without any paid push. Lucas: Exactly. They empowered the customer to be the marketer. And that only works if the product is genuinely good. If the jeans fit badly, no hashtag saves you. But because they fixed the product first, the marketing was just amplifying something real. Luna: So it's a product-led turnaround, not a marketing-led one. They fixed the jeans, then told the story. Lucas: That's the lesson. Most brands try to rebrand with a ad campaign. Abercrombie rebranded by changing what they made and who they made it for. The marketing was almost secondary. Luna: And now they're one of the few mall retailers growing. American Eagle is flat. Gap is still struggling. Abercrombie is actually gaining market share. Lucas: Their stock has gone from under ten dollars in 2017 to around one hundred and twenty today. That's a twelve-bagger in nine years. Not many retail stocks can say that. Luna: But there's a risk. They've repositioned themselves as a premium basics brand. That means they're now competing with Everlane, Madewell, even Cos and Arket. That's a crowded space. Lucas: True. And maintaining that quality while keeping prices reasonable is a constant squeeze. But they've got a few advantages. Their supply chain is vertical — they own most of their manufacturing — so they can control costs better than a brand that outsources everything. Luna: They also have a strong loyalty program. The myAbercrombie app has over ten million users. That gives them direct data on what customers are buying and what they want next. Lucas: Exactly. That data loop is what allowed them to spot the Curve Love opportunity in the first place. They saw return rates were high for certain fits, so they adjusted. A lot of companies have the data but don't act on it. Abercrombie did. Luna: So what's the one thing you'd tell someone starting a brand today from this case study? Lucas: I'd say: don't be afraid to abandon your origin story if your origin story is exclusionary or outdated. Abercrombie's heritage was built on selling an image of cool. But that image became a cage. They broke out by serving a real need — better-fitting clothes — rather than an aspirational identity. Luna: And they did it without fanfare. They just quietly made better products for a different customer. Lucas: That's the quietest luxury of all: listening to the people who actually buy your stuff.