Abercrombie & Fitch made a huge comeback with Gen Z shoppers. Here's where it started versus how it's going.
NEWS | 30 August 2025
lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. Impact Link This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. If you were a teen in the 2000s, chances are you either shopped at Abercrombie & Fitch — or felt too excluded to set foot in the store. The 130-year-old retailer got its catering to fishing and hunting enthusiasts, but by the late 1990s, the brand bore little resemblance to its outdoorsy origins. Its dimly lit, heavily scented stores — known primarily for their shirtless male models and narrow range of sizes — presented a brand of cool that seemed off-limits to anyone who wasn't thin, white, and well-off. While Abercrombie may once have been the epitome of a certain form of cool, the brand fell on hard times in the 2010s due to changing public sentiment and numerous controversies and lawsuits, including one that went all the way to the Supreme Court. In recent years, the brand has seen a resurgence in popularity thanks to a new, more inclusive image: it revamped its stores, expanded its size range, and made its pricing more approachable. The changes have been paying off: Abercrombie & Fitch, which also owns Hollister, reported record first-quarter sales of $1 billion in 2024, a 22% jump year over year, and higher sales in Q1 2025. However, there are signs the company's meteoric rise back to the top is slowing. The Abercrombie brand's sales dipped 5% during its second quarter of 2025 — for the second consecutive quarter — though growth at Hollister helped grow the overall company's sales. Another challenge complicating Abercrombie's comeback is tariffs. Like many other brands, the retailer is trying to navigate higher costs from the Trump administration's tariffs. Here's how Abercrombie & Fitch rose to fame, almost lost it all, then mounted a comeback.
Author: Jordan Hart. Avery Hartmans. Grace Mayer. Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins. Alex Bitter.
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