American Apparel: Vertically Integrated in Downtown L.A.

When people think of the New York City Garment District, the first things that come to mind are high-end fashion designers like Michael Kors and Calvin Klein and the famous New York Fashion Week. As a New York Times reporter Jean Appleton put it, New York City is the “bustling epicenter of America’s clothing design and the manufacturing industry.”1 However, fashion is only part of the story. Few people actually know how garment production in New York City came about. Before the design and construction of huge lofts and towering skyscrapers, garment production took place inside garment shops and factories inside tenements. The garment industry has changed significantly in the past two centuries and continues to change today.

The American Eagle Outfitters is known as an American clothing and accessories retailer created by the bothers Jerry and Mark Silverman. This retail apparel, manufactures and markets a wide variety of clothes, intimates, and accessories that permits the company to be recognized as a diversified brand interested in expanding its target market. The heart of the company is recognized for the innovative fabrication of its jeans. With the recent creation of the #ICAN, the brand is letting its customers know how important is to know for the firm what the client do and feel when using its products, in this case how comfortable they feel when wearing AEO’s jeans. The company cares about the design of its jeans for both women and men while offering

Abercrombie & Fitch is one of the leading clothing companies in the world. They manufacture

J.Crew as an iconic brand targeting young working professional by focusing on preppy and classy look failed in identifying brand focus. Also, their business model is performing poorly in the fast-fashion industry compare to traditional competitors, with its high prices, diverging quality, and undesirable brand image. Hence, the brand perception by customers has changed and many of them prefer to purchase the discounted products rather than full-priced items.

Vertical integration – when you choose to produce raw materials and/or distribute finished goods themselves rather than rely on independent suppliers, factors and agents for these tasks

Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), an American retailer that concentrates on upscale casual wear for young consumers, which was founded in Manhattan, New York City in June 4, 1892 by two young minds of David T. Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch. Beginning with a rough journey of selling sporting outfits and excursion goods such as fishing and hunting equipment, A&F had to file bankruptcy in 1977. Soon thereafter, the company was revived after Jake Oshman, owner of Oshman Sporting Goods, bought A&F in 1978. A&F was relaunched as a mail-retailer company specializing in hunting wear and novelty items, but was bought by The Limited ten years after its revival. The gradual shift to focusing on apparels for young consumers began when A&F was a subsidiary of Limited Brands, and since then, A&F has grown to become one of the largest apparel firms in the United States. In 1998, A&F launched Abercrombie Kids, targeting consumers from age 7-14, which further increases its revenue. In 1999 to early 2000s, A&F’s sales skyrocketed as it hit its zenith, by portraying A&F clothing as the “coolest thing” through billboard-winning song that compliments A&F in the lyrics, as well as other advertisements. Furthermore, A&F launched a subsidiary called Hollister to tackle similar age group of target audience but with lower income. This expansion to dominate the market of teenagers through consideration of other demographic factor, namely income, was exceptional for A&F’s revenue. Presently, A&F focused on

Just as J. Crew has begun to target lower price point markets, it has begun to also target higher price point markets. J. Crew’s “Collections” and “Wedding” lines use finer materials and more intricate designs in their pieces, but are sold at more expensive prices. Lastly, the company’s sub-brand “Madewell” focuses on American-made denim and casual styles that aim to attract teenage to middle-aged women. J. Crew immense growth throughout its years has come as result of its ability to diversify its brand into many different

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (AEO) is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. The company targets males and females in the distinct fifteen to twenty-five age groups - tweens, teenagers, and young college adults - in order to sell their assorted line of affordable and trendy clothing products such as sweatshirts, t-shirts, and jeans. American Eagle Outfitters’ primary businesses operate under the brands – American Eagle Outfitters, Aerie by American Eagle Outfitters, AEO Direct, and a third-party retailer. The international company operates 944 American Eagle Outfitters stores and 122 Aerie by American Eagle Outfitters stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, and China. Additionally, the AEO Direct delivers to 81 countries worldwide and the third-party retailer operates 66 stores in 12 countries under the American Eagle Outfitters brand. American Eagle is a global retailer with an excellent reputation built upon the priority of “delivering value, variety, and versatility to [their] customers” with “differentiated fashion in key categories” by continuing to “innovate [their] store experience to be more impactful” (SEC 10K).

AEO has created a unique global company culture based on their core values. These core values are: People, Integrity, Passion, Innovation, and Teamwork. With these values for the company, it has helped shape their brands identity. With a driven team of employees that are part of the same demographic as their customers, it really helps make the AEO stores very welcoming and inviting to customers (Job Opportunities). Unlike competitors such as Hollister or Abercrombie & Fitch that have dark lighting and smaller stores, American Eagle has a bright fun vibe when you walk in. This draws in more customers because it helps them feel less intimidated by the store or even the

Although the market for separates is certainly viable given promising growth in test markets, it is not a market that makes sense for Hart, Schaffner & Marx (HSM) to compete in. The trend certainly shows a divergence in how some customers view their needs with regards to semi-formal clothing, but the firm runs the risk of diluting not only the perceived quality of its clothing, but also alienating its current client base that is partial to the experience HSM offers in its stores. This experience includes personalized expertise on new fashions, custom tailoring, and the status associated with purchasing and wearing the company’s clothes.

Today sexualizing woman is the norm especially in the fashion industry, but that will not exclude the other industries. Empowering and sexualizing two different terms that are not in necessary have any connections between each other, but unfortunately young women nowadays getting them mixed. The media creates a relationship between them where sexualizing lead to empowering, then put this thought in people’s minds. Big companies who usually set up all the fashion trends are using woman to sell their products even the ones that made for men. They are creating the sexual image to surround their models. And they are hiding behind some terms that would sell to young ladies, who might not have the enough knowledge to draw the line between what is

to be the same as the division’s existing business. However, to enter the clothing industry could be a

By far American Eagle is one of the biggest clothing store in the world with more than 1,000 stores up and operating and over 80 countries ordering their products online. American Eagle owns two different types of stores, they are AEO and Aerie. To break down the number of stores owned by American Eagle, there are close to 950 stores in the world named American Eagle Outfitters and there are over 140 stores named Aerie Standalone in the world. As you can see American Eagle is very popular around the world. In fact they used to be known for selling just outdoor gear but now it has grown to one of the most popular stores that sells jeans and polos. Actually this is what American Eagle has kinda feathered more to. Jeans and polos is not everything that American Eagle sells, they actually sell basically anything to do with apparel including t-shirts, bras, shoes, socks, underwear, panties, sweatshirts and more. American Eagles marketing is phenomenal with them bringing more of the attention towards young men and women ages 15-25 years of age. In fact over 90 percent of Americans Eagles sales originated from the United States and Canada region. To break down the percent of sales for you, they estimated that over 50 percent of their sales came from the woman apparel and accessories, and the other 40 percent came from the Men’s. Now I know you're asking where the other 10% came from and actually the other 10

American Apparel (AA) is a well-known United States clothing brand that has gained recognition among the retail industry. American Apparel headquarters is located in Los Angles, California where it manufactures and distributes its clothing products. It is known in today’s society, to be sweatshop free and has a strong belief of workers’ rights. However, American Apparel has had a downfall in the retail industry losing revenue. This research of American Appeal will provide feasible reasons why the company should enter China international market to improve on sales revenue.

American Apparel, is an American multi-national clothing manufacturer, distributor and retailer since 1988based in Los Angeles, California. Dov Charney, a Canadian business man was a founder and former CEO of the company. He was involved in nearly every part of the business process from design and manufacturing to marketing. The Ernst & Young named Charney Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004. He was also termed "Man of the Year" by various fashion