Uniform Lawsuit: The Case Of Abercrombie And Fitch

1) Why did this crisis occur? Why did Jeffries’s comments trigger such a large response?

their definition of “All-American?” Do they still enforce the new diversity policies in their stores

In 1892, David T. Abercrombie founded Abercrombie and Fitch, which mainly sold sporting and excursion goods. Although they were able to remain in business, the company struggled until 1988 when The Limited purchased Abercrombie and Fitch. The owner, Mike Jefferies, changed the clothing line to what is known as a “Casual Luxury” style of clothing.

One of Lululemon’s ethical issues that it is currently practiced is that Lululemon encourages employees to ease drop on its customers to gain more knowledge on the current complaints/defects with its products. This practice was introduced to the company because Lululemon is known for wanting to avoid collecting large amounts of customer data through large data techniques. Rather, the company aims to have a close and open relationship with its customers. Lululemon would rather connect with its customers while they are shopping in the store or in its company offered yoga lessons after the store closes rather than collecting data. The company was founded on the mission of “creating components for people to live longer, healthier, fun lives” this philosophy led to Lululemon seven core values: quality, product, integrity, balance, entrepreneurship, fun, and greatness. In this case, the implicated values that have arisen are integrity, quality, and greatness. As a company, Lululemon values greatness as a key value in how the company functions, they do this by always striving to have the best quality products and to be the greatest company. However, another key value is integrity which it encourages its employees to have the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. The implication of having employees ease drop on its customers in order to gain feedback on the company’s product violates its value of integrity.

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

The root cause in the Abercrombie and Fitch case was the company’s practice was to focus their recruiting and hiring of a sales persons around their image, which was around the mantra of “an all American Classic look” and they shied away from individuals that did not fit that mold. Due to this behavior, the company was hit with a lawsuit in 2003 that alleged they violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by placing a targeted focus on their recruiting and hiring that essentially excluded or limited its minority and female workforce population (Wikipedia, 2017).

Fashion is everything to society and the media. The fashion industry has transformed into a necessity in the life of people. Everyone wants to look good, feel fabulous and feel as if we belong with everyone else. The envy and desire to wear certain things and look a certain way all come, from wearing the latest fashion handbags, accessories, dresses, shoes, and the list goes on. But, when is considering fashion into an individual’s life going too far to the extreme? Many do not consider the whereabouts of fashion materials and how the environment is affected by the mere existence of certain garments. Some may believe these objects grow on trees. But that is clearly not the case. Even though it would be nice. The fashion industry as a

Abercrombie & Fitch ANALYSIS REPORT Fundamentals Of Retail Design Group 03 Erik, Herr | I-Chu, Liao | Karan, Shah Kuan-Ling, Tseng | Chen-Hua, Wang ABSTRACT This report intends to analyze the unique brand values, the distinct marketing strategies and the compelling competitive dynamics of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), the noted American retailer of casual luxury wear. The purpose of this analysis being to understand the context and motives that drive brand A&F; to draw insights from it‘s past and current strategies and use these to launch a, new sneaker offer‘ within it‘s existing product ensemble. For doing this, we‘ve researched the story of the brand; it‘s original and potential target market, it‘s financial

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a lollipop? How many times can a company get away with offending the public? These questions have a lot more in common than someone might think. Everyone knows that the clever owl that asks us the lollipop questions, gets impatient with counting and then simply provides us with the answer of the ‘world may never know’. Similarly, the amount of times Urban Outfitters has offending the public or will in the future without receiving any punishment is too large to count, therefore we give the same impassive answer that ‘the world may never know’. In the United States of America, we are lucky enough to have freedom of speech and expression. However good or bad, we have the right to say or wear what we want without punishment. Though it is common sense that companies that sell merchandise are held to higher standards. Unfortunately some do not understand this unspoken rule, not only that but they abuse this right. The argument lies primarily with Urban Outfitters who has produced a multitude of clothing items that offend the wider public! Businesses should not be permitted to produce merchandise that offends the public because it hurts many people(s), encourages a negative mindset, and is used purely for publicity.

In the UK, H&M’s, the other major fast fashion major brand, average selling price of women’s clothes are £10.69, whereas at Primark, the average selling price was £3.87. Further, in terms of the annual average sales of clothes per square meter, H&M sells £3,400 per square metre, while Primark sells £5,300. These clearly point to a more optimised strategy (The Economist 2015).

Founded in 1977, American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) is a retailer that designs and develops fashionable girls’ and boys’ apparel and accessories. The company’s target audience is boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 25 years old. The target audience seeks trendy and fashionable apparel product that meets a high standard of quality at an affordable price point. As of the most recent fiscal year, ended January 30, 2010, American Eagle held 1,103 retail stores in total, operating under the “American Eagle”, “Aerie”, and “Martin+Osa” brand names respectively. In addition to the retail stores,

Despite Abercrombie & Fitch’s efforts to win back loyal consumers with their new rebranding initiative, the company continues to experience a decline in annual revenue and dismal growth coupled with a poor return on investment, making it a risky investment option for potential shareholders. According to the company’s annual report, Abercrombie & Fitch saw a decline in revenue from $4,116.90 billion in February 2014 to $3,744.03 billion in 2015 with fourth-quarter revenues falling nearly 14% to $1.12 billion (Abercrombie & Fitch 41). The company contributed its dismal report to a decrease in the number of operational stores at the end of Q4 fiscal 2014, weak consumer demand for both Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch, slowing growth in

Being an upscale industry, Abercrombie and Fitch would appear to be a successful corporation. Although the company was once successful for a number of years, it’s apparent that there has been a significant decline in its overall appeal and how much revenue the company acquires each year. With just over 1,000 retail stores in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, Abercrombie and Fitch has thrived to be one of the most avid corporate extensions.

According to Keyton, organizational culture is "the set of artifacts, values, and assumptions that emerges from the interactions of organizational members" (Keyton, 2014, p. 550). Over the past few years, past and potential employees of the clothing brand Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) have taken to the media to explain the negative organizational culture that exists within the company. The management values and company policies that create this “image-obsessed culture” have led to multiple human rights lawsuits, which has damaged the reputation of Abercrombie & Fitch globally (Benson, 2013).

3. Sound Quality Control American Apparel does a good job and design for their quality control. Their quality control personnel inspect finished garment for defects and reject any defective product. As Martin Bailey, Chief Manufacturing Officer of American Apparel mention, implementing sound quality control is one of their success factors. 4. Workforce Apparently, American Apparel offers a “Sweat-Shop” Free Environment to its employees. Its lowest paid worker earned around double the minimum wage. Also, it offers employees subsidized healthcare (including their family), subsidized lunch, free parking, bus passes, low-cost auto insurance, massage therapist, yoga classes, bathroom breaks, bicycle lending and so on. Besides all mentioned above, American Apparel also does a good job design for employees. There are regular rotated positions as well as five-minute stretch or aerobic exercise session for them to minimize fatigue and stress on workers. Therefore, their turnover rate is quite low, and workers are more willing to work hard for this company. 5. Brand Image American Apparel chooses to hire local labors rather than outsourcing production. It makes people think it is real “American Brand”. It represents a spirit of classic styled harmonized with the metropolitan trends, which attracts a lot of young adults in metropolitan cities. Plus, it uses the “normal life” styled pictures as its cover photo rather than those far away people’s normal life, which