First a confession: I once owned a hat from Abercrombie and Fitch. They share my initials: AF, and with a simple sewing tool the “AbeRcrobIe And fitcH” Became “A R I A H” and I was happy. My friend Zach told me the other day that that hat was a defining characteristic of me in high school.
It was also during those high school years that I saw Abercrombie go from “cool” status in my mind to “Wow, they are pornographic and setting terrible standards for my generation!” And from there it’s gone only downhill.
This quote from a recent interview of the CEO, Mike Jeffries, says pretty much everything:
Listen, do we go too far sometimes? Absolutely. But we push the envelope, and we try to be funny, and we try to stay authentic and relevant to our target customer. I really don’t care what anyone other than our target customer thinks.
This is his response to the many protest that Abercrombie has faced for it’s sexist and racist t-shirts.
I don’t want to spend anymore time listing reasons Abercrombie is bad. Want I would like is to figure out some way to convince the millions of “good” people out there that spending your money at a place like Abercrombie gives your support to their Racist and Sexist behaviors.
I don’t want to sign up for Salon.com
I don’t think you have to sign up for Salon.com, just look at a brief ad from them.
That was interesting. I have a tshirt (sometimes I still wear it on grunge days) from 7th grade that I got from AF. I like you was really disgusted by them in highschool, and even stores like Express and American Eagle that are piggiebacking off their success by trying to copy them.
I don’t like Abercrombie, and I’m surprised people actually bought those sexist and racist t-shirts. They’re just like those troublemakers in school who want attention. I never have shopped there, and never will, because their values go against mine. And also because by wearing their clothes, I would be advertising Abercrombie, sexism, and racism as a good thing,
Melissa,
Yeah, figuring out what to do with the convicting evidence of our previous ignorance is a tough one. If you have shoes or a shirt or something from company A or B it’s tough to know what to do. I have a couple thrift stored nike items that I’ve tried unstitching the logos on, but you can’t do that with a t-shirt. It’s a tough call.
Tanyia,
I hear you loud and clear on the desire not to promote or affiliate with Abercrombie in any way.