Remember that cool kid in school whose style dictated what ended up on your Christmas wish list that year? The one that everyone wanted to be at some point or another and who your mum had to soothe your plain-to-see jealousy of by assuring you that they’ve peaked way too early and that kind of preppy popularity is unsustainable in the long term?

Well, when it comes to the Abercrombie brand, she was right – for a while at least. The aloof all-American clothing retailer that once oozed unattainable teen coolness, suffered a very public reality check in the mid-to-late 2010s. Their customers grew up, adopted new tastes and values, and quickly distanced themselves from a brand that showed no signs of shedding that cliquey high school mentality its former CEO Mike Jeffries infamously perpetrated.

Much like high school, falling in with the wrong crowd can do a lifetime's worth of damage in how we’re perceived by those who knew us back then. Jeffries’ heckle-raising takes such as “A lot of people don’t belong in our clothes” and “Are we exclusionary? Absolutely”, weren’t something that people seemed eager to forgive and forget any time soon. The brand soon saw itself go from sure-winner prom queen to voted America’s most hated retailer in 2016.

Growing up to catch up

But surprisingly, Abercrombie has broken the cool kid curse of premature popularity by finding its footing in the real, adult world. Its recent re-ascent to cultural relevancy and remarkable financial growth is as impressive as it is unexpected; its 2023 sales topped $4 billion, its stock quintupled in that same year and its forecasts predict revenues to hit $5 billion in the next few years. It’s successfully reignited that once-in-a-lifetime magic that its heyday competitors like GAP and American Eagle struggled to resurrect.

It's a success that didn’t happen overnight. Rather, it has been a meticulously crafted multi-year implementation of a brand and marketing strategy pioneered by Fran Horowitz’s leadership and turbocharged by a thorough understanding of its modern audience – catching up with them to discover all the ways they’ve changed in the time they’ve spent apart. Under Horowitz, CEO since 2017, the brand today is a name change away from being unrecognisable from its former mean-girl self: the imagery has shifted from sultry, sexually-charged-Caucasians, the sizing goes past a single digit, and the product range suits the balanced needs of realistic adult lives. By engaging with diverse communities on TikTok, championing body positivity, and collaborating with relatable influencers, Abercrombie has broken away from its legacy, becoming trusted for its authenticity. The retailer has, against all odds, tapped into the cultural zeitgeist of the customer they’d fallen out of contact with.

The changes took some extensive pre-highschool-reunion stalking to get right, finding out how Louis from maths class, now 20-to-30-something, is spending his time these days (he’s living for a long weekend), or about how Mikayla from geography struggles to find jeans to fit her body shape (they always gape at the waist from behind). Abercrombie has studied its customers to a T to perfectly kit them out for every occasion, from their Pilates class to their friend’s destination wedding, bi-weekly date night to their office happy hour. Abercrombie has caught up by understanding the pace, pain points and priorities that define a Gen Z or Millennial’s every day, aligning with their lifestyles, wardrobes and values.

Moving out to figure it out

Much like its marketing and ethos, the Abercrombie store today has little in common with its past self. Since the 90s, the brand has followed the “moving out of your parent’s home to find your own” trajectory, designing rebellious spaces that brashly dismissed all things conventional and childhood-sweet. The décor was limited to raunchy posters of shirtless models, it had club-like lighting with the speakers and music to match, a stream of frat-recruited guys lurked around every corner, and a cloud of cologne clung to all surfaces. It was a place they had made unapologetically and distinctively Abercrombie and, therefore, was abruptly culled in the brand’s image overhaul.

But, in sync with its 30-something customer, having ditched the frat pad and moved into their time-to-take-things-seriously place, the stores today are having a bit of an identity crisis, struggling to figure out who they are and what they’re here for. Stripped back to bright, airy and simple spaces, they offer a pleasant shopping experience but lack anything that is inherently Abercrombie. For a brand that once proudly flaunted its in-store experience as a USP and has got to know its customers on such an impressively intimate level, its physical retail approach today seems untrue to itself.

With the recent announcement of Oxford Street and Spitalfields stores opening in 2025 in London, no doubt instrumental in the brand’s plans for international growth, its physical spaces need to be able to keep up with their phenomenal cultural metamorphosis. Though nostalgia-baiting seems off the table for the time being, there are still plenty of lessons to be learnt from the brand’s past. Those 2000s stores were unique sensory-led destinations that most of us can still phantom see, smell, hear and touch today, presenting an opportunity to reimagine what those signature sights, scents, sounds, and feelings are for the brand now.

Abercrombie has been unprecedentedly successful in shifting that has-been image by meeting their customer where they are in their lives today, finding them in their daily routines, collaborating with their favourite online personalities, showing up on their most-used social platforms, and aligning with their personal values. With the right store experience that does justice to its growth as a brand, it can meet them on the high street too.