Abercrombie & Fitch is taking a web page out of rival Aritzia’s playbook by including exterior footwear manufacturers like Puma and Sperry to its assortment because the retailer turns to new classes to chase development.
Since partnering with Sperry in April to promote choose attire and footwear types from the model on-line and in shops, Abercrombie has expanded and is now providing footwear from Puma, Frye, Hunter and GH Bass.
For now, the one place Abercrombie is providing the entire manufacturers collectively is at its new 10,000-square-foot outpost in New York Metropolis the place they launched for the primary time this month. If the discharge performs effectively, the corporate might increase the complete vary of manufacturers to extra shops and on-line sooner or later. At present, the one exterior manufacturers Abercrombie is promoting on-line are Puma and Sperry.
Abercrombie and Fitch retailer in Soho, New York.
Tasia Jensen | CNBC
In an interview with CNBC, the corporate’s new managing director for the Americas Melissa Value stated the growth into third-party manufacturers is vital for buyer acquisition, but additionally helps retain present customers and encourages them to spend extra.
“Our high-value clients, how can we guarantee that we’re outfitting them throughout all of their wants? And it is a place that they will come for these issues, but additionally a brand new level of discovery for a shopper that we have not doubtlessly acquired but,” stated Value. “So somebody that might be in search of Puma or Frye, they arrive in … they’re excited to see these choices, they buy certainly one of these, in addition to an outfit from us, and that is the objective when it comes to how we’re seeking to carry all of it collectively.”
Abercrombie and Fitch retailer in Soho, New York.
Tasia Jensen | CNBC
Abercrombie stated it determined to launch exterior footwear manufacturers as clients ask for extra from the attire retailer. For instance, the corporate stated some of the frequent questions clients ask on its social media channels is “The place can I purchase these footwear?”
Abercrombie’s transfer into exterior manufacturers marks a contemporary first for the 134-year-old firm, which has lengthy solely offered its personal merchandise in shops however is discovering it tougher to generate natural development, increase its buyer base and compete in a crowded attire market.
Janine Stichter, a retail analyst and managing director at BTIG, would not anticipate exterior manufacturers to make up a good portion of gross sales, however stated they might be vital buyer acquisition instruments and drive extra significant income over time.
“It is a strategic transfer on their half to herald a like-minded buyer,” stated Stichter. “A buyer who has potential to buy the model, possibly is not already, and now shall be launched to the model that method.”
Class growth general shall be key to the retailer’s subsequent chapter of development, and mixing a mixture of Abercrombie-designed equipment with exterior footwear manufacturers will enable the corporate to supply its clients extra choices in an economical, easy method, stated Stichter.
“We’re more and more seeing the buyer need [a variety of] manufacturers in footwear, so for those who can take away that complication and the method, and likewise offer them the manufacturers that they need, even when it is not vastly incremental when it comes to income and earnings … there’s nonetheless that add on potential,” stated Stichter. “You seize extra of her pockets and also you give her extra purpose to come back within the retailer or store in your website.”
Fizzling development
Following a dramatic turnaround of the enterprise led by CEO Fran Horowitz, Abercrombie grew annual gross sales by over 98% between fiscal 2020 and financial 2024. That explosive development moderated at its namesake model in the latest fiscal yr.
Between fiscal 2024 and financial 2025, which led to February, gross sales on the Abercrombie model fell greater than 1%. Throughout the identical interval, comparable gross sales, a measure of natural development that strips out the affect of recent retailer openings, declined by 7%.
For the previous 5 quarters in a row, comparable gross sales had been both damaging or flat on the model.
Stichter stated Abercrombie was lapping double-digit development from the prior yr throughout these quarters, which made it tougher to extend gross sales, but it surely additionally noticed execution challenges in its key clothes class.
“They got here out with a marriage assortment, a marriage visitor assortment, and that was a extremely massive supply of power for them,” stated Stichter. However the next yr, “it simply wasn’t as massive or as sturdy, they usually needed to take a little bit bit extra markdown in that class,” she stated.
Abercrombie and Fitch retailer in Soho, New York.
Tasia Jensen | CNBC
Abercrombie can also be dealing with stiffer competitors.
One in every of its largest opponents, Canadian vogue model Aritzia, noticed gross sales develop 35% with comparable gross sales up 27% throughout its most up-to-date fiscal yr, which led to March. The corporate launched its personal partnership with Sperry final summer time and has lengthy provided exterior footwear manufacturers in its shops and on-line, together with Nike, Adidas, New Stability, Puma and GH Bass.
“[Abercrombie] most likely regarded over their shoulder at Aritzia and noticed how effectively that is labored, whether or not it is a standalone class or it is only a site visitors driver, and stated, ‘Look, we will do the identical factor,'” stated Stichter. “A part of the explanation Aritzia has been so profitable is as a result of they’ve simply type of stayed high of thoughts, stayed actually related for that shopper. I believe Abercrombie is simply attempting to do the identical factor, guarantee continued relevance.”
Abercrombie’s accent growth at its new retailer has solely been reside for about two weeks, however the buyer response has been optimistic up to now, stated Value.
“They’re thrilled with this space. We have seen them are available in, we have seen them work together. We’re excited up to now concerning the preliminary outcomes,” she stated. “We will study lots right here, each when it comes to what our buyer is in search of, but additionally find out how to function equipment in a bodily area and the place and the way we will scale that throughout our fleet.”
Throughout the firm’s fiscal first-quarter earnings name final month, Horowitz stated the model’s collaboration with Sperry has up to now exceeded inside expectations and led to higher-than-average conversion.
From loud to understated
Abercrombie is testing its footwear growth at its new retailer in Soho, the guts of New York Metropolis’s vogue district. Opened in early June, the three-story location changed a smaller retailer the corporate had within the neighborhood and options Abercrombie’s newest tweaks to its refreshed retailer format.
All through the model’s 2000s heyday, Abercrombie’s shops had been notorious for his or her loud music, shirtless fashions and the inescapable stench of its Fierce cologne.
Abercrombie and Fitch retailer in Soho, New York.
Tasia Jensen | CNBC
Lately, the retailers are almost unrecognizable. As an alternative of loud branding and low lighting, the areas are vivid, understated and elevated, and have been one of many keys to the retailer’s monumental turnaround.
On the Soho location, Abercrombie debu
ted its “Heritage Meets Trendy” design idea, which options components from the corporate’s 134-year historical past and archival items, equivalent to a looking coat from the Fifties designed alongside Burberry.
“It simply reveals such a incredible instance of what the model has stood for for therefore a few years,” stated Value. “The partnerships that we have had with different incredible manufacturers and the authenticity that we carry into as we speak’s providing from a high quality perspective and our breadth of providing.”
