Photo: Courtesy of Abercrombie & Fitch.
A couple of years ago, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle (and to a lesser extent, Aeropostale), were staples for the cool-kid uniform. Today, however, the teen-targeted brands aren't so cool anymore. With the rise of fast fashion mega-brands like H&M and Forever 21, consumers are ditching the relatively high-quality apparel stores (you know that Abercrombie's jeans can take a solid beating) for low-cost, trendier wardrobes.
Eric Bender, a Brean Capital analyst told
Business Insider, "This team [young shoppers] wants to be fashionable but they don't want to spend a lot of money, and fast fashion works very well for that." The sharp decline in sales for the brands shows that the teen market would rather wear cheaper, fashion-forward clothes that might not last, and carry the latest it-gadget (gold iPhone, anyone?). It doesn't matter if their closets are in a constant state of flux, because stores like Zara and Uniqlo are always flipping the floor selection.
Unfortunately, there aren't enough chiseled, topless torsos to recover declining sales, and reclaiming their status won't come as fast as an H&M floor turnaround. More fast-fashion giants are opening stores across the states, and now that H&M officially opened their e-commerce store, the climb to the top will be that much more difficult. (Esquire)