Abercrombie & Fitch former CEO Mike Jeffries stirred up a lot of controversy. When Jeffries first got the position of CEO in 1992 he was trying to give this company a new look other than just sports and outdoor wear. He was trying to reposition the company on top, he began with new advertisements with the help of the photographer Bruce Weber, using models from Fraternities and Sororities. Jeffries admitted to only wanting certain people to buy his clothes. In a 2006 profile in Salon about Jeffries he made a few comments that could be offensive towards people
“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” said Jeffries in the same article. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong.”
“It’s almost everything. That’s why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that.”
“Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.”
Jeffries also began making his products more expensive in Europe The U.S and also made a few different t-shirts that were considered offensive to certain people. Due to this bad press Jeffries was asked to step down from CEO.
By: Jordan Liddle
Lutz, Ashley. "13 Reasons Why People Hate Abercrombie & Fitch." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 22 Aug. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
"Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries Won't Be Missed." Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries Won't Be Missed. 12 Dec. 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
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