Abercrombie sucks

One brand that we can't quite figure out is Abercrombie & Fitch. To put it lightly, we're not fans. In fact, we can't think of a clothing company that has a more bizarre brand identity than Abercrombie. American teens love the brand. Walking around the mall with an A&F bag in your teens gives you more street credibility than a Hermès bag on Madison Avenue in your thirties. But A&F stops being cool once you're 23. Some advice to guys who just graduated from college: wearing an A&F shirt in the real world is as bad as having 'loser' tattooed to your forehead. For some strange reason European tourists can't get enough of Abercrombie. In NYC they stand lined up outside Abercrombie's 5th Avenue store all year round. Are A&F clothes that much better than what's at J-Crew, Aeropostale, or American Eagle? Of course not. We've even seen groups of European guys at pubs sporting their A&F shirts. Cut it out! Abercrombie is NOT cool, nor is it posh! In fact the brand is homoerotic and totally overrated. How did it all come to this? The company started in the 1890s as an elite outfitter of sporting and excursion goods. Tough guys like Hemingway, JFK, and Teddy Roosevelt used to rock out Abercrombie gear! After the brand lost its popularity in the '70s and '80s, Abercrombie did a 180 and began selling tank tops, mini-skirts, casual t-shirts, and surfer necklaces; they learned to change with the times. We all know that sex sells, but their ads are really over the top. What kind of message are they sending our teens? We took a look into their numbers and are happy to note that Abercrombie sales have been sucking again lately! Abercrombie had gross profits of $2.5 billion in 2007 and that number fell 25% to $1.88 billion last year. To make matters worse, their stock has fallen 55% over that period. We stopped wearing Abercrombie after high school and urge our readers to also stay away from their stores!

Welcome Alternative: Hey Mike Jeffries (CEO), get rid of the male models in your stores and take the company back to its original heritage. Abercrombie needs to focus on designing quality garments versus selling sex to teenagers. Maybe then straight American males 23-39 will come back to shop again. We at Overrated! are devout Ralph Lauren fans. Ralph Lauren as a brand draws on a tradition of equestrian and polo heritage, which we love. It's a classy brand that consumers of all ages can enjoy. When it comes to casual wear we also like GANT and hope to pick up some threads there this fall. GANT (American style with a European flair) was huge in the 1960s and is making a comeback. If you want to be fashionable while enjoying the outdoors, look into Barbour and Beretta this fall. That's where Ernest, Jack and Teddy would be shopping today.