Thursday, 12 January 2012

Just Looking For Your Abercrombie And Fitch Clothes

Abercrombie & Fitch’s cross-channel marketing machine leaves just about everyone else in the dust. Launched in 1892, former shoppers Teddy Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Because just about every retailer has a catalog and everyone’s catalog is free (ho-hum), A&F created a separate lifestyle magazine full of black-and-white photographs taken by Bruce Weber, the photographer best known for highlighting “the beauty of youth in male nude photography” (per his own website). There were so many protests over A&F Quarterly (which the company sells – further stoking desire among teens) that the company suspended publication for awhile; it’s hard to say whether it was the magalog’s porn star interviews or the b&w shots of Santa and Mrs. Santa Claus in flagrante that pushed thousands of parents and a few governors and attorneys general over the edge.

Go online right now to witness the hysteria it generated in 2003. Totally un-cool Bill O’Reilly, a series of religious organizations and others called for boycotts, and articles concerned with “cultural decay” screamed out with headlines like “Abercrombie & Fitch Stops Selling Porn.” A&F’s been knocking around in this blogger’s subconcious for some time, but the impetus for this post was an experience this past Labor Day weekend. While merrily cruising down NYC’s Fifth Avenue, an unwitting New Yorker would have run headlong into a case of gridlock at 57th Street. What could it be? Celebrities (pretty typical in these here parts.)? No, it was a huge mass of people standing in front of A&F’s flagship store, waiting to get in and taking pictures of what definitely seemed to be a highlight of their day.
There is no question that abercrombie and fitch has made some wrong moves, particularly in the area of diversity. Several years ago, the company made t-shirts that it considered fun and tongue-in-cheek. Just about everyone else, including many college student organizations, considered them racist. And in 2004, the company settled a $50 million class action lawsuit brought by former employees who claimed that the company was happy to hire African-Americans, Asians, Filipinos and other minorities as long as they worked in the stores’ stockrooms and not out on the selling floor. Fast forward to 2008, and the company is making progress. Today, the company claims that minorities make up 32% of its sales staff. It also has a huge “Diversity” section on its website. Of course this is A&F, so the section plays a video loop that features Asians, Latinos and African-Americans – all of whom are gorgeous and (most of whom are) in some state of undress. The company can’t give up everything!
You will see countless brands selling polo shirts, but if you are choosy, in terms of picking the trendiest, modish, sophisticated and durable polo, then you do not have any choice other than an Abercrombie polo. Young and old men are big fans of these shirts. They love to wear them throughout the day, for nothing can be more comfortable than wearing a polo shirt of Abercrombie & Fitch, along with a trouser of this brand. The polo shirts of this American brand have attained great popularity and at this point, they are being considered as globally loved shirts. This brand enjoys a strongly built customer base. It you talk about the love for polo shirts of Abercrombie & Fitch, and then you will come to know that the designers keep one important point in their mind that these shirts should be extraordinarily comfortable to wear.

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