Abercrombie & Fitch

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Abercrombie & Fitch Co. brand
Image:Abercrombie Logo.PNG
Type Public (NYSE: ANF)
Establishment June 4, 1892 in Manhattan[1]
Headquarters 6301 Fitch Path
New Albany, Ohio 43054 United States
Key people David T. Abercrombie, Founder
Ezra Fitch, Co-Founder
Michael S. Jeffries, Chairman & CEO
Industry Fashion retail[2]
Apparel type Casual wear / Sportswear
Initials A&F / ANF / AF
Logo Moose
Theme
Color scheme Grayscale
Areas served  Canada
 United States
 United Kingdom
Store locations A&F brand: 357 in-mall / 3 flagships[3]
Entire Co. stores: 1081[3]
Other brands See A&F brands below
Revenue ▼ $3.540 Billion (2008, including the four existing brands)
▲ $1.6 billion (2007, A&F alone)[4][5]
Net income ▼ $272.2 Million (2008)[6]
Employees 10,000 (2008)
Website www.abercrombie.com

Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) (NYSE: ANF) is an American fashion retailer, headed by chairman and CEO Michael S. Jeffries. The A&F brand focuses on casualwear for a target consumer ages of 18 through 22. With over 300 locations in the United States, the brand has embarked on international expansion throughout various world markets.[7] Its youthful, racy image has become synonymous with the American youth and has been a mark of multiple parody and controversy. A&F currently operates four other brands: abercrombie, Hollister Co., Gilly Hicks, and RUEHL No.925 (shuttered by end of January 2010)[8] collectively ranging between the ages of 7 through 35.

Founded in 1892 by David T. Abercrombie, A&F had been an outfitter of sporting and excursion goods. It struggled financially from the late 1960s until it was purchased by The Limited in 1988 and repositioned, under the management of Mike Jeffries, as the aspirational "Casual Luxury" lifestyle brand in present form.[9]

Prominent figures who patronized the company in its excursion goods days include Teddy Roosevelt,[10] Amelia Earhart,[10][11] Greta Garbo,[10] Katharine Hepburn,[10] Clark Gable,[10] John Steinbeck,[12][13] John F. Kennedy,[13] Ernest Shackleton,[14] and Dwight Eisenhower.[13]

Contents

[edit] History

Main article: History of Abercrombie & Fitch
History of Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Image:Abercrombie Logo.PNG
1892 David Abercrombie establishes the company as Abercrombie Co. in New York City.
1900 Ezra Fitch joins as partner/co-founder.
1904 Re-christened as Abercrombie & Fitch Co..
1907 Abercrombie leaves. Fitch comes sole owner: The Fitch Years begin.
1909 The revolutionary A&F catalogue is released.
1910 Abercrombie & Fitch becomes first store to outfit both men and women in New York City.
1917 Moves into its historical Madison Avenue store.
Early 1920s A&F introduces Majong to the United States which gains high popularity. The company has accumulated an elite following.
1927 Charles Lindberg is outfitted by A&F for his historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1929 Ezra Fitch retires, and the company comes under succeeding leaders.
1939 Adopts the slogan The Greatest Sporting Goods Store in the World.
1950s Launches store openings nationwide. A&F president Guernsey remarks, "The Abercrombie & Fitch type does not care about the cost; he wants the finest quality," this becomes A&F's modern philosophy.
1976-78 After a financial decline, declares bankruptcy and closes doors. Oshman acquires the company, and fails to produce an uplifting image.
1988-1992 Limited Brands purchases A&F, and Mike Jeffries becomes president. Abercrombie & Fitch is re-established as a youthful upscale fashion retailer.
1996 Abercrombie & Fitch enters the NYSE and becomes an independent company.
1997 The A&F Quarterly publication is launched.
1998 The abercrombie brand is launched.
2000 The Hollister Co. brand is launched.
2001 Company operations move to Home Office in New Albany, Ohio.
2004 The RUEHL No.925 brand is launched.
2005-2007 First flagship store opens in New York City. Second flagship opens in Los Angeles. Thrid flagship opens in London, marks the beginning of international expansion.
2008 The Gilly Hicks brand is launched.
2009 The RUEHL No.925 brand is closed.

[edit] Management and marketing

[edit] Corporate officials

The following are the top corporate officials of Abercrombie & Fitch Co.[15]

  • Michael S. Jeffries - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jefferies has held this position since the 1990s. He has renovated the brand and oversees all aspects of the company.
  • Diane Chang - Executive Vice President of Sourcing
  • Leslee K. Herro - Executive Vice President of Planning and Allocation
  • David S. Cupps - Senior Vice President, Sec. and General Counsel
  • Thomas D. Lennox - Head of Corporate Communications
  • Richard Clarke - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
  • Amy Zehr - Vice President of Stores

The company is headquartered at "Home Office". It has a European branch in Milan, Italy.[16][17]

[edit] Stores

The Modern Canoe with wooden louvers (featuring the Spring Break 2007 marketing campaign picture).

The modern Canoe store design features white molding and louvers on the exterior.[18] The main marketing image lies against the front wall facing the entrance.The interiors are highlighted with dim ceiling-lights and spot lighting. Distinguishable aspects are the lingering scent of Fierce, an A&F fragrance, and the blasting electronic dance music. An undercover inspection which measured the noise levels in teen stores in a randomly selected mall, revealed that the noise level in Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Abercrombie kids stores was as loud as 90 decibels, comparable to heavy construction machinery noise and harmful to the ears. However, 80 decibels is the corporate store policy sound level.[19]

There are a few remaining chain store design which feature plaid carpeting and preppy wallpaper. The company operates 1,059 stores across all five brands. The A&F brand holds over 353[20] locations nationwide the United States, three in Canada, and one in London. Three flagship stores are located on Fifth Avenue in New York City, within the The Grove in Los Angeles, and at 7 Burlington Gardens in London.

[edit] Employment

The company uses brand representatives, now called "models", for customer service within the stores. The representatives have been required to buy and wear only Abercrombie & Fitch apparel but now they can wear any no logo clothing as long as it is within certain color schemes corresponding with the changing seasons. They must wear either abercrombie jeans or no logo jeans.[21] The "Impact Team" was created in 2004 to control merchandise within each store and maintain company standards. "Visual managers" are responsible for standardizing the store visually. Forms, lighting, photo marketing, fragrance presentations and brand representatives complying with the "look policy" are key aspects of the position.[22] Lawsuits have been placed against the company in the past years due to discriminatory employment practices. In 2004, the company was involved in a lawsuit, Gonzalez vs. Abercrombie & Fitch (see Legal issues & Controversy and Criticism below), for giving desirable positions to white applicants, to the exclusion of minorities. After settling out of court, the company established a branch to seek minority employees.[23][24]

In 2009, a 22-year old British woman with a prosthetic arm sued A&F due to discrimination in the workplace. Apparently, employees at the trendy retailer moved her to work in the back-room in order to hide her from costumers. They claimed that the cardigan she wore to cover the link between her arm and prosthesis did not go with the company's "look policy". [25]

[edit] The Look Policy

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The Look Policy at Abercrombie & Fitch is a dress code provided for all employees. Under the Look Policy all employees must wear Abercrombie & Fitch jeans or jeans with no stitching on the back pockets. Employees are allowed to wear any clothing that is one of the seasonal colors as long as it has no visible logo of another brand or that of a competitor. Clothing must also be gender appropriate and comply with the season. For footwear they must wear flip flops in the seasonal colors, and they can be from anywhere as long as they have no visible logo on them. Employees are also allowed to wear Lo-top canvas Converse ("chucks") in navy, white, grey, or brown. Black is never allowed on any other part of clothing as it seen as too contemporary. Even managers must follow the Look Policy. The only time an employee may stray from the look policy is if different clothing is listed on the "AAA list". The AAA list is that months featured clothes that all employees get for 50% off.

[edit] Advertising

A&F moose.

The official logo of Abercrombie & Fitch is the moose. The company markets through its sensual photographs with a beach, architectural, or mountainous backdrop in grayscale. The marketing photographer is Bruce Weber, who is known for his sexual photography for Calvin Klein and Polo Ralph Lauren.[26] Models and the photos pertaining to them were previewed seasonally on "A&F New Faces", a previous feature on the official website. After only featuring select photography, it was renamed "Photo Gallery." "A&F Casting" was introduced in place of "A&F New Faces" to advertise and to give information on being cast for marketing campaigns. The company only casts "brand reps" (store associates) for campaigns.

[edit] Merchandise and brand protection

The trademark slogan, Casual Luxury.

The company uses trademark Casual Luxury to promote the brand. The brand defines the slogan as using "the finest cashmere, pima cottons, and highest quality leather to create the ultimate in casual, body conscious clothing,"[27] and "implementing and/or incorporating time honored machinery ...to produce the most exclusive denim..."[27]

The brand carries Men's fragrances Fierce, Cologne 41, Proof, and Colden. Women's fragrances include Perfume 8, Classic, Perfume 41, and Wakely. Released at the same time, Fierce and 8 and Cologne41 and Perfume 41 are marketed to compliment one another. High-end fragrances Ezra Fitch (cologne) and Ezra parfum were described as the embodiment of "the Abercrombie & Fitch heritage," until they were discontinued. Cologne Proof was released in Christmas 2006 to be removed a year later (though some stores still carry Cologne Proof). Perfumes Ready is also among the retired fragrances. Fierce and 8 are the most heavily marketed fragrances as they are the signature scents of the brand overall.[28]

As the popularity of Abercrombie & Fitch goods increased, so did the counterfeiting of them. In 2006, the company launched the Abercrombie & Fitch Brand Protection Program to combat the issue worldwide (focusing more in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea) by working with legal forces globally.[29] Shane Berry, who joined the company in November 2005, was placed in charge of the program.[29] Berry is a former Supervisory Special Agent from the FBI, and was a part of its Intellectual Property Rights Program. The news release from A&F announcing its initiative stated that the "program will improve current practices and strategies by focusing on eliminating the supply of illicit Abercrombie & Fitch products."[29]

The Brand Protection program covers all A&F brands; mainly A&F, Hollister and RUEHL {shuttered by end of January 2010)[30].[29] Assuring that its consumers are aware of the issue, the Abercrombie & Fitch Brand Protection and abercrombie brand protection features suggest customers to purchase from authentic stores and to report suspected A&F counterfeiting.

The company's Abercrombie and Fitch brand gift cards have been recognized by Consumer Affairs as a "top pick" for not having deceptive features such as expiration dates, dormancy fees, and post-purchase fees.[31]

[edit] Other A&F brands

A&F currently has four other concepts apart from its namesake, Abercrombie & Fitch. While referred to as subsidiaries, the brands do not operate separately contrary to the definition; all brands are completely managed under the same Abercrombie & Fitch workforce. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. holds full rights and ownership to every trademark of the following brands.

abercrombie
Prep-school by Abercrombie & Fitch[32] Themed as "classic cool" for preteens 9 through 14, this is the children's version of Abercrombie & Fitch. Uses blue (against the A&F gray), blasts music from young artists, and spells marketing trademarks all-lowercase.
Hollister Co.
Southern California by Abercrombie & Fitch[32] Themed after "SoCal" for teenagers 12 through 24, Hollister is moderately priced[citation needed] compared to its parent brand. The brand's stores resemble surf shacks with dim lighting, and blast rock music. It is the first of these brands to offer a personal body care line.
RUEHL No.925 (shuttered by end of January 2010)[33]
Post-grad by Abercrombie & Fitch[32] Themed after Greenwich Village, this brand aims for post-collegiate 25 through 35 aged consumers. It has the highest price range among the A&F brands. This is the first brand to offer genuine leather purses and bags for women.
Gilly Hicks
The cheeky cousin of Abercrombie & Fitch[32] Themed after "Down Under" Sydney, Australia. The latest brand from Abercrombie & Fitch, it offers underwear and loungewear for women 18 and up.[34]

There is an ongoing movement by parent A&F to advertise all its four children brands as being "...by Abercrombie & Fitch." This is in effort to raise consumer awareness that the four brands abercrombie, HCO, Gilly Hicks, and RUEHL are BY A&F and are not stand-alone companies as some consumers believe. The anticipated result is a reputation-rise for the spin-off brands, by being advertised as being offspring of the successful Abercrombie & Fitch company.

[edit] Humanitarian works and sponsors

[edit] A&F Challenge

The A&F Challenge is an annual held Fundraiser event by Abercrombie & Fitch. It features running, walking, biking with entertainment and food. A&F hosted the 8th Annual A&F Challenge on September 13, 2008 on its Home Office campus in New Albany. The funds raised will go to the Ohio State University Medical Center's Program for Health. It focuses on "women's cancers and the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease."[35] The entertainment for the 2008 A&F challenge was Five Times August[36]

[edit] Inferno Elite Racing Team

Abercrombie & Fitch is a sponsor of the Inferno Elite Racing Team, a non-profit cycling team. The 2007 team uniforms have the "A&F" logo across the chest of their uniform which is accented with camouflage patterns.[37]

[edit] Scholarships

Abercrombie & Fitch partnered with the National Society of High School Scholars at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia on December 1, 2007 to offer $75,000 scholarships to NSHSS members.[38]

[edit] Future plans

After a turbulent Christmas 2008 fashion season with economic turn-down in the retail industry, Abercrombie & Fitch has adjusted its plans for 2009 to fit the persisting "environment".[39] The company's main commitments for the year is the openings of the HCO flagship (in SoHo), the abercrombie flagship (in Milan), and the two A&F flagships (in Milan and Tokyo).[39] There will be no EPS guidance for fiscal 2009.[39] The company estimates its total expenditures for fiscal 2009 to be $165 to $175 million USD ($125 million for new stores/remodeling and $45-50 million for various Home Office projects).[39] Plans on expansion in Europe have been slightly altered.[39]

On June 17, 2009, Abercrombie & Fitch stated and confirmed that they will be closing all Ruehl No.925 stores and eliminating the brand by January, 2010.[40]

[edit] Expansion campaign

The main long-term goal of Abercrombie & Fitch is to successfully execute its strategy of flagship openings for its brands in high-profile shopping centers worldwide.[41] Thorough research is completed before entering new markets. The aim is growth at a "deliberate pace".[42]

[edit] Canada

Canadian expansion is expected to continue, with more mall store locations for both brands in upcoming years. [43] Abercrombie & Fitch has released abercrombie's first international store in Canada. It opened in Sherway Gardens, Toronto, Ontario on August 21, 2008. Abercrombie & Fitch has opened abercrombie stores in the Toronto Eaton Centre and the West Edmonton Mall. Abercrombie & Fitch has opened two other Hollister Co. stores in Newmarket, Ontario in the Upper Canada Mall[44] and Fairview Mall in Toronto, Ontario.[45] Another Hollister Co. was opened at Pacific Centre Mall in Vancouver, British Columbia in early 2009. A third abercrombie kids was recently opened at West Edmonton Mall.

[edit] Europe

The company has been considering European expansion for years and decided to enter the European market believing that the demand for Abercrombie & Fitch has grown strong there.[46] After its expansion into the United Kingdom in 2007, where it launched its European flagship store in London, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. plans to continue expansion in the area with key locations - preliminary talks about opening a store in Dublin, Ireland by 2011.[47] Abercrombie & Fitch has been attempting to secure locations in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark and Sweden.[46][48] For fiscal 2008, the company plans to open four Hollister Co. stores as well in the UK.[49]

  • Copenhagen flagship: To be located at Kobmagergade 11 in a 16,000 sq ft (1,500 m2) space (first constructed in 1910), the flagship will been designed to implement old neoclassical Danish architecture along with the A&F lifestyle.[48] The opening date has been moved to 2010 from 2009.[39]
  • Milan flagship: This flagship to open in late 2009[50][39] is situated on the prestigious Via Corso Matteotti next to San Babila Square and Meda Square[51] to open in 2009. It will open along with the abercrombie kids flagship.
  • Paris flagship: Approval has just gone through for the construction of an A&F flagship on the famed Champs-Élysées. It is expected to open doors in 2011.[50]

[edit] Asia

The company has also taken into account the high demand for the Abercrombie & Fitch brand in Asian markets, apart from Europe. The brand, marketed as a near-luxury concept, will easily fit into the Chinese and Japanese markets where luxury consumption is noticably high.[52]

Thus A&F now anticipates the opening of its first ever Asian retail location by late 2009.[53][2][50] Modeled as an international flagship store, it is set to strategically open in the glitzy shopping district Ginza (a leading upscale global shopping location) of Tokyo, Japan. This flagship will become the fourth opening, and the company looks forward to additional small retail locations in Japan in the near future.[54]

While not in the scale of flagships, A&F is looking forward to retail spots in China as well.[55]

[edit] Legal issues

Since the rise in popularity of Abercrombie & Fitch, the brand has been involved in legal conflicts over employment practices and clothing style.

[edit] Lawsuit against American Eagle Outfitters

In 2002, Abercrombie & Fitch filed a lawsuit against American Eagle Outfitters, claiming that they copied their garments' designs, among other things. The lawsuit was based on a trade dress claim, stating that American Eagle Outfitters had very closely mimicked Abercrombie & Fitch's products' visual appearance and packaging. Specifically, A&F claimed that American Eagle Outfitters copied particular articles of clothing, in-store displays and advertisements, and even the A&F product catalog. Despite the admission that American Eagle may have utilized very similar materials, designs, in-store displays, symbols, color combinations, and patterns as Abercrombie & Fitch, the court ruled that there was not an excessive level of similarity to confuse potential customers, and therefore the court ruled in favor of the defendant, American Eagle.[56]

[edit] Employment practices

In 2004 lawsuit González v. Abercrombie & Fitch, the company was accused of discriminating against ethnic minorities by preferentially offering desirable positions to White American employees.[57] The company agreed to an out-of-court settlement of the class action suit. As part of the settlement terms, Abercrombie and Fitch agreed to pay US$45 million to rejected applicants and affected employees, include more minorities in advertising campaigns, appoint a Vice President of Diversity, hire 25 recruiters to seek minority employees, and discontinue the practice of recruiting employees at primarily white fraternities and sororities.[23][58]

Dwight A. McBride has written Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch: Essays on Race and Sexuality, which explores greater American intergroup relations while criticizing Abercrombie and Fitch.[59]

In June 2009, law student Riam Dean, who had worked at the A&F's flagship store in London's Saville Row, took the company to an employment tribunal. Dean, who was born without a left forearm, claimed that although she was initially given special permission to wear clothing that covered her prosthetic limb, soon after she was told that her appearance breached the company's "Look Policy," and she was sent to work in the stock room, out of sight of customers. Dean is suing the company for disability discrimination, and is seeking up to £20,000 in damages.[60]

[edit] Controversy and criticism

Since its re-establishment in 1988, Abercrombie & Fitch has faced numerous accusations in regards to its employment practices, merchandise, and advertising campaigns which have been described as sexually explicit and racist.[61][26]

[edit] A&F Quarterly

Main article: A&F Quarterly

Conservative and religious groups banned the original American publication of A&F Quarterly (published from 1997 to 2003) for its sexually explicit nature.[62] The magazine contained nude photography by Bruce Weber, articles about sex, and recipes for alcoholic beverages. Also acting as a catalog, the Quarterly displayed the brand's merchandise with information and prices. Advertisements for the A&F Quarterly appeared in Interview, Out, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.[63]

Despite a company policy restricting sale of the publication to minors, critics charged that the publication was readily sold to minors. In 2003, an array of religious organizations, women's rights activists, and Asian American groups organized boycotts and protests over the publication, and the "Christmas Edition" of the catalog was removed from stores.[64] However, Jeffries said he chose to discontinue the catalog, because "Frankly, [he] was getting sick of the old one; it was getting boring."[65]

[edit] Product criticism

In 2002, Abercrombie & Fitch sold a shirt that featured the slogan "Wong Brothers Laundry Service—Two Wongs Can Make It White" with smiling figures in conical straw hats, a depiction of early Chinese immigrants. The company discontinued the designs and apologized after a boycott started by an Asian American student group at Stanford University.[66] That same year, abercrombie kids removed a line of thong underwear sold for girls in pre-teen children's sizes after parents mounted nationwide storefront protests. The underwear included phrases like "Eye Candy" and "Wink Wink" printed on the front.[67]

More t-shirt controversies occurred twice in 2004. The first incident involved a shirt featuring the phrase, "It's All Relative in West Virginia," a jab at alleged incest relations in rural America. West Virginia governor Bob Wise spoke out against the company for depicting "an unfounded, negative stereotype of West Virginia," but the shirts were not removed.[68] Later, another t-shirt that said "L is for Loser" next to a picture of a male gymnast on the rings gathered publicity. The company stopped selling the shirt in October 2004 after USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi announced a boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch for mocking the sport.[69]

In 2005, the Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania launched a "girlcott" of the store for selling T-shirts that read, "Who needs brains when you have these?", "Available for parties," and "I had a nightmare I was a brunette." The campaign received national coverage on The Today Show, and the company pulled the shirts from stores on November 5, 2005.[70]

Bob Jones University and its affiliated pre-collegiate schools along with other Christian schools have prohibited Abercrombie & Fitch clothing from being "worn, carried, or displayed" on its campuses because of "an unusual degree of antagonism to the name of Christ and an unusual display of wickedness" in the company's promotions.[71]

After Abercrombie & Fitch raised its price points in 2004, its products have been described as overpriced.[65] After the company opened its flagship in London, the brand was criticized in the UK because the merchandise that was offered to the customers cost double (or even a direct $/£ swap) the prices found in the United States.[72]

[edit] Parody

Improv Everywhere, a comedy group that pulls public pranks en masse, parodied A&F's ads featuring bare-chested male models by having 111 "agents" enter the A&F store in New York City and remove their shirts. This drew mixed, but mostly amused, reactions from customers and staff, but store security quickly ejected the IE members.[73]

MADtv, a sketch comedy television series, parodied A&F's homoerotic advertising images and hiring practices. In these skits, three Abercrombie & Fitch Employees are depicted as vain, vapid, unhelpful, and overly coifed uptight men. However, in one sketch, a young woman named "Apple" (Alanis Morissette) reminds the male employees that Abercrombie is also about "girls with sun-kissed skin and medium sized breasts who get together at dawn to play topless flag football."

6teen, a tween and preteen television series, parodied A&F's name and store as Albertross & Finch, which Jonesy gets a job there in one episode.

Family Guy, a comedy television show, once spoofed Abercrombie & Fitch in an episode where it was claimed that running an empire would be "harder than finding diversity in an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog", and later it shows Stewie Griffin and Brian Griffin looking in an A&F Catalog, asking "Where is he?" At which point they find a small black man hidden behind two white models.

[edit] The Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department and Trauma Center

In 2008, Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio agreed to rename its emergency room to the Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department and Trauma Center in exchange for a $10 million donation from Abercrombie & Fitch.[74] A letter written by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, signed by over 100 doctors and children's advocacy groups, argued against the renaming, for the "company's appalling history of targeting children with sexualized marketing and clothing."[75]


[edit] References

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  34. ^ Abercrombie & Fitch F2Q07 Earnings Call Transcript
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  36. ^ [1]
  37. ^ Proud Home Of The Inferno Racing Elite Cycling Team**
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  42. ^ Hazlett, Curt. "Brits Get Fitched: Saucy American brand shakes up London’s formal Savile Row". http://www.icsc.org/srch/sct/sct0806/retail_abercombie.php. Retrieved on December 2008. 
  43. ^ Abercrombie accelerating overseas plans
  44. ^ "Upper Canada Mall: What's New - Coming Soon!". Ivanhoe Cambridge. http://uppercanada.shopping.ca/cambridge/jsp/wh_wh.jsp?mallid=upp. Retrieved on 2008-01-25. 
  45. ^ fairviewmall.ca
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  47. ^ Abercrombie & Fitch in talks about Irish store: ThePost.ie
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  49. ^ Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - Investor Relations - News Release
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  57. ^ $40 Million Paid to Class Members in December 2005 in Abercrombie & Fitch Discrimination Lawsuit Settlement
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  59. ^ [3]. "In. ..10...provocative essays, McBride explores. ..points. ..[including] the way the hair and clothing guidelines for Abercrombie & Fitch employees ensure an almost all-white staff)."
  60. ^ BBC News: Disabled woman sues clothes store
  61. ^ Poseurs Paradise! What's it really like to work at the new Abercrombie & Fitch store?
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  67. ^ Dial, Karla. Boundless. Megan vs. A&F
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  69. ^ Sprow, Chris. "L is for Lighten Up". Flak magazine. http://www.flakmag.com/opinion/loser.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-21. 
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  71. ^ Bob Jones University Student Expectations. Retrieved August 21, 2007
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  73. ^ Improve Everywhere. No Shirts. Improv Everywhere's blog post on the "No Shirts" prank.
  74. ^ Elliot, Stuart (March 12, 2008). "When a Corporate Donation Raises Protests". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/business/media/12adco.html?scp=7&sq=Abercrombie%20Fitch&st=cse. Retrieved on 2008-09-20. 
  75. ^ Cut Abercrombie name from ER, advocates say - CNN.com


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