Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF) is well known
for controversy with their edgy catalogue and stores with half naked models/ greeters out front. In response to these greeters Improv Everywhere a youtube subscriber group recruited 111 random men to go shirtless in the 5th Ave store in NYC see below. Some even got kicked out trying to buy a shirt!
Very ANF dude
ANF has done well because it has targeted itself as an exclusive brand targeting "cool and popular kids". A recent uproar has the been discovery that they do not stock XL or XXL women's clothing because they do not want overweight women wearing their brands. This uproar has added another controversy to the list. You will be probably right to guess it takes someone who is a little quirky to run such a company. In a 2006 interview with Salon, Michael Jeffries the CEO said
"In every school there are the cool and popular kids and
then there are the not so cool kids. 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.
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."
It is an amazing article and probably explains why he keeps a low profile publicly, he will be in trouble every time. He is either crazy or a genius further searches on the CEO show that he
is probably crazy.
From Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-18/models-on-abercrombie-jet-had-rules-on-proper-underwear.html
The only way to fly
The models working on ANF's Gulfstream G550 had rules for serving the
CEO Michael Jeffries.
"Clean-shaven males had to
wear a uniform of Abercrombie polo shirts, boxer briefs, flip-flops and a
“spritz” of the retailer’s cologne, according to an “Aircraft Standards”
manual, disclosed in an age-discrimination lawsuit brought by a former pilot.
Among the 40-plus pages of detailed instructions: black gloves had to be used
when handling silverware and white gloves to lay the table, the song “Take Me
Home” had to be played when passengers entered the cabin on return flights and
Jeffries’s dogs -- identified in the document as Ruby, Trouble and Sammy -- had
different seating arrangements based on which ones were traveling."
My vote for the craziest company around
This is a company that punishes staff who make mistakes with push ups. The ANF CEO really is the Willy Wonka of the retail industry!
Jason
Disclosure: Decisive has no position in ANF
stock.
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