Abercrombie & Fitch is a specialty retailer encompassing four brands: Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Ruehl 925. The merchandise is sold in the brands' retail stores, catalogs, and online. As of 2006, the company operated 350 Abercrombie & Fitch stores in all U.S. states except New Mexico and Wyoming, and five stores in Canada (two A&F in Toronto and one in Edmonton and two Hollisters in Toronto).
 

Founded in 1892, the company was for many decades mainly an elite sporting goods retailer. After many years of success, the company struggled economically from the late 1960s until it was purchased by The Limited in 1988 and revamped as a lifestyle brand.

History

During the beginning of the 20th century, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. was one of the most popular retail stores for America's sporting elite. The East Coast company's clientele consisted of mainly big-game hunters, fishermen, and outdoorsmen. Abercrombie & Fitch not only outfitted wealthy people, it also outfitted some of America's most influential leaders and celebrities on their excursions. Every president from Theodore Roosevelt to Gerald Ford is said to have been outfitted by the company in some capacity (Teddy Roosevelt was an especially enthusiastic outdoorsman and Abercrombie & Fitch customer, and he frequently visited the store in preparation for his famous African safaris). Other famous people to pass through Abercrombie & Fitch's doors include Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable, and author Ernest Hemingway purchased at an Abercrombie & Fitch store.

Abercrombie & Fitch began as a small waterfront shop and factory in lower Manhattan on June 4, 1892. David Abercrombie, born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, was a former trapper, prospector, topographer and railroad surveyor. He was also an inventor, an ingenious designer of tents, rucksacks and other camping equipment. It was his love of the great outdoors that inspired him to begin Abercrombie & Co., a shop dedicated to selling only the highest quality camping, fishing and hunting gear. His clientele consisted mostly of professional hunters, explorers and trappers. In 1900, Ezra Fitch, a wealthy New York lawyer and loyal customer, expressed a desire to buy into the growing company. Abercrombie accepted his offer, and Fitch joined as a partner. Soon thereafter, the shop moved to a larger location at 314 Broadway. In 1904, the store became incorporated and the official name of the company was changed to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.

The partnership, however, was ill-fated. David Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch were stubborn, hot-tempered men, and both had vastly differing opinions on how best to run the establishment. Abercrombie was more conservative, content to continue the store as it was, selling professional gear to professional outdoorsmen. Fitch, on the other hand, was more of a visionary. He was positive that the future of the business lay in expansion, selling the outdoors and its delights to more of the general public. The two quarrelled frequently, often violently, even as the company grew increasingly successful. In 1907, Abercrombie sold his share in the company to Fitch and returned to manufacturing outdoor goods. Fitch continued the business with other partners and was, for the first time, able to direct the company in a manner to his pleasing.

Fitch determined that the store ought to have an outdoor feeling. Stock was not hidden behind glass cabinets. Instead, it was displayed as if in use. He set up a tent and equipped it as if it were out in the middle of the wilds of the Adirondacks. A campfire blazed in one corner, where an experienced guide was always in attendance, imparting valuable information to interested customers. Part of Fitch's strategy to expand the company was the creation of a mail-order catalog. In 1909, Abercrombie & Fitch mailed out over 50,000 copies of its 456 page catalog, which included outdoor clothing, camping gear, articles, and advice columns. The cost of the catalog nearly bankrupted the company, but it proved to be a profitable marketing device. By 1913, the store moved to a more fashionable and easily accessible midtown address just off Fifth Avenue, expanding its inventory to include sport clothing. A&F became the first store in New York to supply such clothing to women as well as men. In 1917, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. moved yet again to a twelve-story building on Madison Avenue. The store occupied the entire available space, making it the world's largest sporting goods store. Outside, a sign proclaimed, "Where the Blazed Trail Crosses the Boulevard."

The flagship store included many different amenities. In the basement there was a shooting range, on the mezzanine there was paraphernalia for skiing, archery, skin-diving, and lawn games. The second through the fifth floors were reserved for clothing that was suitable for any climate or terrain. On the sixth floor, there was a picture gallery and a bookstore that focused on sporting themes, a watch repair facility and a golf school, fully equipped with a resident professional. The seventh floor included a gun room, stuffed game heads, and about seven hundred shot guns and rifles. The eighth floor was dedicated solely to fishing, camping, and boating. It also included a desk that belonged to a fly- and bait-casting instructor who gave lessons at the pool, which was located on the roof. The fishing section of the store alone was stocked with over 48,000 flies and over 18,000 fishing lures. The clerks hired at Abercrombie & Fitch were not professional salesmen, but rugged outdoorsmen. Talking was their pleasure and selling was performed only at the customers' insistence.

In 1928, Ezra Fitch retired from the company. Despite the change in ownership, Abercrombie & Fitch continued to expand. In 1939, it adopted the slogan, "The Greatest Sporting Goods Store in the World." By 1962, the company operated stores in Chicago(Von Lengerke & Antoine, an affiliated sporting goods retailer since 1928), and San Francisco, wintertime-only stores in Palm Beach and Sarasota, Florida; and summertime-only stores in Bayhead, New Jersey; and Southampton, [[New York)], and Hyannis, Massachusetts. The expansion continued through the early 1970's, when the company opened new stores in Colorado Springs, Colorado(the Broadmoor Hotel); Short Hills, New Jersey; Bal Harbour, Florida;[Troy], Michiganand its final expansion in Oakbrook, Illinois. Despite the chain's apparent success, the company began to falter financially in the late 1960s and went bankrupt in 1977. Oshman's, a sporting goods retailer, acquired Abercrombie soon thereafter, but the company continued to struggle.

During 1988, The Limited Inc. (now called Limited Brands) acquired Abercrombie & Fitch, determined to reinvigorate the ailing brand. The Limited had been successful in rolling out new concept stores, such as Express, which sold women's clothing, and Victoria's Secret, which sold lingerie and beauty products. Over the next decade, Abercrombie & Fitch was carefully rebuilt as a teen apparel merchandiser. The company began opening stores in upscale malls across America in the early 1990s, targeting teenagers and college students aged 18-24 from higher-income families.

Abercrombie & Fitch is a self-proclaimed "casual luxury" retailer. Much like Ralph Lauren (whose style is frequently evoked in Abercrombie & Fitch’s apparel), the clothing is fairly predictable: woven shirts, denim, miniskirts, cargo shorts, wool sweaters, polo shirts, and t-shirts can be found in most collections. Labels on clothing reinforce the company’s image as a casual luxury merchandiser and emphasize the quality and durability of the product. The clothing produced in the 1990s was fairly consistent with the brand's preppy image and tended to be less trend-driven than today's offerings, which bear significantly less resemblance to traditional Northeastern prep school apparel. The store quickly became successful, and by the mid-1990s, there were dozens of Abercrombie & Fitch stores in the United States. Careful marketing made the brand synonymous with wealth and status among young patrons. In 1996, The Limited took Abercrombie & Fitch public on the New York Stock Exchange and gradually phased out its ownership of the company.

The original store concept (referred to as the "chain store" concept) hearkened back to the outdoorsy image of company's early years. The store resembled a hunting lodge, with plaid carpeting, dark wood fixtures, and antler chandeliers. However, the company introduced a new store concept (referred to as the "canoe store" concept) in the late 1990s to accommodate its rapid growth. The first canoe store opened in June 1996 in Chesterfield Mall (Store #0634) in Chesterfield (St. Louis), MO. This original canoe store, however, does not have a white wooden front like most of today's A&F stores, but rather a tan stucco front with navy awnings. A moose head is mounted above the cashwrap and a canoe is mounted in the main room of each canoe store. Unlike the chain store, which typically has a wider storefront and two entrances, the canoe store has one main entrance and is walled off into at least five rooms. The company is in the process of converting all of its chain store concepts into canoe stores.