Wealth Blog | Are Hong Kong kids 'cool' enough for Abercrombie & Fitch? Shares tumble after CEO gaffe
It is wise to be very careful what you say in public. In the digital age, nothing is ever forgotten, as Abercrombie and Fitch’s chief executive officer Mike Jeffries now knows, to his cost.
It is wise to be very careful what you say in public. In the digital age, nothing is ever forgotten, as Abercrombie and Fitch’s chief executive officer Mike Jeffries now knows, to his cost.
The upmarket clothing company’s first quarter US sales fell 17 per cent, dramatically short of market earnings expectations. Offensive remarks by Jeffries in a 2006 interview that recently resurfaced are being blamed for the sales slump; he said a lot of people “don't belong” in the brand’s clothes – because they were for “cool kids" only.
“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” Jeffries said in a 2006 Salon article. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-America kids 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.”
It proved the guy was not only bent on business suicide, but was racist and illiterate as well. The comments got dredged up again six years later - in a Business Insider blog detailing the reason why Abercrombie and Fitch only sells pint-sized clothes.
Howls of Protest
Not surprisingly, equality and every other sort of group is up in arms about it and for several weeks outraged protesters have been expressing their views at Abercrombie and Fitch outlets all over America and at the corporate headquarters in New Albany, Ohio.
Perhaps it’s time for this brand to reconsider its downer on fat kids – have they seen the average size of American teenagers? Apart from being offensive, he is probably excluding 50 per cent of his potential customer base. Fat teenagers have money too.