MovieChat Forums > Man's Favorite Sport? (1964) Discussion > Abercrombie and Fitch

Abercrombie and Fitch

posted 17 years ago by cowgoesmoo
6 replies | jump to latest

We watched this last night at an Easter/family get together. A&F features prominently in the first act of this film. I asked my Dad "Since when does Abercrombie and Fitch sell fishing equipment???" He said, "Oh yeah, it was more like LL Bean many years ago." He had forgotten all about them and had no idea that it was still in business and had radically changed what it sold, let alone the controversy over its advertising campaigns.

I'll have to go to the A&F website now to see how/when/why they changed so much.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mikeoak840 13 years ago

Abercrombie & Fitch WAS a major sporting goods and travel supply company. And very high-end, top of the line sporting goods. You could buy safaris to Africa with all the gear, fising trips to Montana or Alaska or Scotland, hunting in Canada or England or wherever.

They went belly up in the 70s/80s and someone just bought the name for what was then called sports wear but is now more like casual wear. Banana Republic also had sporting goods, clothes & supplies. Gap bought them because they were so profitable and successful...and turned it in to just another overpriced blah clothing store.

[–] Betty-Please 13 years ago

I used to love Banana Republic. Their stores had safari clothing and gear and decorations included big Land Rovers and rope bridges in a jungle setting. A&F was quite the sporting goods store back in the day. Now they're both just hollow shells of their former selves.

[–] mikeoak840 12 years ago

A big retailer (in this case, The Gap) starts to sweat that the competition is stealing customers and affecting their bottom line. The competition has new, fresh, innovative product lines and unique marketing. The big retailer says "Let's not take the time to start a line that's new and innovative and unique ourselves. We'll buy this profitable upstart and just let them run it like they have been. We'll save all the research and start-up costs and be running at a profit from the get-go. Our shareholders will love us because of the new revenue stream we've created!" And then they start tinkering with the new subsidiary...because they know so much more about running a great business...and they turn the subsidiary into just another one of their shoddy shops. And then they wonder what happened. They just don't get it. It's just like screenwriters who take an excellent book by an excellent writer (example - Black Dahlia by James Ellroy) and screw it all up with new characters, plot lines that don't work, and inserting their crappy unsold script ideas (which are unsold because they ARE crappy), and an excellent well-told story in the book becomes a mess on-screen.

[–] fegirst 12 years ago

Actually, Banana Republic started as a mail-order surplus store. I used to get their catalogs full of Italian Army wool pants and Israeli Army knapsacks and stuff like that. Eventually they started making their own military-ish clothing and equipment, and that led to them becoming "Banana Republic Safari & Travel Clothing Co." and they started opening stores. And then they sold out to the Gap and became Gap-ish.

My father used to shop at A&F. They were known for having the highest-end equipment for the "field & stream" sports; I don't think they sold stick-and-ball-sport sporting goods.

There is a very funny dirty limerick about the old Abercrombie and Fitch which I learned as a boy, which I say to myself every time I see a kid in an A&F t-shirt. I am quite sure the Terms & Conditions of Use prevent me from posting it.

[–] Noufa (397) 6 years ago

This is funny. I had the same conversation with my dad a decade ago. He gave me a sweater by A&F. I only knew the brand from that stupid LFO song. I tried to be grateful but he must have noticed my ambivalence. Because he reassured me that it was a good brand "like Orvis, they mostly make fishing gear."

I can't think of a more radical change in branding. Despite being cheaper, Banana Republic still has a pretty conservative image. A&F is both poorly made & Ed Hardy level obnoxious.