Abercrombie & Fitch's Policy

The CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, Mike Jeffries, made it very clear that only cool people, the beautiful, the popular, or the thin should shop in their stores. Not part of the 'cool' crowd? Then he'd prefer you stay away from their stores.

"A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they never will. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."– Mike Jeffries

In an era where we are acutely aware of bullying, body image issues, eating disorders, mental health challenges, and the struggle to combat these issues in the daily lives of already over-stressed teenagers, one company has taken the battle for self-esteem to a new level. They are, and admit to being, exclusionary when it comes to their shoppers.

In a 2006 interview, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, Mike Jeffries, made some very troubling comments that, until recently, were forgotten. When asked about his company, he said, "...we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that." He added, "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he said. "Frankly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and lots of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."

"Good-looking," "cool," "attractive," and "popular" are key words Mr. Jeffries uses to describe his company and its customer base, but he didn't mean it in the sense that "everyone is attractive." These comments were more or less forgotten since the original interview, but recently his statements were reprinted in a Business Insider article, sparking an online backlash. This has led to Mr. Jeffries and his company being criticized on blogs, news sites, and their own Facebook page. For many, the complaint is very specific: girls and women who wear over a size 10 have no reason to try shopping there. They won't find anything that fits them.

Abercrombie & Fitch doesn't offer anything above a size 36 for girls, and any XL size for women is non-existent there. However, they do have XL-XXL sizes for men. This information might have gone unnoticed if it weren't for Business Insider resurrecting Abercrombie's policy on women's clothing sizes. Their competitors don't share these views. H&M offers up to size 46, and American Eagle goes up to size 48. H&M recently used the "extra-large" curves of model Jennie Runk in their swimwear collection. Although she's only a size 42, she has different body proportions than standard models. She would technically be too "fat" to shop at Abercrombie. H&M's choice to feature Ms. Runk offers a stark contrast to Abercrombie & Fitch's attitude.

While Abercrombie & Fitch's teen market may not yet see the problem with their policies, college consumers and parents of affluent teens have been voicing their discontent, promising to boycott, saying they'll remove Abercrombie clothing from their children's closets, and never spend a dime in their stores again.

This isn't the first time Abercrombie has faced trouble for insensitivity. In 2002, they released a line of T-shirts that were culturally offensive to Asian-Americans. These shirts featured cartoonish Asian characters as mascots for clothing companies. In 2006, parents were outraged when Abercrombie designed girls' shirts with slogans like "I had a nightmare I was a brunette," and "Who needs brains when you have these?" (referring to breasts).

What do you think about Abercrombie & Fitch?