Abercrombie Moose Soon To Be Extinct

August 29, 2014

Abercrombie Moose Soon to Be Extinct

Abercrombie and Fitch, the 20th century sporting goods store turned controversial mallwear label, has seen sales decline significantly over the last few years, and the most recent dip is prompting a change: Abercrombie is dropping its moose logo from most of its clothing.

If you’re hoping a return to Abercrombie’s tweed-and-shotgun roots, you’ll be disappointed (and frankly you’re probably well outside of Abercrombie’s target demo). The chain attributes its loss of business to the rise of fast fashion retailers like H+M, and intends to steer its designs away from its dominant copy-of-a-copy-of-prep theme toward more of-the-moment designs. Safe to say the prep pastiche moment is over.

Teenagers’ taste can be more nuanced and sensitive than they often get credit for. This represents something of a sea change in tween/teen clothing tastes that’s been coming for awhile, as kids’ consume more, often cheaper and borderline disposable clothing and are arguably more familiar with trickle-down trends from runways and celebrities than ever. No longer is an embroidered pony or moose a signifier of cool.

-Pete