Declining sales, bad press lead Abercrombie & Fitch to drop logo

NEW YORK, Aug. 29 (UPI) —

Apparel maker Abercrombie & Fitch will no longer market their clothing using the hook of the brand’s famous logo, as fewer teens value brand names.




On Thursday, after announcing their tenth straight decline in quarterly sales, Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries confirmed the death of the A&F moose and serif text.




"In the spring season we are looking to take the North American logo business to practically nothing," Jeffries said.




Recession coupled with a reputation for prejudice created a bad decade for the brand once coveted by well-financed suburban teens.




In 2004, A&F settled a racial discrimination suit for $50 million, a moral and PR gaffe that only worsened two years later when Jeffries smugly told losers to shop somewhere else.




"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," Jeffries said in a 2006 interview with Salon.




"Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid 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."




Jeffries’ comments caused immediate backlash, motivating one offended former customer to launch the #FitchTheHomeless Twitter campaign, encouraging regretful A&F customers to donate their clothes to homeless shelters.




Unable to rebound from their own mistakes and Americans’ shifting priorities, A&F hopes removing references to the company will emphasize the quality of the apparel, not a dated reverence for branding.




"We are confident that the evolution of our assortment will drive further improvements going forward, in particular as we move past the headwind of adverse likes in our logo business as we work to strategically reduce that element in our assortment."




Apparel produced for sales outside North America will be largely unchanged.




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