Abercrombie & B*tch

  Image Source: http://www.empowernetwork.com/justindavis/files/2013/05/Abercrombie_Fitch_Logo.jpg
I have been struggling to find an appropriate way to start this post, as I don't know how to begin without sounding like a have a bias towards one side of the argument. It's with this that I have decided to start this post simply with an official quote that came from Abercrombie & Fitch CEO, Michael Jefferies in a 2006 Salon interview in order to let you decide your own opinion of this character before I start.
So here it is:
"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,"....
"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 A&F's clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either."..
"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"
Its safe to say that this statement when I saw it did strongly turn me against the clothing brand that is Abercrombie & Fitch, which was saddening for me, as it, along with its co-brand (Hollister) are two of my favorite clothing shops to buy from. I like the way they fit, I like their relaxed beach style and I feel that the quality of their clothing for the money that you pay is well worth it when comparing to other clothing shops in roughly the same price bracket, such as the likes of Topman or All Saints.
However, since seeing this statement all over Facebook roughly about 2 months ago now I have yet to return to my local Hollister shop or to even go onto the A&F website, and I have a few strong reasons why.
Personally I was never considered one of the 'cool kids' at school. I never had that keen of an interest in sport or being popular, in honesty I generally preferred music and spending countless hours in my room playing online on Xbox Live with my 'Online friends' as that was where I felt most comfortable. It is with this that when I saw what Mr Jefferies had said that it really put me off of these brands. I have always been very conscious of what I wear and generally pride myself on my appearance. However now I just don't feel as though I am welcome in these shops, and in all honesty I don't want to give money to a company that openly doesn't want people who don't 'belong' to shop in their stores.
I have never been a person for bullying, in fact, for most of my childhood and right up until secondary school (where I grew up and realised that violence wasn't always the answer) I spent most of my time fighting the bullies and standing up for quieter kids in my year that they would pick on merely because they wouldn't retaliate - It was always helpful for me that I was always generally quite tall for my age and so I didn't feel intimidated by the bullies.
With this I am brought on to my next reason of why I just can't look at this company the same way anymore, and don't think that I ever will. Yes, Jefferies has now released an official apology stating: "We look forward to continuing this dialog and taking concrete steps to demonstrate our commitment to anti-bullying in addition to our on-going support of diversity and inclusion", but i'm just not buying it. To anyone who has been bullied in the past or witnessed bullying in the past, does this not just seem exactly like those kids in school, who when caught bullying will say anything they can and act as innocent as possible to the teacher in order to get away with their actions; when in reality they haven't changed at all and will just learn from the incident on how to be more discrete about their actions? Cause that's exactly what it looks like to me, especially when you consider the fact that it took Jefferies almost 7 years to actually make this apology as it only came to light earlier this year when it went viral on social networking sites (showing clearly to me that he doesn't feel any differently and that he is merely apologising to cover his own back and because it is the sensible thing to do from a profitable businesses point of view).
In conclusion, you can see I have a very one-sided opinion on this matter. I feel that Abercrombie & Fitch and their CEO Jefferies have a lot to think about a re-evaluate in their opinions on people and the way they lead their lives - singling out and relegating people solely on appearance and the way they choose to live their lives is just wrong on every level and until I truly see a change in this company and the way that it is run, I can guarantee that I will not be returning to their stores.
I hope you have enjoyed this post and I would love to hear your opinions on this matter, whether they are the same as mine or different. And as always if you give the blog a follow and share it around that would help up greatly. :)
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