Abercrombie & Fitch Co. aka Abercrombieandfitch

Abercrombie & Fitch is a specialty retailer encompassing four brands: Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie, Hollister Co., and Ruehl 925. The merchandise is sold in the brands' retail stores, catalogs, and online. As of 2006, the company operated 350 Abercrombie & Fitch stores in all U.S. states except New Mexico and Wyoming, in the District of Columbia, and three stores in Canada.

Founded in 1892, the company was for many decades mainly an elite sporting goods retailer. After many years of success, the company struggled economically from the late 1960s until it was purchased by The Limited in 1988 and revamped as a lifestyle brand.

In 1988, The Limited Inc. acquired Abercrombie & Fitch, determined to reinvigorate the ailing brand. The Limited had been successful in rolling out new concept stores, such as Express, which sold women's clothing and Victoria's Secret, which sold lingerie and beauty products.

Over the next decade, Abercrombie & Fitch was carefully rebuilt as a teen apparel merchandiser. The company began opening stores in upscale malls across America in the early 1990s, targeting teenagers and college students aged 18-24 from higher-income families.

Abercrombie & Fitch is a self-proclaimed "casual luxury" retailer. Much like Ralph Lauren (whose style is frequently evoked in Abercrombie & Fitch’s apparel), the clothing is fairly predictable: woven shirts, denim, miniskirts, cargo shorts, wool sweaters, polo shirts, and t-shirts can be found in most collections. Labels on clothing reinforce the company’s image as a casual luxury merchandiser and emphasize the quality and durability of the product.

The clothing produced in the 1990s was fairly consistent with the brand's preppy image and tended to be less trend-driven than today's offerings, which bear significantly less resemblance to traditional Northeastern prep school apparel. The store quickly became successful, and by the mid-1990s, there were dozens of Abercrombie & Fitch stores in the United States. Careful marketing made the brand synonymous with wealth and status among young patrons. In 1996, The Limited took Abercrombie & Fitch public on the New York Stock Exchange and gradually phased out its ownership of the company.

Abercombie and Hollister carry spring apparel and other clothing.

Abercrombie & Fitch operates three additional concept stores: abercrombie, a smaller version of the original store with youth sizes, which aims to attract patrons ages 7-14. The store uses the same moose logo, but the name is spelled with a lowercase "a". Some A&F items may say "Abercrombie", but no kids items have a Fitch reference. Hollister Co., which sells California-inspired apparel to attract patrons 13-25; and RUEHL, which sells business casual and leather goods to target ages 22-30. The company has expressed interest in developing a fifth concept, though there are no confirmed plans to introduce another brand to the market in the near future. As the Abercrombie & Fitch brand reaches its full growth potential in the U.S., the company is depending on the Hollister Co. and RUEHL concepts to act as its primary growth vehicles in the U.S. The company will also begin expanding the brands internationally, expanding to Europe by 2006 and Japan by 2007.