How Abercrombie & Fitch Lost Its Shirt with CJ Franco and Leslie Liao | 64

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the late '90s, Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries transformed the once defunct sporting goods store into the hottest brand in America. He did that by intentionally making Abercrombie & Fitch seem unattainable for any kids he deemed ""uncool."" But after crossing multiple lines with racial discrimination, offensive graphic tees, and absolutely appalling thongs for middle schoolers... Jeffries fell out of style. As sales continued to plummet, investors rightfully gave Jeffries the boot.

Leslie Liao (The Tonight Show, Don't Tell Comedy) and CJ Franco (FBoy Island, The GOAT) join Misha to pull at the threads of Abercrombie & Fitch.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Imagine a world where you could listen to The Big Flop without any breaks?
0:04.7	Newsflash, you can.
0:06.6	By joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts.
0:11.0	You'll get early access to episodes of The Big Flop and enjoy them entirely ad-free.
0:17.1	It's the ultimate way to immerse yourself in the drama of these business debacles.
0:27.6	At the massive, 300-acre wooded Abercrombie and Fitch headquarters in Ohio,
0:38.4	journalist Benoit Denisette Lewis, shadows Mike Jeffries,
0:43.2	Abercrombie's eccentric CEO for an article in Salon.
0:48.3	Jeffreys, Benoit notes, is an odd duck.
0:52.1	He's in his 60s, but his uniform consists of polos, jeans, and flip-flops,
0:58.1	like a middle-aged college kid. He surrounds himself with hot, young people everywhere he goes,
1:05.4	on his company's jet and parties, and here at work, where everyone dresses in Abercrombie,
1:11.7	rolls around on scooters, and sits by the big bonfire whenever they're not attending to their
1:17.1	bosses' needs. All this, while dance music pumps constantly through speakers in every building
1:24.2	on the property. It's time to do layouts for the Christmas shopping season.
1:29.7	So Jeffreys and Benoit enter a dimly lit space meant to look like an Abercrombie and Fitch.
1:36.8	The Uber cool store every millennial tween is dying to shop at.
1:47.4	Jeffreys seems agitated.
1:53.1	He's already lost his mind over a female mannequin that just didn't look right.
1:54.2	The fix?
2:00.6	Lower the jeans and pin the pants so she looks skinnier, whatever it takes to make her look less butch.
2:02.8	Ew.
	...

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