Putting the word forever in a brand always was a risk. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles.

The wear it a few times and throw it out clothing brand Forever, 21, has gone into bankruptcy protection for the second time in six years.

The company says its undoing was competition from foreign fast fashion companies.

Marketplaces Kaylee Wells looks at how

it fell apart at the seams. After the first bankruptcy filing six years ago, we could still keep

going to Forever 21 stores because sometimes companies file for bankruptcy. They fix some problems

and they survive. But the problems that brought it to the brink in 2019 didn't really go away.

James Gellert co-founded the business analytics company Rapid Ratings. He says Forever 21 is not bouncing back this time.

Because the company's financial health is low, its debt is really high, and customers have started shopping elsewhere.

For any of the companies that are at all three of those problems, it then becomes a bit of a death now.

And a lot has changed in the past six years.

TEMU didn't exist until 2022.

Sheehan took off around the same time.

Now they're both a primary reason for Forever 21's downfall, says John Mercer with the research company, Corsight.

Companies like Sheehan and Timu, who are grabbing tens of billions of dollars of sales, most of that is coming from incumbents, legacy retailers.

Retailers like Forever 21. Those other places are winning out because simply,

their clothes are cheaper, Mercer says, in a time when the demand is high for cheap clothes.

Because Americans are feeling the pressure from higher inflation, they've offered extremely

competitive prices. Thing is, similar companies, Zara, H&M, Uniclo, they're still in business.

So the market has been tough, but some of Forever 21's problems are unique to Forever 21.

Santiago Galino, who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School,

says these other brands were nimbleler and more responsive to changing customer

...