The Gap is launching a new advertising campaign in the hopes that it will revive their hemorrhaging sales. From ADWEEK:
- Earlier this month two key executives, Denise Johnston, president of Gap’s adult division, and Ivy Ross, head of product design for Old Navy, left the company, bringing to 10 the number of senior executives who have vacated key spots at the company, including Kyle Andrew, vp, marketing for the Gap brand.
Gap is trying to dig its way out of a string of declining comp store sales that have plagued the company 28 out of the past 31 months. The company has hired Goldman Sachs to review strategies for Gap and Old Navy, amid speculation the company could possibly be for sale.
Why do you hate The Gap? Will a new campaign focusing on khakis and featuring Kyra Sedgwick, Kate Mara and Chris O’Donnell change your mind? Chris O’Donnell? —MEGHANN MARCO
Gap Dons Khakis And Attitude [ADWEEK]
Add me to the list of people who feel that they’ve “outgrown” The Gap. I used to buy a ton of clothes there maybe 10 years ago but I haven’t seen anything there I’ve liked in the past 5. I still like Banana though even at the more expensive prices. I have a friend who works there who gives me an invite to the semi-annual 30% off friends and family sale.
I should also put a plug in for Eddie Bauer who, at least in my mind, has improved a lot over the past couple of years.
Not to hijack, but I remember 12-15 years ago everyone was big into J. Crew. Now, a few here and there, but mostly H&M has taken over that spot. I still see J. Crew at the mall, near the Gap, and I wonder if they too are losing their “core” like Gap has over the last 10 years. Granted, J. Crew build quality is better than Gap’s (closer to BanRep), but is the J. Crew brand getting tired too?
Preschool funding.
What, you wonder, does preschool funding have to do with the Gap?
Well, you asked why I hate the Gap.
California had an initiative to provide funding for preschool for every child in California. Educators, researchers, parents, civic leaders, law enforcement, pretty much everyone, had a consensus that it was a great idea because studies have proven (OK, I know, you’re waiting for me to get to the Gap part… I will) that high levels of preschool attendance leads to better lives for the grown-up children, and also to lower crime rates where preschool is prevalent.
Despite all the agreement, and all the science around this, with many proven studies, there was, according to reports I heard, one person who railed against it, because he would have paid more corporate tax. One man, the owner of the Gap, inexplicably and single handedly paid oodles of bucks from his own personal fortune to advertise against the measure, ultimately tricking voters into voting it down by a slim majority.
Because of this, I am not interested in further bolstering the personal fortune of that man (I don’t know his name) so I don’t shop at the Gap.
I lost faith the day they hired Sarah Jessica Parker to shill the Gap.
Her face looks like a foot.
I worked at an Old Navy for two years, and during that time, I only used my employee discount to buy things at Gap. Why? Because Old Navy’s jeans felt like sandpaper and their graphic tees (which are basically the only kind of shirt I wear) looked like they were designed by a 12-year-old who just learned Photoshop. I’m a graphic design major, so my tastes in shirts are fairly picky, but still.
Nowadays, I mostly buy jeans from Gap when they’re on sale. I wouldn’t pay $60 for a pair of them (even though they do fit me well and are more comfortable than they’ve ever been), but when they are on sale in the $40-50 range, I’ll buy. None of their tops really appeal to me… they all lack any kind of pizzazz. I’m not going to pay $20 for a thin, solid-colored t-shirt.
For graphic tees, Express Men has come a long way in the last few years. They have the kinds of designs I like pegged (and plenty of varieties of them)– a few subtle shapes/designs/words layered in different colors onto the shirt. They usually have decent sales when you buy more than one of them, and most importantly, they don’t plaster their logo all over them (a big pet peeve of mine).
My beef with Gap’s advertising is that they try to portray their celebrities as very hip and modern and edgy, but the celebrities they get don’t seem to echo that idea. Sheryl Crow? Seal? Aaron Eckhart? Mia Farrow? It doesn’t interest me that they would shop at Gap.
Bottom line: Gap needs to stop advertising like it’s hip and alternative, and start BEING hip and alternative.
As a 29 year old female who does a lot of shopping, I have to say the Gap is one boring ass place to shop. A few years ago their clothes were cute but pricey, so I’d wait for a sale and buy(also the fact that I’m a size 4 /XS there made me feel great)The past several seasons their collections have been lackluster and the ad campaigns tiring.
H&M, Zara, Forever 21 ect have new stuff coming in every day, AE, A&F have that “cache” value the teens like. BR, Bebe, Nordstrom also have clothes that appeal to the working woman on a budget but with quality fabrics and interesting design. There is nothing lately, to compel me going into their stores.
Like Dave said they need to be “hip” ..don’t pretend to be by using celebrities that no one cares about or believes someone like Common buys their clothing there. I rarely see these “hipsters” Gap still thinks buys their stuff in Gap..all I see are middle aged bargain hunters decimating the sale rack.
Funny you bring up J.Crew – they’ve been reinvigorated in the last few years by Gap Inc’s former CEO, Mickey Drexler. J.Crew has launched two new brands and strengthened their core business in that time. They’re no longer “trendy” but have built a strong following in the upper middle class thirtysomethings who grew up wearing J.Crew. Gap could learn a lot from J.Crew at this point.
Drexler was CEO and mastermind of Gap Inc when Gap was in its heyday but was canned when they hit a snag in the late 90s and early 00s when the classic/preppy trend ended and Gap made its first unsuccessful attempt to recapture the trendy market with terrible, trashy product. It’s really those core-customer alienating missteps that put this long, slow decline into motion.
I had a pair of Gap jeans that lasted me YEARS and even my dad of all people praised the quality of the clothes. But these last couple of years have been uneventful when going into the Gap. I walk in there and there is never anything that KEEPS me in there long enough to even price anything anymore much less try anything.
As for Old Navy….my cousin bought me a nice blue sweater with a red stripe running horizontally across the chest. Two washes later the red stripe ran pink and red all over the sweater. I’ll stick to Macy’s and JC Pennys.
I used to buy virtually all my everyday wear at the Gap… until about eight years ago, when they started trying to get “stylish.” Which to them meant retro-’70s clothes (a ridiculous trend that they’re still following, despite the fact that it was the worst decade for fashion ever) and low-waisted khakis for men. (I don’t care how good shape they’re in, straight men will never want to wear low-slung pants.)
And the prices have gone way, way up, even on the sale racks (where you used to be able to find good stuff marked down to $9.99).
Now I buy higher-end stuff from stores like J. Crew, whose Internet sales prices are just as good as the Gap’s and sometimes even lower.
Something’s wrong with GAP pants. I used to find 30″ waist pants that would fit me without a problem. Now, it says 30″ but feels more like 32″ and the length says 32 but is … OMG. They need to stick with the original sizes.
It’s just too boring and overpriced. I just shop at thrift stores all the time because retailers are just too expensive and the clothes are poorly made for the price.
Regarding the discrepancies in sizes at Gap.. I went there to finish off a gift card I got over xmas and was dismayed to find that the sizes varied so vastly.
I took this up with one of the workers there who sheepishly admitted to me that every fall season the company “re-sizes” all of their merchandise. She didn’t go into further detail, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this had something to do with appealing to the ballooning size of average americans. Yet they still have a “00″ size? Huh? Makes no sense to me.
Gap continues to be one of the few stores whose jeans fit me. Old Navy is okay, but can be hit-and-miss, and I tend to wear their jeans out quickly as the quality is lower–I’ve noticed a drastic decrease in quality in the past few years, too. I’ve actually gotten my mom to buy a couple pairs of jeans from Gap for me to send to Australia, where the average price for a pair of jeans of similar quality is about $100; since I’m a sales freak for Gap (just about the only time I’ll buy is if they’re on sale to a reasonable price), it’s well worth the shipping costs. I’m confident they’ll fit as I know the style and my size in their store.
Old Navy jeans are great if you’re looking for comfort (often thin, soft denim) and price, but I can wear holes in a pair in under a year with ease. The denim wears out easily and gets holes which are nearly impossible to repair neatly (and I’m a veteran sewer). Their shirts, on the other hand, continue to be great. I have t-shirts from Old Navy (the perfect fit really is perfect for me) that are 5 and 6 years old and only now getting really worn out. Given that I’m “hard on [my] clothes,” this is a real triumph. I am also secretly in love with their pajama pants.
Banana Republic is nice, but often out of my college-student budget. Their sales are quite nice, though.
I wish there was one of them–any of the three–here in Australia. There are a few brands similar to Old Navy here, but with markedly worse quality (if that’s possible to believe). I don’t want a thin t-shirt that will fall apart in 2 washes, I want a decent cotton thing that I can keep for a couple of years.
I guess I’m just the Gap appeaser.
1) I hate the Gap and Old Navy because, as several other people have noted, they plaster their names/logos all over their shirts (especially Old Navy) and I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for the privelege of serving as a walking billboard for a multinational corporation.
2) I second the props for Dickies — love ‘em
3) (Seinfeld voice) What is the deal with jean sizes? (/Seinfeld). I have a 34-inch waist. That menas my waist is 34 inches. 34 inches = 34 inches. Yet I can visit five different stores and try on five different pairs of jeans that are ostensibly the same size and yet they all fit differently. This isn’t just Old Navy and the Gap; it’s pretty much every store in America.
I hate the Gap because of that BS Audrey Hepburn commercial. That, and the Lyrcra in everything. Just try to buy a pair of non-Lycra jeans at the Gap. I dare you.
Re: The Audrey Hepburn commercial. Ironically, in the movie that scene is from, Hepburn plays an intellectual who hates fashion and doesn’t care about clothes; all she wants is to study with her favorite philosopher. She changes her mind after the philosopher tries to do her.
I liked Jay Leno’s parody on the Audrey Hepburn commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPPbWsBHtPQ
Re: the sizing discrepancies. It seems that men’s sizes range on the large side and women’s (misses’?) on the small side. And the person who said The Gap resizes every season — it’s definitely true in their women’s line. I have two similarly cut (Favorite T style) Gap t-shirts that differ by 3 inches in the bust.
This article from Slate hits it on the nose:
http://www.slate.com/id/2137742/
I hate the Gap because they closed my favorite store, Forth and Towne (their “women over 35″ concept store) after less than a year. Finally there were jeans and tops that fit, decent styles, and best of all, excellent service.
I haven’t bought anything at the Gap in years.
If I wore Gap to work I would be fired. Out of a cannon. Back to the sixth grade.
If you’ve reached the point where your body isn’t changing drastically, I highly recommend finding a good bespoke tailor (not necessarily Jermyn Street/Savile Row quality.) You’ll get made-to-order shirts, pants, and suits that, with proper care, will last a long time, fit perfectly, and look exactly as you want them to. Accounting for this utility and averaging over the lifetime of the article, I’d say you end up paying less in the long run, though the initial upfront investment can be a little daunting.