Beloved retailer makes comeback after closing 100s of stores

In the 1980s and 1990s, determination was nary amended spot to spot and beryllium seen than the mall, and similar astir of us, we'd sojourn regularly to find that cleanable look.

In the 80s, that meant fluorescent colors popularized by Sonny Crockett connected Miami Vice. In the 1990s, that meant buying astatine iconic stores similar American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch, and, of course, The Gap.

Gap Stores helped specify the American casual look, popularizing khakis, tees, and achromatic shirts. It was a go-to store for radical successful their teens, twenties, and thirties, which enabled it to go a nationwide retailer boasting implicit 2,000 U.S. locations and much than 500 planetary stores.

• Founded: 1969, San Francisco, CA
  Source: Gap Inc.

• Store brands: Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta
  Source: Gap Inc.

• Store count: 2,486
  Source: Gap 10-Q SEC filing

• Employees: 82,000
  Source: Macrotrends

Nowadays, The Gap looks precise different. Fashion changed, e-commerce started taking a toll connected indoor malls (where astir Gap stores are located), and low-cost rivals, from H&M to big-box Goliath Walmart, began offering akin options for little money.

As a result, ft postulation and income astatine Gap stores dipped, starring the institution to adjacent 80% of its Gap namesake stores to absorption connected different store brands, including its low-price fast-fashion Old Navy brand.

The changes person shifted the company's retail absorption and arguably amended positioned it for an awesome comeback this year.

The Gap has seen plentifulness of apparel trends travel and go. Its archetypal store opened successful 1969 successful San Francisco, and implicit the years, it's had to reinvent itself to proceed winning implicit shoppers.

Initially, the retailer sold Levi's jeans to young adults aged 13 to 25; however, The Gap's merchandise enactment shifted toward khakis and shirts successful the 1990s nether the enactment of CEO Millard “Mickey” Drexler.

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Drexler successfully orchestrated a large enlargement that grew The Gap’s store number from astir 1,100 successful 1990 to 2,548 stores successful 2000. He expanded the company's occurrence by launching the highly fashionable Old Navy and Banana Republic retail store brands, enabling the institution to people shoppers of antithetic ages and income levels.

Since Drexler near successful 2002, however, Gap's namesake stores person struggled. The institution attempted to crook things astir with an ill-conceived marque refresh successful 2010, which ditched its iconic bluish quadrate logo, lone to person to wantonness the determination aft customers revolted quickly.