Abercrombie & Fitch Adds Outside Footwear Brands to Chase Growth

Abercrombie & Fitch is taking a page out of rival Aritzia's playbook by adding outside footwear brands like Puma and Sperry to its assortment as the retailer turns to new categories to chase growth.

Since partnering with Sperry in April to sell select apparel and footwear styles from the brand online and in stores, Abercrombie has expanded and is now offering shoes from Puma, Frye, Hunter and GH Bass.

For now, the only place Abercrombie is offering all of the brands together is at its new 10,000-square-foot outpost in New York City where they launched for the first time this month. If the release performs well, the company could expand the full range of brands to more stores and online in the future. Currently, the only outside brands Abercrombie is selling online are Puma and Sperry.

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In an interview with CNBC, Abercrombie's new managing director for the Americas Melissa Worth said the expansion into third-party brands is important for customer acquisition, but also helps retain existing shoppers and encourages them to spend more.

"Our high-value customers, how do we make sure that we're outfitting them across all of their needs? And this is a place that they can come for those things, but also a new point of discovery for a consumer that we haven't potentially acquired yet," said Worth. "So someone that could be looking for Puma or Frye, they come in … they're excited to see these offerings, they purchase one of these, as well as an outfit from us, and that's the goal in terms of how we're looking to bring it all together."

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Abercrombie said it decided to launch outside footwear brands as customers ask for more from the apparel retailer. For example, the company said one of the most frequent questions customers ask on its social media channels is "Where can I buy those shoes?"

Abercrombie's move into outside brands marks a modern first for the 134-year-old company, which has long exclusively sold its own products in stores but is finding it harder to generate organic growth, expand its customer base and compete in a crowded apparel market.

Janine Stichter, a retail analyst and managing director at BTIG, doesn't expect outside brands to make up a significant portion of sales, but said they could be critical customer acquisition tools and drive more meaningful revenue over time.

"This is a strategic move on their part to bring in a like-minded customer," said Stichter. "A customer who has potential to shop the brand, maybe isn't already, and now will be introduced to the brand that way."

Category expansion overall will be key to the retailer's next chapter of growth, and blending a mix of Abercrombie-designed accessories with external footwear brands will allow the company to offer its customers more options in a cost-effective, simple way, said Stichter.

"We're increasingly seeing the consumer want [a variety of] brands in footwear, so if you can take away that complication and the process, and also be offering them the brands that they want, even if it's not hugely incremental in terms of revenue and profits … there's still that add on potential," said Stichter. "You capture more of her wallet and you give her more reason to come in the store or shop on your site."

Fizzling growth

Following a dramatic turnaround of the business led by CEO Fran Horowitz, Abercrombie grew annual sales by over 98% between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2024. That explosive growth moderated at its namesake brand in the most recent fiscal year.

Between fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025, which ended in February, sales at the Abercrombie brand fell more than 1%. During the same period, comparable sales, a measure of organic growth that strips out the impact of new store openings, declined by 7%.

For the past five quarters in a row, comparable sales were either negative or flat at the brand.

Stichter said Abercrombie was lapping double-digit growth from the prior year during those quarters, which made it harder to increase sales, but it also saw execution challenges in its key dresses category.

"They came out with a wedding collection, a wedding guest collection, and that was a really big source of strength for them," said Stichter. But the following year, "it just wasn't as big or as strong, and they had to take a little bit more markdown in that category," she said.

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Abercrombie is also facing stiffer competition.

One of its largest competitors, Canadian fashion brand Aritzia, saw sales grow 35% with comparable sales up 27% during its most recent fiscal year, which ended in March. The company launched its own partnership with Sperry last summer and has long offered external footwear brands in its stores and online, including Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Puma and GH Bass.

"[Abercrombie] probably looked over their shoulder at Aritzia and saw how well that's worked, whether it's a standalone category or it's just a traffic driver, and said, 'Look, we can do the same thing,'" said Stichter. "Part of the reason Aritzia has been so successful is because they've just kind of stayed top of mind, stayed really relevant for that consumer. I think Abercrombie is just trying to do the same thing, ensure continued relevance."

Abercrombie's accessory expansion at its new store has only been live for about two weeks, but the customer response has been positive so far, said Worth.

"They're thrilled with this area. We've seen them come in, we've seen them interact. We're excited so far about the initial results," she said. "We're going to learn a lot here, both in terms of what our customer is looking for, but also how to operate accessories in a physical space and where and how we can scale that across our fleet."

During the company's fiscal first-quarter earnings call last month, Horowitz said the brand's collaboration with Sperry has so far exceeded internal expectations and led to higher-than-average conversion.

From loud to understated

Abercrombie is testing its footwear expansion at its new store in Soho, the heart of New York City's fashion district. Opened in early June, the three-story location replaced a smaller store the company had in the neighborhood and features Abercrombie's latest tweaks to its refreshed store format.

Throughout the brand's 2000s heyday, Abercrombie's stores were infamous for their loud music, shirtless models and the inescapable stench of its Fierce cologne.

Tasia Jensen | CNBC

These days, the shops are nearly unrecognizable. Instead of loud branding and low lighting, the spaces are bright, understated and elevated, and have been one of the keys to the retailer's monumental turnaround.

At the Soho location, Abercrombie debuted its "Heritage Meets Modern" design concept, which features elements from the company's 134-year history and archival pieces, such as a hunting coat from the 1950s designed alongside Burberry.

"It just shows such a fantastic example of what the brand has stood for for so many years," said Worth. "The partnerships that we've had with other fantastic brands and the authenticity that we bring into today's offering from a quality perspective and our breadth of offering."