Gen Z is about to head back to school, sporting some of the same brands millennials wore. Ultra-low-rise jeans from PacSun and bubble skirts from Abercrombie & Fitch are back on teens’ and young adults’ shopping lists.
Anyone who’s old enough to have had items in the back of their closet reappear in fashion mags knows trends are cyclical. But the brands making the trending items have a hard time surviving the cycle, especially after online-first fast-fashion retailers permanently shifted shopping habits. Some have adapted to the new era and made comebacks for a new generation’s closets, but others haven’t managed to make it out of the bargain bin.
Closing the Gap
Sales at Gap’s namesake brand jumped 10% in the first quarter, almost two years after the parent company swung from a net loss in 2022 to profit in fiscal 2024. It’s the latest success story among a slew of nostalgic brands. Abercrombie & Fitch, for instance, shrugged off its infamous past to post record net sales in the three months through early May, notching its 14th straight quarter of growth. Privately held PacSun said its revenue has climbed to nearly $1 billion and True Religion expects to pocket $1 billion annually in the next five years selling its signature horseshoe-stitched jeans.
The success of this building wave of nostalgic brands has come about thanks partly to a larger swing across the retail industry that started in the past two years. The shift has put the apparel industry in the best place PwC retail lead Kelly Pedersen can remember:
- People have been divvying up their budgets to spend more on apparel, Pedersen told The Daily Upside, and that’s borne out in PwC data. Families plan to spend an average of $278 on back-to-school clothing this year, taking up the biggest chunk of their budgets for the annual rite of passage and more than double what they plan to shell out on school supplies.
- At least some of the spending shift Pedersen attributes to GLP-1 drugs. “People are consuming less food and buying more clothes. Not only are they getting healthier, they also feel when they’re on these medications like they want to be out more.” Translation: They’ve got it and want to flaunt it. Pedersen said shoppers too young to be on the weight-loss drugs themselves still get a halo effect from their parents, who show them how to shop by example.
Top of the Pile
But there’s more to these brands’ success than good timing. “They have to be priced right. They have to have great social media, not just their following, but their strategy,” Pedersen said. “They have to be authentic. They have to resonate with people.” That goes double for younger folks who grew up taking selfies for Instagram.
Gap has gone viral with marketing campaigns that tap into the next generation by dressing, for instance, K-pop group Katseye in their basics and, more recently, Inde Navarrette, the breakout screen queen from Obsession. Abercrombie, meanwhile, has collaborated with zeitgeisty stars like Josh Heuston from Off Campus. PacSun has seen success on TikTok, where a single post once sold more than 11,000 pairs of jeans.
Abercrombie had some legwork to do before it could start running, and it made a concerted effort to distance itself from its exclusive-to-a-fault past by expanding its size range and putting shirts on its store greeters. But when it comes to name brands, younger generations’ embrace of nostalgic brands may be more forgetting than forgiving. “These kids are all influenced by their own world, and they see what they see on social media,” Pedersen said.
Winning over a new generation isn’t only a digital game, and IRL experiences hold a coveted spot in the sales funnel. That spot’s no longer just about direct sales. “We’ve seen traffic go up in malls, and we’ve seen conversion go down,” Pedersen said, “Now they’re using it for discovery. They’re using it for social aspects — they want to go and hang out with their friends but they don’t transact at the same level.”
Mall traffic has seen a comeback among young people looking for a third place to hang out, and brands that dominated the mall scene the last time around are still positioned to benefit from the renewed foot traffic.
Back of the Closet
Not all nostalgic brands have been able to take advantage of a moment that seems tailor-made for them — “2026 is the new 2016” even became a viral meme earlier this year. VF Corp. hasn’t been able to bring back the popularity of checkered sneakers from Vans. Instead, the skate brand’s sales fell 8% in the second quarter, dragging down a company whose other brands, including The North Face and Timberland, recorded revenue growth.
American Eagle’s namesake brand has also been a drag on the company’s wider portfolio, with same-store sales dropping 2% in the first quarter. Aerie, American Eagle’s undergarment-focused offshoot, pulled sales up with 25% growth. The company said it struggled to sell women’s bottoms, its biggest category, as it missed out on the most popular silhouettes. The sales halo from American Eagle’s controversial but viral ad campaign with Sydney Sweeney seems to have faded.
But more brands seem to be following in Abercrombie’s footsteps to regain their cultural relevance, and ones that seem to be on the clearance rack now could make a comeback with the right strategic choices.
Kids Steering the Cart
Retailers can put their strategies to the test this month as kids and teens prep back-to-school outfits. Influencing younger generations is no longer just a play to get them to beg their parents for the items. Teens have phones in their hands and can compile wish lists of exactly what they want their parents to buy.
Plus, young people have cash of their own to burn, according to Pedersen. Gen Alpha is full of entrepreneurs with side hustles ranging from lemonade stands to creating and selling items in the video game Minecraft. These high-agency youth also know what they don’t want and some are rejecting fast-fashion brands that aren’t eco-conscious.
Knowing that, the brands that ruled the 2010s have a chance to come back bigger than ever with a generation that hangs out at the mall to do more than window shop.
Written by Jamie Wilde
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