Abercrombie & Fitch Co.

▪ American company

      former retail sporting goods concern originally based in New York City, famed for its wide range of expensive and often exotic sporting equipment and attire from tennis shoes to elephant guns. For half a century and more the store's apparel, guns, tackle, and other merchandise were the image of correctness and opulence, inspiring the humorist Ed Zern to lampoon a perfectly accoutred angler as an “Abercrombie and Fitcherman.”

      When it expanded, the firm confined its new branch stores to downtown areas of large cities and to resort areas. In the early 1970s Abercrombie & Fitch attempted to widen its customer base by adding less expensive items to its usual stock and finally by moving into the suburbs, where other stores had been building for some time. Although these steps did attract new customers, they came too late; Abercrombie & Fitch was in financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy in 1976 after 85 years in business. Oshman's Sporting Goods, Inc., bought the firm. In 1988 Abercrombie & Fitch was bought by The Limited, Inc.

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