GAP, Inc consists of casual-style and urbane clothing for men, women, and children.
Background info:
GAP was first founded as a store on August 21, 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and his wife, Doris. Fisher was unable to find the right size of Levi’s in a department store in Sacramento, California. This made him realize that jeans had become more popular than current merchandising outlets could accommodate. With the help of his wife, Doris, Fisher opened his first shop at 1950 Ocean Avenue in Ingleside, San Francisco. It was immediately a success when he placed ads in local newspapers announcing the sale of “four tons”, and the clothes were soon gone. Fisher added new outlets in San Francisco and was soon enjoying the benefits of chain store merchandise.
Leadership missteps:
Mickey Drexler, known as the ‘merchant prince”, was the person who built Gap into a powerhouse during the 1990’s. First the President of the Gap division and later CEO of the company. Drexler pushed the Gap to expand beyond jeans into khakis and oversaw the creation of the budget-chain, but then had a fallout with the connection to Gap’s core customers. It suffered 24 straight quarters of same-store sales leading him to the end of his reign, and stepped down in 2002.
Gap the company went through several CEOs, including former Disney executive Paul Pressler, drugstore executive Glenn Murphy, and Gap veteran Art Peck, Sonia Sunga.
“The Gap’s failure is all about its lack of leadership,” said Mark Cohen, the director of retail studies at Columbia University’s business school. “They had a brilliant period of growth and popularity, which they frittered away,” says Mark Cohen. Cohen saw the growth of Gap but also knew about its disadvantages and had his own opinion on it.
Gap, Inc sues Kanye west:
The Art City Center, a company that owns a Los Angeles building that was set to house the Yeezy Gap line under a new lease to Gap, had sued the apparel company. The building owner had said they were ready for the new launch of the Yeezy Gap products, but it never came to fruition. The company now wanted to restore their space and asked Gap to pay, but the blame soon turned onto Kanye West because he created the Yeezy Gap engineered by Balenciaga collection, so he was told to pay the building expenses as well as Gap’s legal fees in the matter against Art City Center.
Here you can find what Gap looked like throughout the years:
https://www.gapinc.com/en-us/about/history
Conclusion:
In conclusion, GAP has had its ups and own but that did not stop them from being a company that is still standing strong today. It is still famous for its amazing clothing for Women and men, including kids.
Works Cited:
(The Gap, Inc. – Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on The Gap, Inc., n.d.) Wikipedia.https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/9/The-Gap-Inc.html
(History, n.d.). Gap Inc. https://www.gapinc.com/en-us/about/history
Meyersohn, N. (2022, July 13). What the heck happened to the Gap? CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/13/business/gap-history-old-navy-retail/index.html
Ciment, S. (2023, May 30). Report: Gap Inc. Sues Kanye West Over Yeezy Gap Fallout. Footwear News. Retrieved 2024, from https://footwearnews.com/business/legal-news/gap-sues-kanye-west-yeezy-gap-1203470425/
