Gap, Inc. Needs More Than a White T-shirt

Thursday 03rd of May 2007 05:06:30 PM

Gap, Inc. Needs More Than a White T-shirt

Even though North American sales of Gap clothing have gone up slightly in the past few months, the company has a long way to go in order to recoup from its 13% decrease in sales last year. While the company has been trying to reinvigorate its clothing line, adding White T-Shirts to the mix will probably not be enough to significantly improve the company’s bottom line.

While the Gap’s other ventures Old Navy and Banana Republic have been steady, the Gap label has been in trouble for quite some time now. What used to be considered young and trendy, the clothing is now anything but. Not knowing who their core consumers are may be the problem. Even though White T-Shirts are a fashion staple for any wardrobe, people normally don’t need more than one. As younger shoppers have moved on the stores like Abercrombie and Fitch, Gap struggles to return to its younger fashion roots.

Gap will be featuring its new T-Shirts on the cover of this month’s issue of Vogue, along with other designers. Those in the fashion industry will be watching Gap as they debut other items and new lines. Some in the industry believe the company should become private in order to generate more income from private investors rather than dealing with those who have stock in the company.

Answering to stock holders may not be the biggest hurtle to overcome, however. Gap may need to rethink its existing clothing lines and make improvement that will attract key consumers, which are teenagers and twenty-something’s like it used to. This could mean major design changes, advertising campaigns, and other marketing avenues. For now, they have White T-Shirts, but Gap is going to have to better than that in order to become what is once was.

(c)Greg Olsen, www.sxc.hu