Abercrombie & Fitch started as a store for outdoorsmen and evolved into the epitome of preppy cool.
But recently, the store has lost its way.
Abercrombie has been criticized for excluding large women and promoting unrealistic standards of beauty.
Sales were also hit as more alternative fashion trends became more popular.
A&F started as a store for outdoorsmen.
David T. Abercrombie founded the waterfront company at South Street in Manhattan in 1892. It sold hunting and fishing equipment and was called Abercrombie Co.
A few years later, Ezra Fitch, a high-profile lawyer and regular customer, purchased a large share of the growing company. In 1906, when he was officially named a co-founder, the store was renamed Abercrombie & Fitch.
Abercrombie wanted to continue to provide outdoor gear while Fitch had a greater interest in the general retail so the two eventually parted ways.
It eventually grew into a department store on NYC's Madison Avenue.
Abercrombie sold his share of the company in 1907, enabling Ezra to achieve his goal of expanding the store's general retail. A&F started a mail-order catalogue and opened a 12-story location on Madison Avenue in New York City.
The department store had a shooting range and golf school in addition to sporting goods and apparel.
In 1910, it became the first retail store to sell both men's and women's clothing.
In 1939, A&F branded itself "the greatest sporting goods store in the world."
Abercrombie & Fitch was the official outfitter of Charles Lindbergh's historic flight across the Atlantic in 1927.
Earnest Hemingway and Teddy Roosevelt were also patrons of the store.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider