American Eagle Outfitters history

Gallagher, Jim, “Gap Won’t Buy American Eagle,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, March 18, 1989.

By 1989 the brothers had sold all of RVI’s stores, and they had to sell the remaining 50 percent of their company to the Schottensteins.

The company repositioned itself to sell its own American Eagle brand clothing in 1992.

Under the new ownership and leadership, AEO was repositioned in 1992 to focus on private label casual apparel for men and women.

The repositioning became successful and it went public in April 1994, and listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

From July through December of 1994 alone, 55 new stores were opened.

AEO has been publicly traded since the intial public offering in 1994.

Women's clothing, meantime--which in fiscal 1995 had accounted for only 30 percent of sales--accounted for 47 percent of sales by that time.

American Eagle also launched a line of women's casual clothing in 1995.

In 1996 American Eagle Outfitters launched its own credit card.

Several of these new stores in the new locations were unprofitable, which resulted in a second repositioning in 1996.

"the new retail establishment: twelve chains that are setting the pace in today's men's wear scene." daily news record, 9 february 1998.

Caroline Waxler of Forbes said in a June 1998 article that the company is about to "hit a wall. . . .There's no way the company can continue its current 70 percent-plus monthly rate of same-store sales growth," she reasons.

The renewed strength of American Eagle was also evident in two separate three-for-two stock splits, which occurred during the first five months of 1998.

The AE Clear Card was introduced by the company in Spring 1998.

In 2000, AE announced its plans to open a distribution center near Kansas City, Missouri, to support its growth plans for the Western United States.

In 2000, American Eagle made a bold move into the Canadian market with the purchase of the a 172-store chain and its warehouse operations from Dylex Limited for $74 million.

After ten years at the helm, Jay L. Schottenstein relinquished the chief executive office to Roger S. Markfield and James V. O’Donnell, who served as co-CEOs beginning in December 2002.

Despite a recession, sales continued to grow in fiscal 2002, increasing 6.7 percent to $1.5 billion.

Since 2002, Clint Groom has served as senior design director at American Eagle Outfitters in NY City. he maintains responsibility for the design of men’s pants.

The company was hard hit by the recession beginning in 2008, which saw a drop in revenues and net income.

Later in 2008 they went to open 77kids, an online store aimed at kids between 2 and 10 years.

With the internet sales rebounding in 2010, it has never been so important to have a website that keeps things simple and easy for the buyer from beginning to end purchase.

Abercrombie and Fitch had a similar fall from grace as their net income fell from $422 million to $ 79 million in 2010.

AEO was hit hard in the first quarter of 2010 due to a widespread over supply of inventory.

By 2012, American Eagle had recovered to its pre-recession sales levels of $3 billion +.