American Eagle Outfitters

In this blog I will talk about another one of my favourite name brands.
American Eagle was began in 1997, but it was part of another large company called Silvermen's Menswear who sold young men's apparel and was situated in Pennsylvania. The company started out by selling clothing for both men and women but focused mainly on outdoor sports apparel. I find it extremely fascinating that nearly every name brand that I have written a blog about started out by some sort of sports apparel. In 1980, the owners of this company had some financial problems and therefore had to change the name of the company and give half their sales to another company, The Schottensteins. This is when American Eagle Outfitters really became to expand. In 1992, the company hired a new COO, Sam Forman and with this new management, American Eagle changed their business and focused mainly on their outdoor look. The stores went public in 1994 and in 1997 "sales increased by 24.3% to set a record high of $405.7 million." 
The company was sued 4 times by Abercrombie and Fitch for "copying" their product but fortunately won all cases. 

In 2006, American Eagle launched a company within the company called Aerie that carries a variety of lingerie, targeted for girls between the ages of 15-21. They had also launched a company for men and women between the ages of 28 - 40 but the company was not successful and they were forced to close all stores in 2010. Aerie however was very successful and they have many stores. In 2007, American Eagle expanded to New York and in 2010 opened stores in Dubai, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Russia, and Shanghai.

Since 1977, the company has had its ups and downs but has been very successful and now has more than 1000 stores in the U.S and Canada. I personally love this brand, it is in fact my favorite at the moment. There are very few things in that store that I would not wear and everything is very good quality. I am not surprised that the company started out being privately owned by another company because any brands that I've done research on so far all started out small and became big with the help of a larger company. I am very glad that they were able to work through all their obstacles and be as successful as they have been. Not only is the product great but the staff is always extremely friendly in any location that I've been too. Their product is not unreasonably priced therefore it doesn't break mine or my mom's bank to go shopping there. I hope this blog is as interesting to everyone else as it was for me! 

http://digbycapstone.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/aeo1.pdf
http://www.dividendchannel.com/symbol/aeo/

Lululemon Athletica

For my next blog I am going to talk about one of my favourite name brands.

Chip Wilson, the founder of the company, was originally interested in surfing, skate boarding, and snow boarding, similar to a lot of other name brand producers. When Chip tried his first yoga class, he found it very relaxing and similar to the feeling after snow boarding or surfing. Chip found the clothing that was worn for yoga inappropriate for the activity and therefore started to design a more efficient style of clothing. The success of the clothing depended on the feedback of the yoga instructors that taught during the night classes in the small studio Chip opened to help pay the rent of the stores. 

They decided on the name Lululemon with the help of a survey that 100 people took place in. These people had the choice between 20 names and 20 logos. The logo was originally meant to be a fancy "A" to represent "athletically hip" which was one of the names that did not make it. 

The company was founded in 1998 and the first store opened in November of 2000 in Vancouver, BC. The original plan was t only have one store and the store would be a place that people could come to and learn about healthy life styles and about various different physical activities. Unfortunately, the store became so busy that it was not possible to teach people about life styles and sell the product at the same time. They then had to open more stores and they trained the staff intensely so that they were able to not only inspire the people that came into the stores but also the community and their own families. 

The company then stated, "The training program was such a success that the Lululemon people have created a life for themselves that most people could only dream of. Lululemon is a company where dreams come to fruition."

In 2008, Lululemon had a total of 113 stores and by 2012 had expanded to 250 stores. It was able to expand this much without doing a lot of advertising at all. The stores do not only sell their product but they also offer a variety of workshops such as self defense and goal setting and they also offer complimentary yoga classes in the mornings before the store opens. 

I personally love this product because it is very comfortable and of great quality. A lot of people would much rather buy a pair of yoga pants from Wal-Mart for $80 cheaper but the difference in quality is crazy. The company offers a 5 year warranty on all of their clothing and if you are not satisfied with the product they will replace it free of charge. They also do not charge for shipping if you order something online. I love all of my Lululemon clothing, they have yet to disappoint me with their product. 

“You don’t need anything to do yoga. You don’t even need shoes. ”

http://nymag.com/shopping/features/58082/index1.html

http://www.lululemon.com/about/

http://www.lululemon.com/about/history