Abercrombie & Fitch Is Releasing Gender-Neutral Clothing Line for Kids Called "Everybody Collection"

[Anonymous]

Right on the heels of Target deciding to make a gender neutral toy aisle in 2015 and gender neutral room decor, Abercrombie & Fitch has decided to release a gender neutral clothing line called the Everybody Collection. Stacia Anderson, Brand President, said in a statement:

Parents and their kids don’t want to be confined to specific colors and styles, depending on whether shopping for a boy or a girl. Our Everybody Collection is one assortment, in one size run, that covers the trends we are seeing in both color and style.

The clothing line, released through the company's Abercrombie Kids division, will feature 25 styles of tops, bottoms and accessories. The Everybody Collection will be featured in 70 stores that sell Abercrombie Kids' apparel beginning this week.

As hokey as this may sound, I am all for it. As a kid, I hated pinks and purples, and my favorite color still was and is blue, but in the 80s, everything for girls was some floral print or pastel, or otherwise traditionally girly color, and I hated them all, but that's what my parents and everybody else always got for me so if this was even a possibility back then as a kid, I would be 100% behind it.

A lot of parents these days are choosing to decorate their children's bedrooms in more gender neutral colors, or like my brother, not even tell people whether they're having a boy or girl, so you're kind of forced to go gender neutral with the gifts and clothing. The thing about it, is these are all just colors and nothing more. People assign to them that this must be for a boy or must be for a girl, when it's so stupid. If you're worried that your boy or girl will say "turn gay" because he or she wore a pink or blue shirt at 4 years old, before he could even remember it, that's doing a total disservice to how it is people actually come into their sexuality. I've never cited my clothing as the reason I'm straight.

But before I get all rah-rah, we love you Abercrombie & Fitch, you're so dang enlightened in 2018....ummmmmm, I also think this is basically just a marketing ploy cooked up by a company to try and ditch it's continual bad wrap between them and basically anyone who isn't white or sexy enough by their standards. This is a brand that has continually had massive public relations issues by their own doing. They recently lost a court case when the company refused to hire a Muslim woman simply because she wore her Hijab. There have been numerous complaints about the company routinely discriminating against non-white models and several accusations of sexual harassment within the company. They really can't take many more hits, especially in an economy which is seeing the rise and take over of internet commerce and the fall of many brick and mortar stores.

So what better way to do that, then to splash out a new ad, that's all about "listening to the customer," and features models with a few more skin tones, than previous ones. You see, companies don't really listen to customers. They listen to what they think will make them the most money or get them out of a jam. If someone says, hey we're in a jam, how do we get out, let's look at our list of complaints, then boom, here we go, new campaign, positive press, parade some cute kids out, and let's see if sales go up.

[MarianneF]

Marketing is amazing isn't it? And more for a financially stuck company as A&F is right now.
In other words, unisex is relabeled to sell to the people that already buy it but "with a better and more inclusive tag"
They had to reframe their whole strategy in 2015, fired their CEO in 2014 and has been struggling to come back. Their actual money comes from Hollister.
So YAY marketing, and IRL, whatever, it's not even really "gender neutral". Guys wore much more pink back in the 80s and 90s

[myTake Owner]

Yes, it very much is. And I'm glad you mentioned the 80s and 90s because for all those people saying pink makes a boy gay, rewind and look back at that time period where boys were wearing every color blocked and tank topped color on the rainbow and no one said a word, and statistically speaking most of them did not "turn" gay.

This is absolutely in my opinion, just about profit, a rebrand, and trying to change their tarnished image above that of appealing to a new world of people who don't want labels.

[MarianneF]

Agree!

[MarianneF]

Thank you for the MHO!

[Anonymous]

I wonder how many well-meaning but stupid single moms are going to dress their little boys like girls and begin the process of fucking them up for life.

[englisc]

I know some already.

[Opinion Owner]

@englisc Me too.

[meowcow]

Yeah... I'm not shopping there for my daughter. Gender-neutral and transfluid concepts are some of the dumbest things humans have ever come up with. It is sad to see the 0.01% of the population that are genderfluid/genderneutral are brainwashing companies (and especially naive parents) that their children are both boys and girls at the same time.

[SirRexington]

So what, Hot topic has been doing this for years even before the trans liberation movement.

A girl wanting to wear camo or blue or a band t-shirt is nothing new? What does that have anything to do with gender? Boys want to wear pink shirts and shorts that are too small, preppy boys have already been doing this. This move that Abercrombie and Fitch is nothing revolutionary or progressive. Just late on a trend that started years ago.

[myTake Owner]

As I said, I think this is more a marketing scheme to revive their crumbling image in an economy that is gunning for them and many other stores to shut down in favor for e-commerce rather then do they actually care about creating gender neutral clothing.

[Anonymous]

So?

It's weird to call them gender-neutral clothes, they're just clothes for kids. The body type doesn't need to be different so saying they're for boys or girl is just about marketing -- consequently making clothes that are 'gender-neutral' is also about marketing. To care is to reveal a weakness for very 'inside-the-box' thinking.

Worrying about 'turning gay' or any of that mess is also just the other side of the idiotic coin. It doesn't mean that exalting 'gender-neutrality' in all things as some kind of moral good is any less dumb. It's okay to let kids pick what they want. There's an age where they self-segregate and look for gender differentiation as a way of figuring out who they are. Somewhere around the onset of puberty they gain a stronger interest in the opposite sex and present a gendered identity to begin learning about sexuality as they move into puberty.

Basically people just need to chill the F out.

[_Enigma_]

They look awful. Also, you are aware that you are able to buy clothes regardless of what section they are in? And that you can get clothes of almost any colour? Something tells me they are simply trying to cash in today's snowflake generation before we grow out of this ridiculous phase.

[DonRomeo]

If there was a valid point to all of this, then grand. But males and females are biologically and psychologically completely different, so I dont really see what theyre trying to acheive - yes, other than marketing and cutting costs by reducing manufacturing of two lines to one.

[coralee]

I don't think it's really a big deal. We've always had gender-neutral clothing as others have said for kids other then underwear the clothes are essentially the same thing. I'm far more interested in how toy companies handle their lines then clothes. I'd like to see more gender-neutral marketing for toys. If I see another typically boy's toy marketed to girls just by making it pink I may start pulling my hair out.

[Nivinxus]

Okay? I mean, this isn't really anything to write home about. Good for them but it isn't something I particularly care about one way or the other. If anything, I see this as a bit of a piggyback and using H&M's failings as a step up, which is a fair marketing strategy I suppose.

So my one word summary of how I react to this is pretty much, "Whatever"

[zagor]

Haven't there always been clothes like this?

Before puberty, the bodies of boys and girls (or just "hens", if you're Swedish...) are pretty much the same (except for in the underwear area), so there hasn't been any reason they can't buy the same jeans and t's.

[Guanfei]

Gender neutral? Well it's called "unisex" and it exists for decades now.
They just changed the name to attracts all those idiots SJW.

[myTake Owner]

Of course unisex has been around, but when have you ever gone to any store and seen a unisex or gender neutral section? The point these people are making, if you consider it a point to be had, is that they shouldn't have to go to a boys only section or a girls only section to find clothes for their kids---you know, why does everything blue have to have a truck on it and everything pink, flowers---how about just a blue or pink top sort of deal. A color is just a color---it doesn't belong to boys or girls.

[Guanfei]

But no one stops you from buying a blue shirt with a firetruck on it if you want.

[InTimoreDei]

That's the hilarious part of it isn't it? Nobody is stopping these folks from getting those kinds of clothes for their kids. If ya wanna wear guy's clothes, go for it.

They just want to be special and have labels on things.

[myTake Owner]

To be clear, I agree with that sentiment. It's just a shirt or whatever in that respect, but for the people who feel this way, not having to go under some label above their heads that proclaims this is ONLY the boys section or girls section, means something to them. Boys and Girls are labels and now apparently, so is gender neutral.

[BlondieGirl_]

I think it's a good thing as having children is expensive, clothing them is expensive and it would help people whom have multiple kids who share clothes.

[myTake Owner]

That's a good point

[Anonymous]

*hops off the political correctness bus* I don't wanna deal with this anymore

[Rainie_]

People still shop at Abercrombie? Or is this their way of trying to attract customers back to their store?

[EllezBellez98]

Is there a difference between unisex and gender neutral?

[myTake Owner]

As far as I know, no, but the only place I've seen unisex mentioned or referenced in a store, is in the baby clothing section. Never seen it for older kids.

[EllezBellez98]

I mean stuff like t shits can always be unisex but they never had a section for it

[myTake Owner]

LOL, I love a good typo :)

[HereIbe]

There's a whole lot of stupid in that project. A WHOLE lot of stupid. I guess rich people are morons who are decades behind the times. My economic class has been dressing kids "gender neutral" except for special occasions since at least the 1970s.

[ryancg]

Wait, are there actually people who care about shit like this?

[InTimoreDei]

Yes, there are. It's hilarious.

[ryancg]

@InTimoreDei Indeed.

[lovelyhoneybones]

I don't mind it. There's nothing wrong with clothes that both genders can wear.

[Kuraj]

For it being touted as "gender neutral", there is an awful lot of girls wearing very short shorts...

[Philyouup]

Which Translates to boys clothing for girls.. Just need to look at the photos..

[myTake Owner]

(Stops hugging tree and weaving my pants from hemp for a moment) dearest sir, what is this boy clothing and girl clothing you speak of? We are all one in this great ball we call Earth. When you put labels on children, you limit them. You tell them, they cannot be as they perhaps were truly meant to be. (Climbs on unicorn and rides away into a rainbow colored sky).

[Philyouup]

LMFAO Yep!

[FakeName123]

There is a reasonable chance this is not working out.

[Takewithagrainofsalt]

Can I wear some gender neutral leggings with a crop top and not be judged in public?

[myTake Owner]

1. You can wear some gender neutral leggings and a crop top
2. There isn't a soul on this planet who is not judged when they walk out the door, so that is an impossible statement for anyone
3. If that's what you want to wear, wear it.