Even with Syd, American Eagle women’s bottoms sales are still short.
Despite the attention around American Eagle’s controversial “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign and the follow-up “Syd For Short” summer promotion featuring the “Euphoria” star, the retailer’s women’s bottoms category continued to struggle, contributing to a 2 percent decline in the brand’s first-quarter sales year-on-year, executives said Thursday.
“We are not satisfied with where the business performed this quarter, especially in women’s,” Aerie and American Eagle President and Executive Creative Director Jen Foyle said on the call, according to Retail Dive. “We know what needs to be corrected, and the teams are aligned and activated to return AE to growth.”
While women’s bottoms underperformed, American Eagle’s men’s products delivered stronger results. To address the weakness, the brand is refining its women’s assortment and introducing more new styles ahead of the critical back-to-school shopping season.
The disappointing sales in women’s bottoms were worsened by additional challenges facing the brand, contributing to the broader weakness in American Eagle’s performance despite recent marketing efforts, including its high-profile partnership with Sweeney, analysts at TD Cowen said.
“Specifically, [American Eagle] misallocated assortment and lacked sufficient depth in key winning fits/silhouettes, leading to underperformance in its largest category,” analysts said Thursday. “This was compounded by weaker conversion (particularly in stores), product productivity gaps, and some external pressures (cold weather, need for markdowns).”
Meanwhile, the retailer’s Aerie brand, which also includes the activewear label Offline, continues to thrive, with a 25 percent jump in comparative sales.
“We believe Aerie’s comp will prove to be one of retail’s very best by the end of earnings season,” UBS analysts said Friday in a note, per the outlet. “Plus, the market is significantly underestimating Aerie’s subbrand called Offline … It has 117 stores today (some are standalone and others are side-by-side with Aerie). We believe Offline’s store count could triple. This is a reason we continue to expect big growth from Aerie.”
American Eagle Outfitters’ first quarter total net revenue grew 10% to $1.2 billion, Retail Drive reports.
The American Eagle campaign with Sweeney almost immediately garnered backlash when it launched in July last year, specifically over its “jeans/genes” wordplay.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” Sweeney said in the spot, as a voiceover closed, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”
While the campaign was a nod to the classic Calvin Klein denim ad featuring Brooke Shields, critics said that, when paired with Sweeney’s blonde hair and blue eyes, the messaging raised uncomfortable echoes of white supremacist ideas, especially amid ongoing debates over diversity and immigration.
Sweeney addressed the controversy during a December interview with People, telling the mag, “I’m against hate and divisiveness.”
“In the past, my stance has been to never respond to negative or positive press but recently I have come to realize that my silence regarding this issue has only widened the divide, not closed it. So, I hope this new year brings more focus on what connects us instead of what divides us,” she said.
Just this weekend, Sweeney’s boyfriend, entertainment executive Scooter Braun, shared footage of the pair’s outing in Times Square, including Sweeney’s excited reaction to a massive American Eagle “Syd For Short” billboard.
