The Rise of 3 Renowned US Clothing Stores

Abercrombie & Fitch Co, JC Penney, and Pacific Sunwear are three of America's popular clothing stores. Abercrombie started out as a hunting and camping gears store; JC Penney a dry goods retailer; and Pacific Sunwear a store for surfers.

Ever wonder how your favorite apparel store came to be? Check these three stores out and learn how they soared to be among USA's most admired clothing retailers.

ABERCROMBIE & FITCH

David Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch founded the Abercrombie & Fitch Co in 1892. David Abercrombie, a former a railroad surveyor, topographer, and miner loved the outdoors. He had a store and factory offering gears used for hunting, fishing, and camping. Ezra Fitch, a thriving lawyer in New York, was one of his clients. And in 1900 the two became partners, thus Abercrombie became Abercrombie & Fitch.

Yet their partnership did not last long as they would often disagree about the company's future undertakings. In 1907, Abercrombie left the job in the hands of Fitch. Opting to feature an outdoor touch for the shop, Fitch arranged a tent and campfire right in the store premises. An expansion for both stocks and the store happened. Abercrombie & Fitch was the first New York shop to deliver outdoor clothing for men and women. The company eventually grew to become the globe's biggest sporting merchandise store. It took pride in offering the greatest, most indispensable compilation of guns and fishing equipments, too.

Abercrombie & Fitch's instituted a name as supplier to the sporting greats. The store even had provided a African Safari outfit for President Theodore Roosevelt. US presidents beginning from Theodore Roosevelt to Gerald Ford ultimately would purchase something from A&F.

When the company experienced bankruptcy, Oshman's Sporting Goods restored the name; Abercrombie & Fitch however, swung its concentration to modern sporting gears as well as to a more generous range of men and women's clothing. The Limited, Inc. obtained Abercrombie & Fitch in 1988, and totally removed sporting merchandise.

JC PENNEY

In 1902, 26 year-old James Cash Penney established his first retail store in a tiny mining town in Wyoming. Counseled by his physician to transfer to a place with cooler temperature, young Penney transferred to Colorado. There he worked for a dry goods retail store owned by T. M. Callahan. Penney was soon promoted by Callaham, and assigned him to work in his branch in Evanston, Wyoming. There, Penney partnered with Guy Johnson.

After a few years of being a salesperson, Johnson and Callahan made Penney a business partner. Penney, along with the two opened the Golden Rule store, his first dry goods retail shop. Callahan and Johnson eventually parted ways leaving Penney in charge of three shops. Employing the values of his former associates, Penney spread out the branches all through the Rocky Mountains. In 1912, he owned 34 shops. The following year, Penney integrated the firm as J.C. Penney Company, Inc. In 1917, Penney became the chairman of the board when J.C. Penney carried 175 shops. The firm went on to rapidly launch more stores.

These days, as United States' top and largest clothing as well as home furnishing seller, JC Penney presents an extensive collection of quality, fashionable, and reasonably priced private and exclusive brands. It now has a total 1,073 stores in all of US, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

PACIFIC SUNWEAR

The Pacific Sunwear started out as a store offering surfing apparels. It was Tom Moore who founded it in 1980 in Newport Beach, California. A year following it, Moore together with his business associates inaugurated its second branch this time in a mall at Santa Monica Place, the location that has become Pacific Sunwear's territory for nearly 20 years. The achievement of its first shopping mall shop set off an additional 10 branches. And, as business entrepreneurs financially backed the company in 1987, Pacific Sunwear's branches got bigger to 21 stores.

The company went to make several transformations and had its share of failure too when Pacific Sunwear ventured outside of California. Branches had to labor much to sell tees and shorts when it was freezing outside. Michael W. Rayden, an industry expert led the new management and widened client interest by taking on a fresh perspective for the company. Apart from presenting shirts, shorts, and hats alone, Rayden integrated stylish teenaged men's casual wear from company brands like Mossimo, Stussy, and Billabong. This powerful strategy of trying to interest suburban, male teenagers worked out well. In 1993, sixty branches operated in California and other States such as Washington, New Jersey Arizona, and Florida.

When Rayden resigned from Pacific Sunwear to be President of Limited Too, Greg Weaver took his place. With Weaver leading, Pacific Sunwear aims to become the dominant seller of casual clothes and footwear for America's young people with its over 300 branches.