{"id":4741,"date":"2026-09-17T03:59:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T03:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=4741"},"modified":"2026-09-17T03:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T03:59:38","slug":"how-katseye-and-cardi-b-are-helping-gap-inc-re-establish-its-cool-factor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=4741","title":{"rendered":"How Katseye and Cardi B are helping Gap Inc re-establish its cool factor"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

As Gap Inc. CEO Richard Dickson gives us a tour of the Gap\u2019s remodeled store in New York\u2019s Flatiron District, he pauses at a gallery of 16 framed sepia-toned pictures hanging above a staircase: work by legendary photographers Annie Leibovitz and Bruce Weber, capturing celebrities from musicians Debbie Harry to Willie Nelson to actress Lauren Hutton for long-ago ad campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

He found the photos\u2014and hundreds more\u2014in the company\u2019s archives soon after taking the helm of the brand\u2019s parent company in 2023, Dickson said. They recalled a time when the Gap was firmly at the center of pop culture, and he thought they should be on display in the flagship store\u2014a few yards away from gigantic posters of contemporary \u201cGap girl,\u201d the influencer and cosmetics entrepreneur Hailey Bieber, who has launched a new jeans line with the Gap.<\/p>\n

Since the very beginning of his tenure, Dickson has put restoring the \u201ccultural relevance\u201d of the Gap, along with sister brands Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta, at the very top of his agenda, alongside the more prosaic priorities for a clothing brand: quality, well-appointed stores and supply chain prowess. <\/strong>One of his early moves as CEO was to hire designer Zac Posen to be creative director of Gap Inc. and chief creative officer of Old Navy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to celebrate our history and now we add new people,\u201d Dickson tells Fortune<\/em> in an episode of Behind the Business<\/em>. \u201cWhen you look at Hailey Bieber, with the legendary talent we brought to the Gap over the years\u2014it shows the continuity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is more buzz these days around the Gap than there has been in years. Its \u201cBetter in Denim\u201d ad campaign last year included a viral Busby Berkeley-style dance number, created with global girl group Katseye, that has been seen 80 million times. A limited-edition $100 hoodie designed with the group members earlier this year also sold briskly. <\/p>\n

Other recent celebrity collaborators have included the Gen Z singer-songwriter Malcolm Todd and actress Inde Navarrette, as well as the designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham. <\/strong>Meanwhile the Gap\u2019s sister brand, Old Navy, is working with the rapper Cardi B on a jeans line.<\/p>\n

Not just \u201cstuff\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

At the recently remodeled Flatiron Gap store, there are flicks at the brand\u2019s long history, including photos of its first store in 1969 in San Francisco. A vinyl records section evokes the chain\u2019s start as a record store that sold jeans (Levi\u2019s initially, before its own label existed.).<\/p>\n

At the brand\u2019s peak, the Gap\u2019s roster of stars from across the cultural spectrum included rapper LL Cool J, Sex and the City<\/em> star Sarah Jessica Parker, and author Joan Didion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But by the 2010s, the brand had lost its mojo, with sales plummeting and the company closing hundreds of stores. And there were culture and leadership issues: Before Dickson took the reins in 2023, Gap Inc. had gone through five CEOs in five years. Dickson said the company had developed a \u201cpositivity bias\u201d that meant executives were not looking at Gap Inc.\u2019s problems squarely in the face.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had great storytelling and brands, but somewhere along the way, we lost the story and became more about the stuff,\u201d the CEO says. \u201cCultural connection and relevance actually are a fundamental part of brand management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickson knows a thing or two about culture\u2019s potential to transform a brand. Before Gap Inc., he had been at Mattel since 2014. There, his achievements included revitalizing the \u201cBarbie\u201d brand and putting it back at the center of popular culture with creative marketing campaigns. His work helped set Barbie up for the enormous success of the blockbuster 2023 movie based on the doll.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love iconic American brands,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m really fascinated with brands that had a cultural impact then lost their way. I love a good turnaround.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Breaking the discounting cycle<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are some signs that the Gap\u2019s brand is recovering: In the first quarter of this year, its comparable sales rose 10% and have been rising for two years now. But the brand, which had sales of $3.5 billion last year (the company as a whole took in $15.4 billion), remains about half the size it was at its peak in the early 2000\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the 2010s, the overall company was sustained by the steady performance of Old Navy, which now generates just more than half of revenues, but the downward spiral of the Gap was starting to seem inexorable. Though not the biggest brand anymore by a long shot (it generated 23% of company revenue last year, while Old Navy represented 55%), the Gap is spiritually crucial to the company as its founding label and namesake. Indeed, when Dickson changed its \u201cGPS\u201d stock ticker in 2024, he chose \u201cGAP\u201d as the new one.<\/p>\n

Mark Breitbard, who became CEO of Gap brand in 2020, says the business had stagnated with dated stores, uninspiring clothing of all-too-often subpar quality, and from falling out of the cultural conversation. With merchandise that was boring consumers, discounting became the primary way to spur sales. Breitbard realized he had to stop that cycle\u2014and to do that he needed to restore cultural relevance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are ways of bringing new customers into the brand,\u201d says Breitbard. \u201cWe are reinventing the brand through them.\u201d He says the Hailey Bieber collection works because \u201cshe\u2019s a Gap girl\u201d and her look for the campaign, a white tank top with blue jeans, taps the brand\u2019s classic \u201ccodes\u201d but with a modern vibe.<\/p>\n

What Gap is doing is hardly unique. Levi\u2019s has also been tapping nostalgia and celebrities like Beyonc\u00e9 to great success in the last few years, while Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle Outfitters have also re-elevated their brands. (Last year, AEO got a big boost from the attention and controversy generated by its \u201cSydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans\u201d campaign, which some saw as praising white beauty standards.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Riding a wave?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Despite the green shoots, Gap Inc\u2019s shares are down 20% this year and have been largely flat since they soared right after Dickson\u2019s appointment in 2023. His turnaround plan is very much still a \u201cshow-me\u201d story, according to Simeon Siegel, an analyst with Guggenheim Partners. For one thing, many apparel retailers have seen sales growth this year, but much of that was just higher prices they could pin on tariffs and broader inflation. Siegel says the real test is whether Gap can raise prices because people really want its t-shirts and jeans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the purpose of cultural relevance?\u201d Siegal asks, before answering his own question: \u201cIt should be to drive revenues, and also drive prices.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dickson himself concedes there is still much work to be done to fully rehabilitate the Gap, as well as its sister brands. Still, he\u2019s pretty happy to see the company\u2019s\u00a0 brands back on what he calls the scoreboard. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s an optimistic period where we feel like we are making a lot of progress.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Katseye #Cardi #helping #Gap #reestablish #cool #factor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Gap Inc. CEO Richard Dickso… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7800,1405,1121,7802,1697,5170,7799,7801],"class_list":["post-4741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-cardi","tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","tag-cool","tag-factor","tag-gap","tag-helping","tag-katseye","tag-reestablish"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Katseye and Cardi B are helping Gap Inc re-establish its cool factor - Finance News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=4741\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"zh_CN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Katseye and Cardi B are helping Gap Inc re-establish its cool factor - Finance News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As Gap Inc. 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