L.A. Filmmaker Strikes Back Against Abercrombie With ‘Fitch The Homeless’

fitch the homeless

Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries certainly ruffled a lot of feathers when he told Salon his store doesn’t sell women’s plus-sized clothings because it doesn’t want overweight (and what he calls unattractive) women shopping in its stores.

In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he said. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.

Jeffries, 61, also has no problem admitting the company won’t hire unattractive people to work in its stores.

Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that.”

Although the comments were actually made in 2006, the interview has recently gone viral, and the social-media backlash has been significant. Change.org even started a petition to force Abercrombie to carry plus sizes. And some are looking for ways to fight back against Abercrombie’s supercilious marketing strategies.

Enter writer Greg Karber. Upon reading another article—this time from 2010—in which an Abercrombie district manager said the company burns damaged clothing to keep them out of the hands of the homeless, Karber decided enough was enough.

Abercrombie and Fitch doesn’t want to create the image that just anybody, poor people, can wear their clothing,” the manager said. “Only people of a certain stature are able to purchase and wear the company name.

Karber is calling Abercrombie protesters to action. In a new video, Karber shops the “douchebag section” of Goodwill stores for Abercrombie clothes, then hands them out to homeless people hanging out on Skid Row. And he’s encouraging others to do the same, hoping to make Abercrombie & Fitch “the No. 1 brand of homeless apparel.” The topic is even trending on Twitter using the hashtag #fitchthehomeless.

Will following Karber’s lead get Abercrombie’s attention? Probably not. The company has whethered numerous controversies over the years, including a backlash in 2002 over selling thongs to young girls which Jeffries called “bullshit.

So Jeffries may not give a shit what people think, but who wants to wear clothing associated with such a prick? If nothing else, following Karber’s lead will clear any Abercrombie clothes out of our closets.