American Eagle Outfitters

From The Matrix

Image:American Eagle Logo.JPG
Company Infobox
Company name: American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.
Company type: Public (NYSE: {{{nyse}}})
Foundation: 1904 company establishment, 1977 switch to current clothing style
Location: Image:Flag of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.png Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Industry: Clothing retail
Key people: Jay L. Schottenstein; Chairman James V. O'Donnell; CEO Roger S. Markfield; Vice Chairman Susan P. McGalla; President & CMO
# of employees: 20,600 (2005)
Products: Apparel
Revenue: $2.3 billion USD (2005)
Net income:
Homepage: www.ae.com

American Eagle Outfitters is an American clothing retailer founded in 1977 in Pittsburgh's north suburbs and has recently announced a move to a new urban headquarters campus in the city's historic "Steel Valley". It is now commonly referred to by the abbreviation "American Eagle" or simply "AE" rather than its full title. American Eagle sells clothing that is specifically targeted toward the 20-something college student demographic. Widely popular on American college campuses, American Eagle's clothing is most often designed with the style of college students in mind. The trend has also caught on with middle and high school students, although they are not the company's intended wearers.

The majority of American Eagle Outfitters stores can be found in shopping malls. American Eagle Outfitters currently operates 784 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 71 stores in Canada. The popular company also operates a website on which it offers the same clothing, often with additional sizes and styles not found in the physical stores. Its largest store is located at the Fox Run Mall in Newington, New Hampshire.

[edit] Design

American Eagle Outfitters is often compared to the clothing companies Abercrombie and Fitch and Aeropostale due to their very similar styles, marketing techniques, and targeted consumer demographic. However, American Eagle's product line is generally in the middle of the other two companies when it comes to price (Abercrombie and Fitch often being more expensive and Aeropostale being less expensive). The two companies have both created easily recognizable picture logos to brand several of their products; American Eagle Outfitters' being a landing eagle, Aeropostale's a standing bulldog for guys and butterfly for girls, and Abercrombie and Fitch's a standing moose. The usage of animals for logos imitates previously established companies such as Polo Ralph Lauren (using a Polo horse) and Lacoste (using a snapping crocodile). American Eagle capitalizes on their date of establishment, 1977, in their marketing and design, branding the majority of their products with the date, as does Abercrombie & Fitch with their date of establishment, 1892.

[edit] Celebrity endorsements

Justin Timberlake, Eric West and Ashton Kutcher are all known to wear American Eagle Outfitters. The characters in various new episodes of The-N's Degrassi and South of Nowhere also wear the clothing.(American Eagle used this as a subtle way to advertise their line to the important teen demographic of these shows). American Eagle is also the official sponsor of MTV's spring break, and has outfitted numerous casts of both The Real World and Road Rules.