Mike Jeffries

Abercrombie & Fitch, after making numerous management changes to appease angry shareholders this year, is still facing heat for CEO Mike Jeffries’ spending and his partner's excessive involvement in the business. The company is aiming to settle a lawsuit brought by a Florida pension plan at the end of August, which documents a host of bad behavior by Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith, and Abercrombie's board. The shareholders, furious over the more than $140 million Jeffries has made since 2008 despite Abercrombie's lackluster performance, were able to obtain hundreds of internal corporate documents for review as part of the lawsuit. 

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is finally shedding its traditional logo-focused apparel, clothes that made the brand one of the most sought after among teens in the past two decades. The company's preppy t-shirts and sweatshirts have fallen out of favor with students who are more inclined to spend their allowances on cheaper and

After years of resisting pressure to ditch Abercrombie & Fitch's outdated strategy, Chief Executive Officer Mike Jeffries is relenting. Faulted by investors for a management style that alienated underlings and

Teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch stripped its chief executive, Mike Jeffries, of his chairman duties, bowing to investor pressure to reduce his control over the struggling company. "It seems like it's a political and respectful way of approaching a CEO issue without saying we're gonna throw you to the curb," said Simeon Siegel, an analyst at Nomura Equity Research. Jeffries, 69, hired in 1992 to revamp what was an ailing sports brand, has faced criticism for failing to stop the retailer from ceding market share to chains like Forever 21 and Inditex's Zara. 

This has been one tough year for Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F). A megaviral "Abercrombie-Hates-Fat-People" meme started in May when a Business Insider piece analyzed Abercrombie's marketing practices and included a seven-year-old quotation from CEO Mike Jeffries. The piece then piled on with comments from a retail consultant with no connection to the company who explained that A&F didn't sell plus-sizes because Jeffries didn't want overweight people wearing his clothes. Social media outrage ensued, and a YouTube urging consumers to donate their Abercrombie clothes to homeless people for a "brand readjustment" garnered more than 8 million views.