When was gap founded

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The name is a reference to the concept of the generation gap. The first Gap store primarily sold Levis and records. Gap's popularity exploded. The next year, the Fishers opened a second store in San Jose and then established a company headquarters in Burlingame, California, in The store became synonymous with American classics, like blue jeans and T-shirts. In , Gap officially went public. As Gap looked to grow the company, it started to eye acquisitions and developing new brands.

In , Gap acquired Banana Republic. As part of Gap's growth strategy, it also moved into new apparel categories, including children's clothing, leading to the launch of Gap Kids in In , Gap officially opened its doors overseas, with its first store in London. To help develop a more upscale identity, Gap brought on Millard "Mickey" Drexler as CEO, who oversaw the company for much of the s.

During his tenure, Old Navy was created, initially intended as a lower-priced alternative to Gap when it opened its doors in Old Navy quickly became beloved across a wide consumer demographic for its playful designs and fun slices of Americana, like its annual Fourth of July apparel. However, after a month period of slumping sales attributed to over-expansion, Drexler was asked to step down in This was the first sign that Gap's fortunes could turn. Though trouble was brewing behind the scenes, the late s and early aughts led to some of Gap's most iconic advertising campaigns.

Gap began to focus on charitable initiatives and in it launched its Product Red initiative. Also in , Gap was among the retailers implicated in a series of labor rights protests after reports surfaced alleging poor working conditions at factories overseas. Looking to the future of retail, Gap embarked on a series of failed experiments including launching Piperlime in The store was intended for women 35 years and older.

Learning from its mistakes, Gap turned instead to smart acquisitions and purchased Athleta in Despite its struggles, Gap still managed to garner buzz during this period, including high-profile moments like a visit from President Barack Obama.

Still, Gap brands began to feel the weight of dwindling foot traffic in malls and the push toward e-commerce. In October , the company announced it would close stores in the US by Drexler created a large in-house design staff to develop clothes that would be casual, simple, made of natural fibers, and more clearly differentiated by gender than were jeans.

The look was informal but classic--still denim-based but including a variety of shirts, skirts, blouses, and sweaters in assorted colors and weaves. It was clothing for people who wanted to look and feel young without appearing slovenly or rebellious, a description that fit a vast number of U.

Gap stores were substantially revamped. Neutral grays and white replaced the garish orange, and the ubiquitous rounders gave way to shelves of neatly folded clothing under soft lighting. The company's advertising, as devised by Drexler's longtime colleague, Magdalena Maggie Gross, shifted from radio and television to upscale magazines and newspapers and featured older models engaged in familiar, outdoor activities that were not necessarily connected with the youth culture.

A few years later, Gross launched the "Individuals of Style" campaign, a series of black and white portraits of both famous and unknown subjects by a team of celebrated photographers. The ads stressed style, not The Gap, whose clothes did not always appear in all of the photos, and they were enormously successful in helping to change the public's perception of the company. The Gap came to mean good taste of an informal variety, and the brand name Gap soon acquired the cachet needed if the company were to compete with other retailers of casual wear such as Benetton and The Limited.

In addition, the word "stores" was dropped from the company's name. By the middle of the following year, however, it was clear he had pulled off something of a miracle. Gross revenue, profits, and same-store sales were all up; more importantly, the company had fresh energy and a merchandising focus that could carry it for years to come.

In the meantime, The Gap had acquired a number of other retail chains, for better and worse. Foremost among these was Banana Republic, founded in by another California husband and wife team, Melvyn and Patricia Ziegler.

The two-store chain of safari and travel clothing outfits, bought by The Gap in , had a well-established catalogue business. After its acquisition and the introduction of private-label clothing lines, Banana Republic's sales doubled each year through the mids but slowed quickly thereafter. Despite the mixed results of the Banana Republic acquisition, the company continued to seek out other chain stores.

Pottery Barn was a housewares chain of about 30 stores in New York and California; after several problematic years, it was liquidated in That same year, Drexler sought to fill another clothing need of the baby boomer generation with the debut of GapKids, featuring comfortable, durable clothes for the children of parents who shopped at Gap stores.

By , The Gap decided to try its wares outside the United States, and its first international store was opened in London. Additional stores soon sprang up throughout the United Kingdom, Canada, and France. Unfortunately, stateside, Banana Republic's safari gear bubble burst, and it became a money-losing liability. The Gap also tested the higher end of the clothing market with Hemisphere, a nine-store chain of upscale U. Disposed of only two years later, neither the Hemisphere mistake or the demise of Pottery Barn was serious enough to cause more than a few tremors at the parent company, whose spectacular rebirth in the Drexler era left ample room for such experimentation.

In , as Banana Republic searched for secure footing, GapKids prospered and launched a new venture, babyGap. Like its sibling, babyGap was a phenomenal success and became a popular attraction in GapKids stores.

In the early s, Banana Republic was busy refocusing its image while GapKids and babyGap flourished. The Gap's transition from a discount jeans warehouse to a sleek fashion arbiter was not altogether painless, yet the result had been more successful than Donald and Doris Fisher ever imagined. In , the Fisher family still held more than 40 percent of the company, which now operated more than 1, stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with plans to expand total sales area by 15 percent annually.

Not only had The Gap followed its Baby Boomer clientele as they grew older and wealthier, it provided for their children, too. GapKids was the fastest-growing segment of the company as a whole, with most of the more than GapKids stores housing a babyGap department for infants and toddlers. Though marked a dip in profits and sales growth due to slower turnover and increased competition, the company addressed these problems by turning away from unisex clothing to more gender-specific items.

Along with refurbishing stores and placing more emphasis on women, The Gap came back with record numbers in and a new franchise, originally called Gap Warehouse, because for some it had become increasingly cool not to spend money on clothes i. Lacking the trademark flare associated with the company, Drexler hired an outside to firm to come up with a new name to no avail. Then when strolling in Paris with colleagues, Drexler saw the perfect moniker for the down-market stores painted on a building: Old Navy.

Hence Old Navy Clothing Company, with stores nearly twice as big as other Gap stores, filled with sturdy, value-priced 20 to 30 percent lower clothing for the entire family. Despite the circumstances of its birth, Old Navy became another Gap sensation. Banana Republic, meanwhile, was gaining ground with urbane elegance as a hip alternative to The Gap's casualness.

To shore up its product line, the upscale clothier initiated a shop-within-a-shop concept, featuring different collections, jewelry, and leather accessories.

International stores had surged from 's 72 in Canada, 49 in the United Kingdom, and 3 in France to 91 in Canada, 55 in the United Kingdom, 12 in France, 4 in Japan, and 2 in Germany in Banana Republic, once a blemish on the perfect Gap picture, had blossomed with more new products, including footwear, personal care items, a sharper focus on women, and five new stores in Canada. At the same time, Old Navy increased its market share by doubling in size, exceeding the company's hopes for its newest division, while Gap and GapKids lost some of their momentum, although babyGap maintained its prominence.

New directions for GapKids and babyGap included plush toys, other non-clothing items, and freestanding babyGap stores; The Gap debuted GapScents and continued to broaden its age range and clothing lines to include work attire.