Abercrombie & Fitch has been actively pursuing new partnerships, most recently with the NFL as its new official apparel partner.
But until now, Abercrombie has never pursued a full-on collaboration with another apparel brand. On October 30, Abercrombie is releasing a collection of western-themed apparel in collaboration with the western luxury brand Kemo Sabe. Kemo Sabe sells custom-made cowboy hats, boots and accessories at its six stores across the Western U.S.
It’s a collaboration born out of a genuine friendship between Abercrombie’s chief product officer, Corey Robinson, and Kemo Sabe president and owner Wendy Kunkle. Every year, Robinson travels to Aspen, where Kemo Sabe’s flagship store is located, and he became a fan of the brand when he bought custom cowboy hats for his entire family. He and Kunkle became friends through interactions at the store.
“We’ve never really done a true brand collab,” Robinson said. “But in January, we started talking about who we would work with, and we wanted to be really thoughtful about who we picked. That’s when [Abercrombie & Fitch CEO] Fran [Horowitz] said to me, ‘Do you know this brand called Kemo Sabe?’”
When Robinson told Horowitz that not only did he know the brand, but that he personally knew its founder, “the conversation escalated,” he said. The fact that both Horowitz and Robinson had independently become interested in Kemo Sabe was a good sign.
The collection, made up of women’s apparel and a few accessories with a focus on denim and dresses, is situated in between the two brands’ typical price points. Abercrombie’s clothes are priced for the mass market, and Kemo Sabe sells luxury goods, with a typical hat costing nearly $1,000. The collaborative collection starts at $50, with the most expensive piece being a leather jacket for $500. While Abercrombie typically uses faux leather, the Kemo Sabe collaboration uses only real leather. The collection, which will be promoted in a digital ad campaign, will be available on Abercrombie’s e-commerce site and in all of the brand’s over 200 global retail stores.
“We haven’t done any fashion collaborations either, so it’s a first for both of us,” Kunkle told Glossy.
Kemo Sabe has been expanding in other ways, though. Earlier this year, the company partnered with the Partida distilling family in El Arenal, Jalisco for the release of its own tequila, called Original Grit. Kemo Sabe’s stores are known for having a bar in each location that serves tequila and other western-themed drinks.
Kunkle and her brother, Bobby Kunkle, purchased Kemo Sabe from its founders Tom and Nancy Yoder in 2020. Since then, they’ve opened five stores, acquired a bootmaking business and grown Kemo Sabe’s annual sales by over 130%. Its latest store, in Whitefish, Montana, opened this fall.
For Abercrombie & Fitch, the collaboration is part of a larger two-part strategic move: to collaborate more broadly with other brands and organizations and to court a more fashion-forward customer. Working with Kemo Sabe accomplishes both goals, particularly given Kemo Sabe’s embrace by stylish celebrities like Rihanna and the Kardashians.
In late August, Abercrombie & Fitch recorded record net sales for the quarter ending in August of over $1 billion, a 7% increase from the year prior. The brand has been making a steady comeback since its heyday in the 2000s. Robinson said that, in recent years, Abercrombie was many shoppers’ “best kept secret,” but that it isn’t a secret anymore. Horowitz has spoken in recent weeks about the desire to turn Abercrombie into a lifestyle brand with a strong place in the fashion industry, not just another mall brand. For Robinson, working with Kemo Sabe is one way to accomplish that.
“I see our customer in the Kemo Sabe store,” Robinson said. “The throughline is that Abercrombie is a 130-year-old iconic American brand. Kemo Sabe is an iconic American brand. The NFL is an iconic American brand. So it’s valuable for us to be associated with a luxury brand like Kemo Sabe and to be able to make their product a little more accessible for our customer.”
