Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

Retail Brew

Fashion

Andrew Adam Newman

retailbrew.com

 it will expand its free same-day grocery delivery service for Prime members from about 1,000 locales in the US today to more than 2,300 by the end of 2025. The service will require Prime membership and a minimum order of $25 for free delivery.

If you’re a Prime member whose local market doesn’t have free same-day grocery delivery yet, will you try it if it becomes available where you live? 

, we asked if you thought American Eagle’s campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney, which some have 

 for allegedly having eugenic undertones and being hypersexualized, would help or hurt the retailer’s revenue in the coming months. Nearly 3 out of 4 (74.1%) of you responded the campaign will boost American Eagle’s revenue, while 13.1% responded that it would decrease its revenue and 12.7% thought it would have no impact on revenue.

American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ads will boost sales, say 3 out of 4

Plus: Will Amazon’s free same-day grocery delivery entice you?

Hot Topic: American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ads will boost sales, say 3 out of 4

Foot traffic fell 9% year over year at American Eagle stores for the week that began August 3, marking the second week of traffic declines since the retailer launched its controversial campaign featuring actor Sydney Sweeney, according to data from 

American Eagle launched its campaign, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” on July 23. For the first full week after the campaign, which began on July 27, its foot traffic declined 3.9% YoY. In both of the two full weeks preceding the campaign, its traffic increased over last year, up 5.9% on the week that began July 6 and 4.9% on the week that began July 13.

The latest week (from August 3 through August 9) saw foot-traffic declines among some of the retailer’s direct competitors for younger clothing shoppers, too, though not as steep as American Eagle’s 9% YoY drop. Abercrombie & Fitch experienced lower foot traffic (-3.3%), along with H&M (-4.9%), Gap (-2.8%), and Urban Outfitters (-2.7%), per Pass_by.

Correlation, as ever, is not causation, so there’s no telling if the Sweeney campaign has directly impacted American Eagle’s foot traffic.

Retail Brew asked American Eagle to comment on the foot-traffic data. We asked whether, according to its own data, traffic and sales have increased or decreased since the campaign launched. American Eagle did not respond.

, some have criticized the campaign for what they claim are eugenic undertones and for being oversexualized, while others, including The New York Post, dismissed the critics as a “

.” Vocal defenders of the campaign include 

A photo of Sydney Sweeney wearing denim that's part of a new American Eagle ad campaign. 

Foot traffic down 9% at American Eagle after Sydney Sweeney ad

Traffic fell for both weeks since the campaign dropped, per Pass_by.

Exclusive: Foot traffic down 9% at American Eagle following Sydney Sweeney ad controversy

Controversy over American Eagle’s new Sydney Sweeney campaign is dominating headlines, but social media posts about the campaign have been mostly positive, according to data provided exclusively to Retail Brew from 

 of the campaign on July 23 through August 1, 63.7% of posts that mentioned American Eagle across TikTok and X combined were favorable, while 29.4% were unfavorable and 6.9% were neutral.

Molly Dwyer, director of insights at PeakMetrics, told Retail Brew that she found the results “slightly surprising,” but not inexplicable, considering the way the campaign has found more voluble defendants on the right than critics elsewhere.

Critics of the campaign, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” 

 to the double-meaning of the actor having great genes in the genetic sense, with some seeing eugenic undertones.

As recently as July 28, favorable and unfavorable mentions about American Eagle on the platforms were “roughly even,” Dwyer said, adding that shifted when “the right-wing media ecosystem got a hold of this.”

The New York Post dismissed critics of the campaign as a “

 on Fox News. Then conservative politicians, including 

, spoke out in defense of American Eagle, but no comparable cadre of high-profile Democrats raised objections to the campaign.

“Basically the favorable [to the campaign] side kept up the volume,” Dwyer said. “They kept their foot on the gas, drawing this into the Fox News discourse, drawing this into the White House discourse, and there is nobody on the anti-American Eagle side” who is as impactfully “keeping this conversation going.”

In other words, the backlash was trumped (and 

“The trajectory of all this is well rehearsed at this point,” Charlie Warzel 

about the online reaction to the campaign. “Progressive posters register their genuine outrage. Reactionaries respond in kind by cataloging that outrage and using it to portray their ideological opponents as hysterical, overreactive, and out of touch.”

American Eagle did not respond to a request for comment.

Retail Brew asked PeakMetrics to compare mentions on X (irrespective of sentiment) of both American Eagle and a rival for Gen Z and millennial consumers, Abercrombie & Fitch, for the year to date.

Since January, daily mentions of Abercrombie mostly modulated between 25,000 and 75,000, with American Eagle well below that, but with the campaign, American Eagle has soared much higher than Abercrombie, reaching more than 170,000 mentions.

A recent analysis provided exclusively for Retail Brew from 

, an analytics firm tracking corporate reputation, aggregated the sentiment of mentions of American Eagle from both mainstream media outlets and social media.

With news outlets in the mix, negative mentions far outweigh positive ones, but the positive mentions after the campaign began still dwarf 

 mentions of the brand before the campaign started.

Overall, before the campaign American Eagle averaged 67 daily mentions in media outlets and on social media, but since the campaign broke, that average has escalated to 33,000 mentions, per Maps.

Google Trends tells a similar story. Since 2004, which is as far back as Google Trends goes, Google searches for “American Eagle” reached an 

But what do all the numbers mean for American Eagle’s bottom line? Plenty of the American Eagle coverage is negative, and the notion that all publicity is good publicity—paging 

—doesn’t really hold up in the social media era.

Still, PeakMetrics’s Dwyer predicts it’s “going to be good for American Eagle” because the brand has struck a chord with conservatives. 

“The data volume that we’re looking at shows more people in defense of” American Eagle, Dwyer said. “And I think that they’ve successfully coded themselves now as a wink-wink nudge-nudge right-wing brand.”

Sydney Sweeney in an American Eagle ad with the copy "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans."

Most social posts about American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ads favorable

On TikTok and X, 63.7% posts about the campaign are positive, per PeakMetrics.

Exclusive: Most social media posts about American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ads are favorable

Jeena Sharma

In what’s quickly becoming the true Gucci fashion, sales for the retailer 

 25% YoY, as part of the broader decline in Kering’s Q2 revenue.

The numbers are hardly shocking for two primary reasons: Luxury is in a very obvious slump with many major retailers struggling, and Gucci has been at the forefront of this struggle with disappointing results quarter after quarter.

Bret Bero, assistant professor of practice in management at Babson College, calls it a “revenue challenge.”

“There may be other things that they need to fix and turn around, but when you have that greater revenue decline, the clock starts ticking,” he told Retail Brew.

He added that the brand’s biggest challenge over the years has been the loss of its core customers as it went through a series of different creative directors each with their own vision.

“They’ve moved obviously, through the eras having different customers, and that’s fine, because each generation pursues something different,” Bero said. “But going from Tom Ford to Alessandro with his androgynous look, I’m not sure what the core selling proposition is right now if I am one of the older customers who grew up from the Tom Ford era and some of the more classic definitions of what Gucci means.”

To Gucci’s credit, it’s possibly why the retailer brought in 

 earlier this year. The former creative director of Balenciaga is known for his statement-making looks and his signature designs, which is exactly what Gucci might need to reestablish a strong identity and redefine its core customer.

“He may fail, but I would rather take a shot with somebody who’s got a defined image and message,” Bero said.

Michael Prendergast, luxury expert at Alvarez & Marsal’s consumer and retail group, agreed, adding that for Demna’s vision to work, it has to be a “perfect alignment of the stars” as he’ll need to understand what makes Gucci tick and what are the brand’s core attributes that can work with its audience in the long term.

“It's not enough just to have a cult following,” he said. “You have to truly understand and have almost sort of a brand whisperer creative mindset to truly understand what makes the brand successful.”

Both Prendergast and Bero, however, are confident in 

, the new CEO of Kering. While he does not have a luxury fashion background, he does have a strong reputation for turning things around, like he did as CEO of Renault.

“He is the sort of guy that is driven to get results and builds teams to do that,” Bero said.

Meanwhile, Prendergast called de Meo an “operational guru” who will likely be able to balance growth, innovation, assortment selections, and investment of inventory in the “right product” alongside tackling financial and operational challenges.

But whether it’s Demna or de Meo, we’re likely not going to see the real impact of these executive changes for the next 6–12 months. Until then, it’s pretty much a waiting game. Add tariffs to the mix, and things only get murkier.

“Prices are elevated, consumer sentiment and demand drop—what’s going to happen then?” Prendergast said. “That will be right around the time where they need to get traction in their turnaround, and when they can have new product on the floor and new operational efficiencies. So it is a very challenging time for them to be entering or have started a transformational turnaround.”

Can Demna and Luca de Meo save Gucci?

Despite major creative and executive changes, Gucci continues to struggle but things might turn around.

On August 1, after its “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” 

 became a culture-war battle over what critics saw as evoking eugenics and oversexualizing a back-to-school campaign, American Eagle issued a 

The statement asserted that the campaign “was always about the jeans” and, while not apologizing, sounded a note of inclusivity.

“We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way,” the statement concluded. “Great jeans look good on everyone.”

Among those following how the brand would respond to the controversy on social media, it turns out, was someone who once ran American Eagle’s social media channels: Hailey Knott. She worked for the retailer from 2022 to 2024, and she’s now social media marketing manager at the Gemological Institute of America.

In a TikTok video, Knott said she was “disappointed, but not surprised” by what she called the company’s “weak-ass statement.”

In other posts, Knott focussed on the campaign itself rather than American Eagle’s response to critics.

“This is the back-to-school campaign, which also makes all of this over-sexualization disturbing,” Knott said in a TikTok video that had been viewed more than 1.5 million times when this article was published.

“Now all of the internet is finally seeing the lack of direction, lack of social awareness that is the American Eagle marketing leadership team,” she said.

“This brand was desperate for a moment, and I don’t think that this is the one that they were hoping for,” she said.

American Eagle did not respond to a request for comment. Knott did not respond to a message seeking further comment. 

 announcing that she was leaving American Eagle last year that she had begun working as a sales associate at one of the company’s stores in 2014, when she was in college. In her TikTok video, she said working on the sales floor gave her “an extremely good idea of who was buying the clothes” and who “liked the product.”

But as Knott told it on TikTok, when she joined the management team in 2022, she found that senior executives of the company were too distracted by their competitors to focus properly on their core consumers.

Sydney Sweeney appears in a print ad from American Eagle with the copy "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans."

Former American Eagle social media manager on Sydney Sweeney campaign

The campaign is “disturbing,” she says.

This former American Eagle social media manager thinks the Sydney Sweeney campaign is a miss

Coca-Cola announced that in the fall it will introduce a version of Coke that’s sweetened with 

 as an alternative to its version sweetened with corn syrup.

Do you think the new cane-sugar version of Coke will increase the company’s cola sales overall, or will it be a wash because some fans who drink the corn-syrup version will just switch? 

, we told you about Lululemon’s lawsuit alleging that some of Costco’s Kirkland private-label products are dupes of popular Lululemon designs, and that as a result, Costco has “unlawfully traded” on Lululemon’s IP. We asked if you thought, as Lululemon argued, that Costco should stop making the products alleged to be dupes.

Most of you seemed to think that Lululemon’s claim was like what many wear its clothing for: a stretch. More than 8 out of 10 (81.6%) of respondents said Costco should keep making what Lululemon claims are dupes, while 18.4% said Costco should knock it off when it comes to knock-offs.

A model of Costco pants that Lululemon claims are dupes. 

Costco should keep making alleged Lululemon dupes, say 81.9%. 

Plus, will cane-sugar Coke boost sales for the company?

Hot Topic: Costco should keep making alleged Lululemon dupes, say 81.9%

A new American Eagle campaign featuring actor Sydney Sweeney is going 

, but not necessarily in the way the brand had hoped.

As evident in the wordplay of its tagline, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” the campaign plays on the idea that both her American Eagle denim and her genetics are exemplary.

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color,” Sweeney purrs in one 

, the camera lingering on the blond and blue-eyed actor. “My jeans are blue.”

For some, who took to social media to object to the campaign, the message seemed to echo the dark legacy of eugenics and “

A TikTok from rapper and singer Doja Cat mocking the campaign had more than 20.2 million views at the time of publication.

“What it communicates to people is that there is a prototypical standard for good genes: white, blond hair, blue eyes,” Dr. Marcus Collins, 

 and marketing professor at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business, said in a 

 he posted to LinkedIn. “Considering the political and social, cultural backdrop that we’re in right now, that could seem like some pretty bad dog whistling.”

While Collins stressed he had no idea of American Eagle’s intent, “it certainly makes sense that people will see it as such.”

The backlash drew coverage from media outlets including 

. Some coverage defended the campaign, with the New York Post characterizing critics as a “

.” (“Wow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women,” Senator Ted Cruz 

 about the controversy on the platform. “I’m sure that will poll well.”)

Retail Brew asked American Eagle to respond to criticism of the campaign, and whether it planned to respond to critics on social media and elsewhere. American Eagle did not respond.

After 14 consecutive Instagram posts over three days featuring Sweeney, American Eagle 

 an image of a woman of color wearing denim that said, “AE has great jeans👖✨.”

Many of the top comments to the post were dubious.

“Just like clockwork. Damage control,” responded @acolortheory. Added @cinddyy.liz, “Quick let’s add a poc so we don’t get hate.”

 on LinkedIn as the campaign was launching, American Eagle’s CMO Craig Brommers wrote, “A massive thank you and CONGRATULATIONS to our internal teams and external partners - and SYDNEY herself - for this defining moment 🙏🙏🙏.” But a few days later, as critical comments far outnumbered positive ones, comments to the post were turned off.

Similarly, Ashley Schapiro, VP of media, performance and engagement at American Eagle, turned off comments on her LinkedIn 

 about the campaign (“The ⭐️ star power of Sydney and the double meaning behind the campaign has a culture shaping power beyond anything I could have ever imagined being a part of,” she wrote) following critical comments.

Responsible Marketing: How to Create an Authentic and Inclusive Marketing Strategy

, told Retail Brew that she thought the new campaign by American Eagle is “pretty overtly referencing” eugenics and called it “egregious.”

Bakare was disappointed that American Eagle had not directly (at least not before this article was published) addressed the controversy—aside from 

 some of its ads from its social campaign, per Ad Age.

“They still have time to turn it around, but I am losing faith that they will,” Bakare said.

Bakare said American Eagle should at least address the criticism, even if it doesn’t pull the campaign.

“‘We really appreciate that our loyal fans are letting us know that there’s some issues that many see with our recent creative,” would be a good start of a message from the company to critics, Bakare said. “‘We hear you, we’re listening, and we’re working really quickly and getting together to see how we can make sure you know everything that we put out continues to do what we always care about most, which is respecting our fans.’”

Sydney Sweeney in an American Eagle campaign for jeans