A casual apparel retail company that specializes in hoodies, tees, sweaters and jeans, Aeropostale is an American brand that people have taken a huge liking for.
This goes beyond the general American borders, and into the international world where much of their products are constantly being shipped due to their rising demand.
So what has allowed Aeropostale to remain in the race all these years with all the big names of the fashion industry?
What does this have to say of the standard of the company in general? What questions does this raise considering their methods of production?
What Is Aeropostale Known For?
Young Audience
Their collections mainly target teens, where their items are considered to be in sync with the current trends of fashion. They also have clothes available for smaller from the age of 5-12 as well as for the adult audience, but their target audience are teens.
Pronunciation Debates and Own Marketing
There have been debates regarding the pronunciation of the name, where the form now accepted is “arrow-post-ALL”.
The company is responsible for their own marketing, where they handle the planning, manufacturing and selling to the customers, with no outsourcing whatsoever.
Humanitarian Works
Aeropostale is also a big advocate of children rights, where they have made charities at multiple occasions to non professional organizations that are working for the welfare of children.
They have been involved in much of the local charity works, where they made their contributions through the donation of their own products like jeans.
Budget-Friendly Designer Clothes
Perhaps the thing they are best known for are the designer quality products they provide at relatively cheap prices. One could stay in touch with the current fashion trends without having to sell an arm or leg.
Is Aeropostale An Ethical Company?
Poor Employment Policies
In terms of labor, the company is graded very poorly. None of their policies have been registered or approved by labor standards and had a rating of 0-10% in the fashion transparency index.
There is no indication that any of their policies are being followed within the company, with respect to their employer’s wages, health and safety.
Carbon Footprint and Harmful Environment Policies
They have pretty much the same reputation with regards to their carbon footprint and the harm the company inflicts on the environment. There is no layout plan that Aeropostale safeguards or reveals, that tells us how they plan to compensate for it.
Questionable Methods Of Production
It uses animal products like leather and wool, as well as chemicals that are used in the manufacturing of various garments. There are no mentions as to how they intend to make their products cruelty free and whether or not they employ methods that minimize these effects, or how they dispose of their production waste.
Does Aeropostale Use Sweatshop?
A term typically referred to as a factory or workshop with low wages and poor working conditions, there are rumors that Aeropostale uses sweatshops to run their business.
Unfair means of practice are adopted within these sweatshops, where the care for the well-being of the employee is thoroughly ignored and no care is taken for their mental or physical health.
Insufficient Rights and Security
There are no measures taken to diversify their set of employees and actions against violation of rights are kept to a minimum. These violations include physical, sexual or verbal abuse in the form of harassment and racism based on ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Child Labor
Despite their self proclaimed advocacy of children rights, Aeropostale has been issued with child labor charges multiple times in the past pertaining to their rather skeptical reputation considering labour treatment.
Most of their production factories are in Southern parts of Asia where the policies considering child labor are easy goiny, allowing them to get away with insufficient wages and poor employment policies.
Where Does Aeropostale Make Their Clothes?
While most of their stores are located within America, the main production factories are located outside America. This is partially due to the easy labor policies and mainly due to the low production cost they favor a little too well.
These include Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, and parts of central America where they have more than 21000 employers working for them. They have expanded their stores outside of America to first world countries like Turkey, UAE, Peru and Mexico, however they continue to exploit workers in low income countries.
Can Aeropostale Keep Up With Fast Fashion?
Emergence Of High Rise Competitors
Low cost brands like Aeropostale, Abercrombie & Fitch, and American Eagle are suffering from competition from fast fashion retail brands like Zara, Gucci and their likes, which are incorporating contemporary trends in their products at lightning speed.
This is making things worse for Aeropostale who have already suffered a loss of a whopping 22 million dollars in recent times.
Legal Fallacies
The legal charges that the company has been lately charged with are just proving to be the cherry on the top for Aeropostale.
The company has been charged multiple times for infringing patents including those of Picture Patents and Furnace Brook.
The vice president, Christopher Finazzo has been convicted of 16 mail fraud conspiracies. This has taken a toll on the company’s reputation and further reduced its sales, adding to the bankruptcy case filed 2016.
Shift In Public Interest
There’s been a growing change in regime among people in which they prefer to shop from fast fashion brands like Zara and H&M’s, or they prefer their local departmental store where products are much more affordable.
This has resulted in a decline of sales for brands like Aeropostale, Hollister’s and relatively old brands like American Eagle, making it harder for them to stay in sync with the constantly changing fashion trends.
Failed Customer Services
Inadequate customer services and the company’s failure to uphold its requirements have taken the company’s business down another notch.
Is Aeropostale Fast Fashion?
Despite all the backlash the company has faced in recent times, it has made a revenue of a billion dollars in the last year. Their online sales are flourishing both in the local and international market.
Aeropostale has managed to keep itself from drowning, despite all the big fish swimming in the water.
The company has proved that it is a fighter and will do anything to stand it’s ground.
