The Lions' Pride

changed my mind... deleted post. Apologies

Any thoughtful and thorough market analytics person would have realized that until this mess PSU was the 2nd largest revenue generating school in the U.S., has the largest living alumni base in the country, and despite the scandal, this inventory might sell just fine. Wait a few weeks after release to see where the #'s go and then make the decision. This was a knee-jerk reaction based a) on the false assumption that no one would want PSU gear and it wouldn't sell and b) out of a bias and distaste on the part of the pricing strategist(s) towards PSU...

damn those GDI's

Let's debate this then.

Point #1 - Fashion is an industry that's decided by one's ability to forecast. The ones that survive, are the ones that best forecast what their customers will want 2 quarters ahead of time (I might be misremembering that one, it's been a bit of time since I've looke at this industry). Combine this with a worldwide supply chain, that's more of a push/batch than a pull/JIT - you're looking at some pretty big lead times. Basically, the store planned this particular campaign a while ago, well before the Freeh Report.

#2. I might be wrong about this, but I'd guess that the store targeted only some schools with this campaign. The top 20 - 25 national brands. These are the schools that neutrals purchase from, because they're "cool". Remember that Abercrombie targets a younger crowd, and this isn't about alumni bases, and it's not targete towards avid football fans neccesarily - this is A&F afterall, an most avid CFB I know, don't buy sports clothing there. My guess is that they want the younger, more neutral, just want to look cool crowd. Call it the Fraternity & Hipster Demographic if you'd like.

#3 The Actions by prior administrators, the Freeh report, and Mark Emmert have turned Penn State into the most toxic CFB brand in America, bar none. Considering the demographic you're targeting, it's probably a sound guess that you're going to struggle to sell a $25 Penn State T-Shirt to a kid who's trying to look cool. The only people who'd want to buy those T-shirts are the younger Penn State fans. The neutrals are out. Based on that, and the more specific demographic thats been targeted, A&F probably decided there was no chance they were going to sell these things out, and jut wanted to turn the product over as much as possible. At least that is what I'd do.

I've made quite a few assumptions there (hopefully logical ones), but without more research, that's probably my best rebuttal to your post at this point.

How big of a loser are you? Call a store or a tshirt