By: Jean Palmieri | Link to article

The designer and the school’s former president, Elizabeth Marcuse, were awarded its Fashion Forward awards.

For many fashion industry executives, paying it forward has become a way for them to give back to the next generation whether it’s through mentoring, offering internships or even hiring young talent to join their companies.

And on Wednesday night, LIM college’s Fashion Education Foundation (FEF) singled out designer Todd Snyder and the school’s president emeritus Elizabeth Marcuse with its second annual Fashion Forward awards, which recognize a commitment to empowering the next generation of leaders. The inaugural event last year honored Jennifer Foyle of American Eagle Outfitters and Michele Parsons of Kate Spade.

The evening was a fundraiser for the FEF, with more than 95 percent of the proceeds from ticket sales and a silent auction benefiting LIM students who quality for scholarships based on household income and GPA.

The event was held on a spacious balcony of a private home on the Upper East Side overlooking the East River where students and executives in a wide variety of roles within the fashion community sipped cocktails and enjoyed a live jazz band.

Arnold Cohen, strategic adviser to Psycho Bunny, kicked off the formal portion of the event by explaining that the scholarship funds provide money for one to two months of living expenses so the students can concentrate on their studies. So far, the organization has raised more than $125,000 which will be awarded to 10 students in increments of $5,000 in 2025 with the remainder of the funds placed in an endowment for the future.

He then introduced Cheyenne-Monica Hines, an LIM student and one of the recipients of the FEF scholarships. So far, she has interned for Psycho Bunny, Sam Edelman and Ferragamo and will be graduating this year with a bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising and minor in entrepreneurship and visual studies.

Hines thanked the group for providing these experiences to her and grow from a “shy little girl to now just blossoming into this fashion executive.”

Cohen then turned to Marcuse, who led the college for 21 years before stepping down at the end of last year. She remains on the board. During her tenure, LIM has quadrupled its student body and increased the number of degrees granted by more than 600 percent. “Liz is the most caring passionate advocate for students I have ever met,” he said. “And she knows where the students are going and what they need. She has been fearless and protecting, nurturing and growing them.”

Marcuse said her grandfather started LIM 85 years ago and established it as a laboratory. “My grandfather’s vision at the time was, how do you bring ‘learning by doing’ into the classroom? That has been the hallmark of this institution from Day One,” she said. “So the students study through a robust curriculum, they complete multiple internships before they graduate. And because of that amazing preparation, the students launch careers and go on to be extremely successful.”

Snyder was presented his award by Jim Moore, the former creative director of GQ, who called him one of the “torchbearers of the fashion industry,” and also a “very, very nice guy,” thanks in part to his Midwestern upbringing. Snyder was born and raised in Iowa and relocated to New York to work for Ralph Lauren, the Gap, Old Navy and J. Crew before starting his own brand.

Moore said it was at J. Crew that Snyder truly broke out. As its head of menswear under then-chief Mickey Drexler — who made an appearance at the LIM event as a tribute to Snyder — they created “a new culture” that Snyder has since honed with his eponymous designs. He added that the designer continues to show “curiosity, a sense of wonder and an uncanny knack of knowing what a guy needs before he realizes he needs it.”

Snyder, in turn, thanked everyone who helped him get to where he is today, including Drexler and his now-parent company, American Eagle Outfitters.

But in true Snyder fashion, he shifted the speech to the students of LIM and the “magic” he sees in their eyes “when they get a glimpse of what they could be.” He has hired a number of LIM graduates to work with him and “they have that look in their eye that is hard to define, but it’s the thing you look for as an employer.”

He added that he feels very fortunate to have built a business and is grateful for the chance to pay it forward. “I’m very fortunate in my career and I always feel like I want to be the person that gives back and see younger people doing what their dreams are,” he said. “I think what LIM does is just incredible because it gives them the opportunity to get real experience and get into an industry that is fairly hard to get into. I feel blessed that I’m actually able to live my dream, which is designing clothes, and actually get paid for doing it.”

By: Evan Clark | Link to article

The American Eagle Outfitters CEO discusses his business philosophy from fashion to footwear to dealmaking.

Jay Schottenstein wasn’t just born into a retail family — he was born to be a retailer.

In the nearly 50 years since Schottenstein, 69, started working with his father at their furniture chain, he has expanded and modernizedthe family empire.

He took his lead from prior generations: His great-grandfather bought goods and sold them out of wagon, his grandfather then started a store in the early 1900s and his father’s generation developed that into department stores, a furniture company and a real estate concern. 

A Schottenstein department store. COURTESY

Now, Schottenstein is chief executive officer of American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and executive chairman of DSW-parent Designer Brands Inc. — both public companies. He also has a hand in furniture with American Signature Inc., real estate with Schottenstein Property Group, winemaking through Mayacamas Vineyards, and liquidation sales, dealmaking and more with SB Capital. He was also a part of the group that backed supermarket giant Albertson’s more than $9 billion deal to buy Safeway in 2015.

It’s a lot, but Schottenstein carries it with and easy, been-there-done-that attitude. 

“You got to be an optimist,” he told WWD in an interview in American Eagle’s New York design studio. “You can’t run a good retail operation without being a good optimist. If you’re not an optimist, you’re dead in this business. You have to believe the world’s getting better and you can make it better.” 

That retail-ready attitude and Schottenstein’s long history in the industry will be recognized on Monday, when he’s inducted into the World Retail Congress’ Hall of Fame. 

He’s in good company. Jean-Paul Agon, chairman of L’Oréal, and Supaluck Umpujh, chairwoman of The Mall Group in Thailand, were also inducted.  

Ian McGarrigle, chairman of the Congress, said when the class of 2024 was first revealed: “Resilience and the capacity to adapt quickly are key qualities for any business leader, but the three Hall of Fame inductees announced today have consistently been a step ahead, anticipating challenges and spotting opportunities before others. Their careers are a testament to what it truly means to lead with foresight and agility.” 

Schottenstein, at least, gets his foresight from long experience. 

Jay Schottenstein, CEO of American Eagle. WESTON WELLS/WWD

Forty-seven years ago, his job was to be in the family’s furniture stores every week to ensure they were “set up the right way, making sure the merchandise displayed the right way, make sure everything’s priced the right way. If the store didn’t produce, you had to stay in that store until you got it right.”

In Columbus, Ohio, the company had four furniture stores under two different banners. The stores competed with each other for customers, but were more or less the same. 

Schottenstein drew the ire of his father, Jerome, when the two chains ran nearly identical ads. 

“I wasn’t even in town,” he recalled. “I said, ‘I didn’t know that was my job.’ My father gave me two words of advice. He said, ‘There’s two things that drive the business, the buying and the marketing.’ Really it changed my life because at that moment I took over the marketing of the furniture operation. That was the greatest move…because I got to really understand the marketing side of the business, what drove the business, understand the merchandise better.”

Saul, Jerome and Jay Schottenstein, circa 1987. COURTESY

The experience — which was followed by time as a store manager and other postings around the business — gave Schottenstein a holistic understanding of the industry that encompasses both nuts and bolts retail truisms and high-tech evolution. 

“The key to retail is you got to turn your inventory,” Schottenstein said, stripping the business back to its roots. “You got to turn your inventory in a very efficient manner. That’s never changed. Those businesses that were successful years ago turned their inventory…otherwise they wouldn’t be around.

“Not only did I grow up in this business, I also had another division that I grew up in,” he said. “We did asset recovery liquidations. And we still do that. We have another division that specializes in running sales around the country, and we see the good and the bad on that side too. Through the years I’ve been involved in a lot of companies that went out and they had a study about why did they go out, how did it happen?” 

While stores used to get tripped up by a change of ownership or a generational switch in leadership, retailers today are more likely to run into trouble over technology.

“It used to be a person could go set up a business, set up a store, it could last a long time,” Schottenstein said. “The systems didn’t change that much, right?

“But today, in the last 20 years with all the new technologies and with the evolution of the e-tail business and the online channels, innovation is even more important than it’s ever been. And you have to embrace these new technologies and you have to be able to use them…where the customer understands it, to get the benefits from it.”

To stay on the cutting edge, Schottenstein brings leaders from the various companies he’s involved in together for two- or three-day seminars with guest speakers. 

“We bring economists in about what to expect,” Schottenstein said. “We bring in people who do future forecasting, what things will look like in the future, and talk about what the relevant subject is. Today, it’s AI.” American Eagle has been using machine learning to sharpen its forecasting in the area of inventory allocation and has teased plans to use AI in stores to create a better shopping experience.

And there are other areas, like RFID technology or government regulations, where the various businesses can compare notes and work together. 

The various businesses gave Schottenstein a wide-angle lens on the pandemic, when he had to close 1,800 stores in one week only to later find a big surge of business when consumers did venture back out. 

Now, after a few unsettled years, business is reverting back to almost-normal.

The good news, Schottenstein said, is that unemployment remains low, with a reading of 3.8 percent in March. 

“People are working, that’s the most important thing,” he said. “You have to go back to make sure that you’re a good merchant. That you’re able to offer the products the customer wants, the quality they want at a price that they want to pay. And you have to go back the way it was in 2019, 2020 in the beginning, and keep that and then start figuring out how you get better at customer experiences.”

Course corrections were needed across Schottenstein’s businesses. 

“DSW was the king of the career, and all of a sudden we had a transition in a very fast period to more of the casual [footwear styles] and the sneaker. They did a great job. Now they have to get the right balance there. We’ve also acquired a lot of brands and we brought some special people on there recently who understand development of product. And we’re very excited about it.”

Net sales at Designer Brands fell by 7.3 percent to $3.1 billion last year, but the company is looking to get some of that back with low-single-digit growth projected this year.

He pointed to Designer Brands’ 2022 deal to buy Topo Athletic, which was founded by Tony Post. 

“They make great running shoes,” Schottenstein said. “He’s really developed a great product. You wear his shoes…they’re the most comfortable running shoes. It’s more comfortable than Hoka. It’s the most comfortable. I’ve tried ’em all on. It’s the most comfortable shoe there is.”

Schottenstein said there’s an opportunity for “a lot more deals” over the next couple years, in his retail world generally. “You’re not going to have the government giving out all the checks like the used do. So now it’s going to become about, who’s good operators. And there’ll be opportunities out there.”

American Eagle has also been busy — with its namesake business, Aerie, the Offline by Aerie subrand, Todd Snyder and Unsubscribed boosting sales by 5 percent to $5.3 billion last year, with plans to grow to as high as $6 billion in three years.

“When you think of denim, you think of two companies. Levi’s and American Eagle, and when you look where we sell our denim, in our stores, and Levi sells everywhere, it’s amazing,” Schottenstein crowed. “We’re the number one for 15- to 25-year-olds and we’re [the] number-one brand for women.”

Denim looks from American Eagle. COURTESY AEO

Schottenstein clearly enjoys boosting his various businesses, but he’s also very aware that he’s not doing it alone. 

“One person can’t do it all,” he said. “And whatever success I have, it’s due to the people that I work with. It’s due to their innovation, their vision, we encourage people to become an expert in what they’re doing and they’re proud. 

“Everyone in all my companies, they’re in the leadership division,” he said. “They don’t wait for me. They know what they got to do. They all work well together and they each take pride, whether it be furniture —my son runs the furniture division — he takes great pride in that; my other son runs our real estate division; I get my other son working on deals. 

“The executives here at American Eagle under Jen and with Jen [Foyle, president and executive creative director for American Eagle and Aerie], they’re winners. They take great pride. They love the business. They love merchandise. To be in this business, you got to get excited about merchandise. I’ve always loved merchandise.”

It’s a love affair that’s left Schottenstein with few retail worries. 

“I sleep pretty well at night,” he said. “I have a lot of great people around me.

“If one thing that would keep me up, it’s the state of the affairs of the world,” he said. “You have people out there, you have governments out there that can really put wreck havoc. The quality of the leadership in the world is scary. It’s really scary all over the world, not just in America. It’s across the world.” 

That is a problem beyond the purview of retail, of course. 

But Schottenstein does have a broader sense of just what it means to be a retailer and his responsibilities.  

“I’ve always told all my executives that your responsibility isn’t just for yourselves. You have people who depend on us,” he said. 

“I have people that work with me, they’ve been with me for 40, 50 years with all my various companies, not just one or two people. It’s amazing. It’s amazing the longevity. These people put their future into us and they’re putting their presence into us. They have families to support and we have an obligation to them too.” 

And that, is retail according to Schottenstein.

The American Eagle Outfitters CEO Will Be Honored in April for His Industry Achievements and Contributions, Alongside Other International Retail Visionaries

PITTSBURGH – April 2, 2024 – Jay L. Schottenstein, Executive Chairman of the Board, CEO of American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., will be inducted later this month into the World Retail Hall of Fame, which celebrates the achievements of leaders who have contributed significantly to the industry’s greatest companies and brands. The Hall of Fame is an integral part of World Retail Congress’s annual program and Schottenstein is being inducted this year alongside two other retail visionaries, Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman of L’Oréal, and Supaluck Umpujh, Chairwoman of The Mall Group.

Schottenstein and the other inductees were selected for their talent, perseverance and commitment to leading truly high-performing retail businesses. The inductees will accept the accolade at the exclusive World Retail Congress Hall of Fame ceremony on April 15, 2024, in Paris, joining 51 other Hall of Fame members. 

“It is an incredible honor to be recognized alongside retail’s most influential global leaders and innovators,” said Schottenstein. “My induction into the World Retail Hall of Fame is an acknowledgement of my family’s lasting impact on – and deep love for – this industry. I am especially appreciative of the many people, businesses and brands I have had the great fortune to work with and guide over my career. Our associates’ passion for creating exceptional products and delivering the very best experiences to our customers is what inspires me to lead with purpose, integrity and determination each day. I’ve never considered this business ‘work’ – it is my life’s passion. I’ve dedicated myself to the retail industry and am proud to continue helping shape its future alongside the next generation of leaders.”

“It’s a true pleasure and privilege to celebrate the outstanding contributions Jay Schottenstein has made to the retail industry,” said Ian McGarrigle, Chairman of World Retail Congress. “Jay has been a respected industry leader for more than four decades. He is well known as an innovator and has built multiple iconic brands through an unwavering commitment to quality, value and exceptional customer service. Jay’s career is a testament to what it truly means to lead with foresight and agility, and we know his remarkable achievements will continue to inspire retailers all over the world to embrace change and navigate the future with confidence.”

This year’s Hall of Fame is proudly supported by Deloitte, Royal Bank of Canada and eshopworld (ESW).

About Jay L. Schottenstein

Since 1992, Schottenstein has been the visionary leader of AEO, guiding its evolution from a single-brand company to a multibrand global business. He has been instrumental in the growth of American Eagle as the preeminent destination for jeans and in the rapid expansion of Aerie as the fastest-growing intimates and lifestyle brand. His unparalleled business acumen and vast expertise across apparel merchandising, operations, retail, real estate and brand development have enabled him to position multiple private and public companies for unprecedented success.

Schottenstein also serves as the third-generation Chairman of American Signature, Inc., a family-led furniture business. He is the Executive Chairman of Designer Brands, Inc., a leading footwear and accessories retailer, and served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer from 2005 to 2009. In addition, he is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SB360 Capital Partners and Chairman of Schottenstein Stores Corp., a family business founded by his grandfather more than a century ago.

Among the many honors he has received are Father of the Year, presented by the National Father’s Day Council; American Apparel and Footwear Association’s Retailer of the Year; and American Red Cross of Central Ohio Humanitarians of the Year, which he was awarded alongside his wife, Jeanie.

Schottenstein’s resolve and values are deeply rooted in faith, family and creating positive change for people and communities. He is an esteemed philanthropist, supporting causes that improve the world – from arts, culture and Jewish studies to mental health advocacy and cardiovascular research.

About American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE: AEO) is a leading global specialty retailer offering high-quality, on-trend clothing, accessories and personal care products at affordable prices under its American Eagle® and Aerie® brands. Our purpose is to show the world that there’s REAL power in the optimism of youth. The company operates stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Hong Kong and ships to approximately 80 countries worldwide through its websites. American Eagle and Aerie merchandise also is available at more than 300 international locations operated by licensees in approximately 30 countries. To learn more about AEO and the company’s commitment to Planet, People and Practices, please visit www.aeo-inc.com. 

About World Retail Congress

Founded in 2007, World Retail Congress provides an unrivalled high-level forum for senior retailers to learn, share insight, form powerful connections, and shape the future of global retail. World Retail Congress is a global platform that connects the retail sector’s leaders, stakeholders, advisors, and influencers to connect, create solutions and drive progress within the industry.

By: Jean E. Palmieri | Link to article

In a conversation with Fern Mallis at 92NY, the designer recounted his path from Iowa to the top echelons of men’s fashion.

Badowers may be gone but it’s not forgotten — at least not by one of its most famous former employees.

Todd Snyder cut his teeth in fashion working on the sales floor of the Des Moines, Iowa, haberdashery in his youth and it left a lasting impression.

In a conversation with Fern Mallis at The 92nd Street Y, the designer recounted how talent, a love for fashion and sheer determination allowed him to create his $100 million menswear brand that operates 15 stores around the U.S.

Snyder said that although he initially planned to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an engineer, he realized during the six and a half years it took to graduate from Iowa State University that he needed to embrace his passion for clothes and carve out a path in fashion.

During the 90-minute presentation, Snyder told his life story to Mallis, who has only interviewed three menswear designers of the 65 fashion luminaries she has conversed at her Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis series. The 56-year-old Snyder related how he grew up in the tiny town of Huxley, Iowa, population 2,000, the son of an engineer and his artist/art teacher wife.

“It was a pretty simple life,” he said. During high school, Snyder played a variety of sports — basketball was his favorite — and while he “was definitely not an A student,” he was voted best dressed in his class.

In those years he was partial to Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren and spent his summers working to make enough money to buy a great pair of jeans, top or the latest and greatest sneaker.

“When I was younger, I only had one pair of jeans with holes in it,” he said. “I always had this feeling that I never had enough. It kind of stuck with me.”

To make some cash to beef up his wardrobe and indulge his love of clothes, Snyder took on odd jobs. They included one “detasseling corn,” or removing the tops so the ears wouldn’t sweeten too much and could be used as seed corn. 

“I did it for one summer,” he said. “It’s in the middle of August in Iowa and it’s 100 degrees and there’s nothing around you but fields of corn. But it definitely convinced me I better figure out what I want to do.”

During college, Snyder was still undecided, turning to architecture and then business after engineering and ultimately, he wound up in Iowa State’s fashion program.

“I was just finishing my finance degree and doing all these interviews with banks and I had this moment when I said: ‘What am I going to do with my life?’ I was 21 and thought I needed to start over, so I switched majors again.”

Earlier, he never thought of fashion as a career but after reading a book by Ralph Lauren, a lightbulb went off. 

“I liked clothes but I never thought I could [make a living doing it],” he said. “But after reading Ralph’s book, where he touched on how he started, I thought I could.

“My dad gave me weird looks but I didn’t care, it was a dream of mine.”

That led him to Badowers, where Snyder worked for two and a half years and fell in love with tailoring. “They mainly sold suits and things that went with suits,” he said. “At that point, I was meeting reps from Ralph Lauren, who were coming to talk to us about next season and they would show us mood boards and I would get super excited. Ralph was great at creating a whole story behind a collection and I said, ‘I really want to do this.’ I couldn’t graduate fast enough.”

He spent every dollar he made — and more — on clothes, and as a young man, had a closet full of suits. “I probably had eight or 10 suits and that’s quite a few for a 20-year-old kid. But I just love tailoring.”

After graduation, Snyder set his sights on New York City and getting his foot in the door with one of the city’s top design houses. By perusing the yellow pages at his local library, he cold-called Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Joseph Abboud and other companies offering his services free as a summer intern.

“Back then, in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, they didn’t really have programs for that,” he said. “Ralph Lauren was my ultimate and I would call them at least once a week and ask to speak to the head of men’s design. Once I got to know the names of the people — I kept a log of who was doing what — I would call and say I wanted to speak to John Varvatos and they would connect me. I slowly came up with my own narrative: ‘I’m going to be in New York in a couple of weeks, I’d love to show you my book.’ And they said, ‘Sure, why don’t you come in?’”

So he bought a ticket, came to New York and met 12 fashion companies — he wound up getting offers from 10 of them. “I think working for free had a lot of appeal,” he said. “But I came prepared — I came wearing my product. I assumed everybody knew how to sew and do patterns so I was very good about creating not only a portfolio but showing the work I did. They were very impressed that I worked at a tailor shop and knew the craft.”

Eventually Snyder snagged an internship at Polo Ralph Lauren — and he was on his way. Over the years, Snyder worked for John Varvatos at Ralph Lauren — “I stalked him for 10 years until he hired me,” he said — and Mickey Drexler at both Old Navy and J.Crew, all in men’s design.

He received a lot of advice over the years, some of which sticks with him to this day. His father always said, “If you want to be the best, work for the best,” he recalled, and he watched in awe as Drexler exhibited his innate talent to always pick the hot items. “The thing I learned from him is most merchants buy based on last year’s success. But the few that are really good are the ones who go big on things, and Mickey was a genius at that. To this day, I show him my catalogue and he nails my bestseller without even knowing any of my numbers.

“There’s really no school that teaches what we do. It’s kind of a unique science that he created and a lot of people who worked for him have become very successful.”

That includes Snyder, who broke out during his time working for Drexler at J.Crew. It was there that he created an entirely new suit silhouette, The Ludlow, for the retailer’s first stand-alone men’s store, The Liquor Store in TriBeCa.

“Mickey was obsessed with making men’s more popular so I worked with our tailors and created this whole new suit from scratch that was more fitted,” he said. “Back then, Thom Browne was hot with the whole shrunken suit thing. And I wanted to create our own version at J.Crew.”

It worked — The Liquor Store began attracting a fashion customer — and it gave Snyder the confidence he needed to launch his own brand.

He took the plunge at the same time the country fell into a recession. But thanks to this little side hustle he and his brother had created called Tailgate Clothing Co., which sold college-themed merchandise, he was able to survive.

The Todd Snyder brand began to carve out a niche for its modern American menswear and in 2015, he realized it was challenging to operate both that and Tailgate, so he started looking for options. He talked to several big players in the fashion industry including G-III and PVH, and wound up selling his entire business to American Eagle Outfitters for $11 million.

At the time the Todd Snyder brand was doing around $4 million in sales and American Eagle’s chief, Jay Schottenstein, has said he envisions it as a $500 million business within the next three to four years.

To achieve that goal, Snyder will open at least five stores this year on the Upper East Side of New York, Los Angeles, San Jose, Calif., and other cities. He’s also reentering the wholesale business and his runway show in January at Pitti Uomo, where he was a featured designer brought him recognition on a global stage.

And while Snyder is contemplating other growth opportunities, including womenswear and home, his primary focus right now remains his collection and his stores.

“When I started thinking about doing a store, I really wanted to make it feel like the experience I had at Badowers,” he said. “It was an old school menswear haberdasher and we were taught to know every customer by name and call them Mister. It was this gentlemanly way that I wanted to preserve. Today, customers come in because they need to buy something for an event or whatever, but you put a jacket or the right shirt or shoe on them, and all of a sudden, you see their confidence come alive. And that for me is the magic of retail. You can’t get that online or through mail order. That’s the thing I wanted to capture. It’s the ultimate customer service.”

By: Jacob Gallagher | Link to article

Todd Snyder is thriving even as many other American retailers keep closing doors. Here’s why.

IN THE MID-AUGHTS, J.Crew dressed America. And that meant Todd Snyder dressed America.

For five years, as the preppy paragon’s executive vice president of menswear, he ushered in a nationwide slim-suit trend by developing the label’s shrunken Ludlow suit. He helped mint traddy clones in polished dress shoes, dark-wash jeans and blue blazers. He developed lots and lots of chinos.

In 2009, he left J.Crew, taking with him a crucial lesson: Men want palatable, work-appropriate clothes, but they also indulge on occasion. “I felt that there was a luxury version” of what J.Crew was doing, said the 56-year-old Snyder in an interview late last year in his Manhattan office.

His thesis has been borne out. Todd Snyder, the brand he started in 2011, is a menswear powerhouse, notching more than $100 million in sales last year, up from $4 million in 2015. It has 15 physical stores in urban enclaves and epicenters of American wealth like Bal Harbour, Fla. and Atlanta’s Buckhead Village. “Todd, in the next three, four years, could be a half-a-billion-dollar business,” said Jay Schottenstein, CEO of American Eagle, which acquired Snyder’s label nine years ago. “It’s just a start.” The company said it plans to see Todd Snyder reach profitability in the next year. 

Snyder’s designs are conventional, a smidge throwback with the lightest dusting of frivolity. $598 linen suit jackets have a “Talented Mr. Ripley” vibe, while a $168 floral camp shirt stokes “White Lotus” fantasies. According to Snyder, his median shopper is 38. 

“I don’t want to stand out too much,” said Kenny Tsai, 36, who works in TV in Los Angeles. “But I also like having little pieces of flair and stylish flourishes.” He has become a dedicated Todd Snyder shopper, wearing a gray tweed suit by the brand to the Emmys this year. Still, his favorite purchase from the brand is more prosaic: a streamlined denim chore coat that colleagues often ask about with envy. 

The Todd Snyder business lives in the increasingly vacant center of the apparel market.

Snyder’s reach continues to grow. In November, he was named creative director of Black Label, a premium collection at outdoorsy stalwart Woolrich. In January, he hosted a runway presentation at the Pitti Uomo trade show in Florence—a teaser for the brand’s upcoming European expansion.

That alchemy of accessibility and aspiration has propelled Snyder’s success. “I’ve always been a firm believer that there’s not a lot of brands out there that make it easy for guys to dress the best,” said Snyder. He described his job as distilling trends and “presenting it to the guy in a way that he can understand.”

The Todd Snyder business lives in the increasingly vacant center of the apparel market. He is not operating a prices-to-the-rafters luxury house like Louis Vuitton, nor a fast-fashion empire on the race to the bottom. American cities, where Snyder’s stores are heavily concentrated, are rife with white-collar workers—bankers, tech entrepreneurs and marketing professionals—who strive to be better than the Gap, but not as ostentatious (or expensive) as Gucci.  

Snyder’s business is best looked at as an upper-middle-class version of J.Crew. It’s the sort of boutiquey, but far from exclusive retailer that has become rarer and rarer in the American fashion landscape. One-time business wear kingpins like J.Crew, Brooks Brothers and JCPenney filed for bankruptcy. Other reliable slingers of presentable corporate-wear like Gap and Banana Republic have also closed a number of stores.

On the high end, the Todd Synder guy has enough capital to spend on a $1,398 suede bomber that looks like something Kendall Roy might have worn. But, Snyder also sells unobtrusive, nearly pedestrian, basics like $68 American-made T-shirts and $28 Japanese socks—prices that are significantly higher than, say, Old Navy.

Snyder “has a more streamlined, classier approach than some of the typical or more readily accessible mall brands,” said Jake Ruddle, 34, a public school teacher in Charleston, W.Va. 

In the early 2010s, Ruddle said that all he wanted was a J.Crew suit. But as he matured—and inched up his salary—he graduated from J.Crew toward Snyder, buying the brand’s double-pleated $298 Gurkha pants and a $328 camel sweater polo. He trusts these purchases won’t cycle out of his closet too quickly. “When I buy something, I think to myself, ‘Well, what is going to last me a couple of years?’” Ruddle said. 

---

TODD SNYDER HAILS from Huxley, Iowa, a teeny town in the Ames area. He was raised playing football, not reading back pages of Vogue. “Iowa was always about, ‘Oh, you’re going to be an engineer, you’re gonna be a doctor, you’re going to be a farmer,’” said Snyder. 

As a teenager, he sold suits and ties at Badowers, a now-defunct Des Moines menswear store that catered to the area’s executive class. (Snyder says he and his brother considered buying Badowers when it announced its closure in 2021, but the numbers didn’t add up.) 

Snyder’s business is best looked at as an upper-middle-class version of J.Crew. PHOTO: OK MCCAUSLAND FOR WSJ. MAGAZINE

He bucked his hometown trend by studying apparel design at Iowa State University. Looking back on that choice, he pointed out that Snyder roughly translates to “tailor” in Dutch. To the designer, his fate was sealed by his surname. 

After graduation, Snyder moved to New York City, getting in on the ground floor at Ralph Lauren’s corporate office. He was a grunt grabbing coffees, he says, until a higher-up took notice of his shirt, which he’d hand stitched himself. 

“I used to make my own shirts on the weekend because I didn’t have a lot of money,” Snyder said. The attention helped him earn a seat at the table during design meetings. From there, Snyder wended his way up the org chart at various American retailers and by the early 2000s, was the senior director of menswear at Old Navy. In 2004, Mickey Drexler, the venerated retail executive who led Gap’s ’90s rise and then captained J.Crew’s surge (and clung on for its downfall), hired Snyder.

In between threading his way up the New York apparel industry, Snyder also co-founded Tailgate Clothing, a license-rich T-shirt label with his father and brother in 1997. Tailgate was a few steps up from a boardwalk vendor with its pre-faded shirts splayed with college logos and beer references.

Snyder worked at J.Crew for five years, during a golden era when it morphed from a reliable if snoozy catalog business, into a vigorous trend-forward retailer. He left two years after it went public, banking some $2 million. Those funds would become the financial foundation for Todd Snyder, which launched in 2011. 

For three years Snyder was “scared shitless.” He strove to expand by opening retail shops—crucial touchpoints for acquiring casual shoppers—but Snyder recalled that some landlords would ask for as much as a million dollars upfront to secure a lease, funds he simply didn’t have. 

Then, in 2015, American Eagle bought both Todd Snyder and Tailgate for $11 million. At the time, Tailgate “was the moneymaker,” according to Snyder. Its $20 million in year sales dwarfed Todd Snyder’s $2 million. Snyder recalled thinking that the label that carried his name was the “gift with purchase,” in the acquisition.

But today, Tailgate is defunct—a casualty of a pandemic period. (American Eagle’s Schottenstein said it could be revived in the future.) Snyder, on the other hand, plans to open five more locations this year in cities like San Jose, Calif. and Washington, D.C. Snyder has stayed on as president and chief brand officer of his label and is also an executive vice president at American Eagle. 

Snyder plans to open five more locations this year in cities like San Jose, Calif. and Washington, D.C.

Schottenstein thinks of Todd Snyder customers as guys who relish aristocratic Italian labels like Brunello Cucinelli, Zegna and Brioni, but can’t afford them. “They could go to Todd, find that type of look, find that type of quality but at an affordable price.”

---

WITH THEIR dark wood fixtures and sprinkling of modernist knickknacks, Todd Snyder shops can spur J.Crew flashbacks. They’re bright and instructive in layout. A cord suit is hung on the rack with a complimentary tie and white button-up.

Around one quarter of the products he sells are from third party vendors like Birkenstock sandals and Alden dress shoes. (J.Crew similarly has long also sold outside products.) Throughout the company’s run, Snyder has expanded his profile through collaborations, making sweats with Champion, printed shirts with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and sneakers with New Balance. 

Snyder says that dispensing with a traditional wholesale model has been key to his company’s recent success. When he splashed onto the market, Snyder was swiftly picked up by heavyweight department stores. “I was super excited. We got into Bergdorf’s exclusively. We got into Neiman’s exclusively. I’m like, oh my God, we’re done.” But having retailers as middlemen was cutting into his profit margins. “Little did I know, you can’t make any money off” wholesaling, he said. 

In 2012, Snyder wrested control by launching his website. That first season, he did around $200,000 in sales, which was more than what he was making with Nordstrom at the time. “I was like ‘holy s—, there’s something here,’” said Snyder. Within seven years, he was making enough on his own to reorient his brand to sell exclusively through his website and stores.

Snyder calls his design process “fabric first,” and in interviews repeatedly crows about using this Japanese denim or that Italian wool. There isn’t a single visible sketch in his office, but there are hundreds of fabric swatches, which he keeps in manila folders the way a doctor stores patient records. 

“I want to put as much product quality and product development into a garment as I can afford,” he says. 

Snyder described his job as distilling trends and ‘presenting it to the guy in a way that he can understand.’

Last winter, it introduced a $1,998 cashmere chore coat—simple in shape but plush in material. Snyder and his team only produced 200 of the jackets thinking the price might scare people off. “It sold out immediately,” said Snyder, who took that lesson to heart. “We’re definitely expanding to be a little bit more expensive.”

Snyder himself can jaw about high fashion until your beer turns room temperature. Still, he is aware that his customers can be allergic to anything that sniffs of the avant-garde. Case in point: even as capital-F men’s fashion moves toward wider and wider pants, Snyder said roughly 75% of his jean sales are still in slim styles.

To that end, he is aware that many of his shoppers likely have no clue that he presented his corduroy suits and pleated shorts in front of snooty European fashion editors. “The average Joe doesn’t get” high fashion, says Snyder, using average without a hint of derision. 

Photography by OK McCausland for WSJ. Magazine