By: Stephanie Mehta | Link to article
With a new fashion line, the retailer is doubling down on the 20-year-old tennis star.
At first blush, American Eagle’s new clothing line with tennis star Coco Gauff, which launches today, feels like a fairly standard collaboration between a consumer brand and a cool celebrity. The collection, featuring tops and a denim skirt, jacket, and jeans, is part of American Eagle, or AE’s, fall marketing campaign and extends the retailer’s relationship with Gauff, who appeared in a spring 2022 campaign.
But Gauff’s design debut sits at the intersection of two developing stories in the world of business: the influence of the Gen Z consumer and the rise of female athletes as a force in marketing. “Gen Z is the ultimate hustle generation. They don’t want to be defined as just an athlete or just an activist, or just a patriot or just a business person,” says Craig Brommers, chief marketing officer (CMO) of AE. “Coco is a great representation of Gen Z in that way.”
A shifting power play
For brands such as American Eagle that cater to Gen Z consumers, figures like Gauff allow them to tap a “hustle” mentality in an authentic way. According to creative agency Archival, 51% of Gen Z consumers believe influencers create trends while only 15% believe brands drive zeitgeists.
And female athletes are indeed influential in culture and business. Many of them have built strong presences on social media—check out rugby player and Olympic medalist Ilona Maher’s posts—in part because they weren’t getting the same kind of coverage from mainstream media as their male counterparts. “These athletes have become some of the best storytellers on the planet,” Brommers says. “We work with male athletes; we work with female athletes; and I do think it’s a fair statement to say that female athletes are better content creators.”
AE began forging relationships with college athletes as soon as the NCAA approved rules that allowed them to work with brands, and Brommers believes partnerships with female athletes have made a meaningful contribution to the business. “I’ve said for a number of years now that female athletes aren’t just feel-good stories,” he says. “They are driving the business results of our brand.”
Women’s worth, realized
Gauff, who says she grew up wearing American Eagle apparel, tells Modern CEO that she expects the influence of women in sports only to grow. “It’s great to see that brands are recognizing [women athletes], but it isn’t like women’s sports suddenly has become interesting, it’s just because their stories are finally being showcased,” she says.
“I’m grateful that I live in this era where people and brands are starting to recognize our worth,” adds Gauff. “I’ve paid attention to women’s sports my whole life, obviously, being a female athlete, and I can confidently say that the stories have always been there.”
Gauff is having a tough summer on the court. She was eliminated in the third round at the Olympic games and lost in the first round of the Cincinnati Open. Her American Eagle collection offers a potential rejoinder to doubters: The denim jacket bears the words, “Thank you to the people who didn’t believe in me,” a quote from an on-court interview after winning the U.S. Open last year.
Reaching Gen Z
I asked Brommers what advice he would offer leaders and marketers who are trying to reach younger consumers. “I highly recommend that brands hire a group of creators or influencers that look like their customer base,” he says. He also cautions: “The CMO and the company are no longer in control. The customer base is in control.”
That’s especially true of Gen Z customers. Brommers illustrated his point by noting that back-to-school season at American Eagle usually means selling “jeans, jeans, and more jeans.” In late June, the company also released a set of Halloween-themed Snoopy pajamas, which improbably became one of the company’s bestsellers. “That was a great example of, ‘Hey, if the customer wants to go there, we’re gonna go there with them,’” he says.
Customers can be fickle, of course, and today’s viral hit can easily be supplanted by the next thing that catches Gen Z’s eye. Consider the case study of the Stanley tumbler, which was the “it” reusable water bottle mere months ago (to be sure, driven largely by millennial women). Trendspotters are reporting that Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers have moved on to rival bottles from Owala, Lululemon, and Hydro Flask.
