Sydney-based brand distributor True Alliance this week revealed that it is bringing iconic American apparel brand Gap back to Australia as an online-only offer. Posting on LinkedIn on Wednesday, Gabriel Bastien-Dietrich, the company’s general manager of American sportswear, said: “Very exciting times at True Alliance as [group head of digital] Ken Kennedy and his team prepare for the official launch of the brand new #GapAustralia website.” Kennedy in a separate post revealed that Tru
at True Alliance is also launching sister-brand Banana Republic in Australia for the first time.
“True Alliance is very proud to announce that Banana Republic is launching online very soon and is available now at David Jones,” he wrote.
Global store closures
The move comes four years after Gap last had a presence in Australia through a franchise partnership with OrotonGroup. The local retailer operated four Gap stores in New South Wales and two in Victoria, but closed them in 2017 and 2018 due to declining sales.
Since then, Gap stores have continued to close around the world, including those run by franchise partners, such as in Singapore and Malaysia, and the company itself.
In 2020, the San Francisco-based brand announced plans to close 225 stores worldwide by 2024. And last year, it started the process of closing all 81 stores in the UK and Ireland, leaving it with only a digital presence in those markets.
“In terms of the brand, they absolutely have faded and continue to fade,” Brian Walker, founder and CEO of Retail Doctor Group, told Inside Retail.
While Gap was considered a go-to fashion brand in the 1990s, the retailer has largely failed to attract new generations of shoppers.
“They’re kind of like a 90s pop star still trying to be relevant 20 or 30 years later,” Walker said.
In 2020, Gap announced a 10-year partnership with Yeezy, the fashion brand started by Kanye West (now known as Ye), in an attempt to update its image. The latest drop, a streetwear collection designed in collaboration with Balenciaga, hit stores and online just this week.
But it’s not only the fashion trends that have changed since Gap’s heyday. The economics of the retail industry have also evolved due to the rise of e-commerce and fast fashion, and Walker believes that Gap still has a long way to go to catch up.
“They flew right in the face of fast fashion. The growth of the Zaras and Primarks of this world, the demise of department stores, it was a perfect storm, and they just weren’t able to adapt,” Walker said.
Still a well-known brand
Given all this, why has True Alliance decided to relaunch Gap in Australia? Walker believes there is still an audience for the brand, though it is smaller than it once was.
“It’s still a well-known brand, it will still have its attraction, but it’s really running the course of many brands of the 90s and early 2000s that have been repositioned as online brands for their true believers, which are declining,” he said.
And while most international brands require a physical presence to gain traction in the Australian market, Walker thinks True Alliance may have another reason for relaunching Gap as an online-only offer.
“They’re running it as an online brand, and what’s interesting around that, of course, is that they could be running that in any country. In other words, they’ll sell back into the US and other countries,” he said.
He also noted that True Alliance is an experienced brand distributor with a portfolio of iconic apparel brands, including Speedo, The North Face, Lacoste, Ben Sherman, Nautica, J.Crew, Madewell and others, which are in alignment with Gap and Banana Republic.
“They probably got a great deal too, because True Alliance are very good at what they do,” he said.
Long term, however, he doesn’t see this as the beginning of something bigger for Gap.
“It will never be the juggernaut that it was in its current formation,” he said.