Abercrombie & Fitch is about to make a major splash in SoHo.
On Friday, the retailer will debut its first Heritage Meets Modern design concept that blends archival references with a modern aesthetic. The three-level, 10,000-square-foot store at 520 Broadway between Spring and Broome streets is more than double the size of the 4,000-square-foot unit it is replacing at 547 Broadway.
“We have been operating a store in SoHo on Broadway for the last three years,” Corey Robinson, chief product officer, told WWD. “It’s performed very well, but what we’re seeing from all the data is the customer just wants a larger expression of the brand. So we’ve taken this space — it will be our largest expression in terms of size and from a product perspective. It will be the best expression of the brand in the entire world.”
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The store will offer an expanded selection of womenswear on the ground and second floors and men’s on the lower level. It will include the brand’s popular denim and Office Approved collections, the popular YPB activewear for both genders, as well as a selection of New York City and USA merchandise available only in select locations.
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The first floor will also mark the introduction of the company’s first section devoted to accessories and footwear. Among the brands offered are Sperry, Hunter and others considered complementary to the apparel.
“We put the customer at the center of everything we do, and they’re really asking to be outfitted head to toe,” Robinson said. “Today’s customer leads a multifaceted life, and we wanted our products to reflect that. With a curated assortment that extends beyond apparel, we’re able to meet our customers wherever life takes them, outfitting them with pieces that bring confidence, versatility and comfort for every occasion.”
He described A&F as “an effortless and elevated American lifestyle brand, and this was really our first opportunity to bring that to life. What you will see in the store is drawing on our 134-year heritage as a brand, but also thinking that through the way customers shop and what’s relevant for today.”
Melissa Worth, managing director of the Americas for A&F, added: “We are proud to open our doors in the heart of one of New York City’s most iconic shopping destinations, in a place that has been central to Abercrombie & Fitch’s history for more than a century. New York has always been woven into our brand’s story, and we truly feel that this new store is the best expression of Abercrombie to date, blending our rich history with a modern design that we hope inspires every customer who walks through our doors.”
The store features heritage-inspired furnishings intended as a nod to the brand’s long-standing connection to sports and travel. The company was founded in 1892 as an elite sporting goods store in New York City. The elevated interior of the store includes custom millwork, mosaic tiles and fitting rooms with customizable lighting.
The space will include archival displays of apparel and memorabilia tied to its sporting history and will feature a 1911 “Saranac” cord suit and a rare “Rainbow Pond” jacket made exclusively for Abercrombie & Fitch by Willis & Geiger in the late 1960s. There are shadowboxes on the staircase heading to the second floor and framed vintage catalog pages leading to the Mens departments.
“We have started curating some enduring pieces from our history in what you would call our vintage archive showcase,” Robinson said. There are several archival displays already in several units including the Lincoln Park men’s store in Chicago, the Williamsburg store in Brooklyn, and the Easton Town Center store in the company’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio. “When we do this, we want to have a theme that resonates with the customer,” he explained, pointing to a recently opened store in Amsterdam that highlights the brand’s history in denim.
So in SoHo, “we want to celebrate our history with New York, and I think this should resonate with people who live in New York, work in New York, as well as visit New York.”
Another New York-specific installation in the store is a space on the second floor that is inspired by a classic New York hotel bar.
“We’re going to use it for various opportunities,” Robinson said. “It’s a great place to showcase some special product that we want to highlight, or do activations with partners or influencers. It really is multifunctional, and we’re excited to see how it evolves. It is the only store where we have that space in our entire fleet.”
Robinson added that Abercrombie believes it’s important to have stores that are localized to the communities in which they operate.
“We have a store in Flatiron, we have a store on Fifth Avenue, we have SoHo, we have Williamsburg, we have Hoboken, and there is a nuance in all those locations,” he said.
Going forward, Robinson said the Heritage Meets Modern design concept will be used in other stores as well. “We’re going on our fifth year of being net store openers at Abercrombie,” he said. “We are opening more stores and we are going to use this store to inform future designs.”
One unit is already announced: later this summer, Hollister, a sister brand, will open at 547 Broadway in the former Abercrombie location, further expanding the retailer’s presence in the neighborhood. On the company’s first-quarter earnings call at the end of May, Abercrombie & Fitch Co., the brand’s parent, said the plan for 2026 is to open 50 stores and remodel or revamp another 80 across its nameplates. All told, the company operates more than 800 stores globally.
In the first quarter, the corporation reported sales in the Abercrombie division rose 3 percent to $564.7 million from $547.9 million a year ago with flat comparable-store sales. At Hollister, sales were virtually flat at $549.1 million compared to $549.4 million the year before and comps down 2 percent.