Dive Brief:

• American Eagle Outfitters is acquiring American designer Todd Snyder’s eponymous menswear label and his Tailgate label for $11 million in cash and stock, the company said Tuesday.

• The acquisition moves the retailer away from the current dominant fast-fashion approach toward higher quality, higher priced apparel.

• The retailer this summer saw promising results after pivoting to leaner inventory management, quality improvements to its jeans, and fewer discounts. 

Dive Insight:

The acquisition of Todd Snyder’s business serves to emphasize the “American” in “American Eagle” and to solidify the retailer’s move away from high-turnover, lower-priced fashion.

“It’s really our type of look, the American styling,” Jay Schottenstein, American Eagle’s chairman and interim chief executive, said in a statement.

Iowa born and bred Snyder spent time as a designer at J. Crew and his work was described by GQ magazine, who named him one of America’s best new designers in 2012, as fitting for “the guy who wears a jacket and tie because he wants to, not because he has to.” 

The move could also help the retailer attract a wider clientele, beyond its traditional teenage customer who, frankly, doesn’t have the kind of money older shoppers do.

That has been tough for the entire teenage-apparel space in general, which has had a hard time getting teens to look up from their phones. (Literally: young people these days are saving up for new phones and other high-priced tech rather than splurging on clothes.) Competition from fast-fashion retailers like H&M and Forever 21 is also hurting American Eagle, as teens begin to crave more in-style and unique clothing. 

The acquisition also includes Snyder’s Tailgate brand, a nostalgic line on vintage-like sports and pop-culture-themed apparel like old high school sweatshirts and letter jackets, Evil Knievel T-shirts, and Star Wars-wear. American Eagle says it would like to open some 200 Tailgate stores at U.S. college campuses.