Dive Brief:

• Michael Rayden, president and CEO of Justice and Brothers tween apparel retailers, said he will retire in January. A successor has not been found.

• For 19 years Rayden headed The Limited’s Limited Too brand for tween girls, which Rayden merged with its lower-priced sibling brand, Justice, in 2008.

• Brothers is a similar retailer for tween boys, launched by Rayden in 2011.

Dive Insight:

Rayden is credited with reviving the parent company Ascena's sales and growth with the idea of creating a clothing retailer aimed at the “tween” market, older than little kids but not yet teenagers. 

“The Limited Too was a miniature version of the adult Limited store, and I didn’t see that as viable,” Rayden told AdWeek in 2012. “So I looked for a good positioning for this brand and saw a void in this sort of preteen-but-post-little-girl age. There was an opportunity. I saw it as a kind of little Urban Outfitters for the girl, with appropriate merchandise and an exciting mix of hard and soft goods. Because the last thing a 10 or 12-year-old girl wants is to look like her mom.”