The Gap Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
- ''This article is about the clothing retailer. For other uses see Gap (disambiguation).
The Gap was founded in 1969 by Donald Fisher and Doris Fisher. The name came from the growing differences between children and adults, called "the generation gap", which reached its peak with the hippie movement. The Fishers wanted to have a clothing line specifially for youth. Originally, The Gap carried Levi's jeans, but later changed to an exclusive private label model, dropping Levi's in 1990.
As of 2003, The Gap had approximately 165,000 employees and over 4000 stores worldwide.
The current CEO of the Gap is Paul Pressler, who previously ran the Disney theme parks.
Donald Fisher recently stepped down as Chairman of the Board, and will be replaced by his son, Robert Fisher. The Fisher family collectively owns about 25% of the company.
Old Navy was launched in 1994, as a value chain with a specialty flair. Banana Republic, formerly a catalog retailer selling safari themed clothing, was purchased by the company in 1983, and rebranded as luxury clothing retailer.
In 2004, the Gap sold all of its German operations to the Swedish H&M;, its main competitor in Europe.