Banana Republic is a spin-off of The Gap clothing retailer that has become a great success over the past fifty years. The Gap is headquartered in San Fran
cisco, California and was established in 1969. The founder, Don and Doris Fisher have eventually spun the company off into several different retail clothing, accessory, and footwear stores that meet a variety of needs, fashions, genders, occasions, and qualities. They all fall under the name of Gap, and include stores such as the Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, Athleta, Baby Gap, and more. Since their start in the same year as the historic moon landing, they have expanded to over 3,000 stores worldwide, the majority of which are in the United States. They are actually the largest specialty retailer of clothing in the United States, but was recently overtaken by the Spanish Inditex Group as the biggest provider of apparel in the world. The Fisher’s still own a majority of the stock and remain largely engrossed in the company’s operations, despite the company’s public status. Although the original founders have passed on the family still maintains his legacy, serving on the board of directors, and even as the CEO and president. Originally, the store contained clothing brands including Levi’s and LP, and grossed over $2 million in the first year. They expanded quickly, and in just under 6 years, had expanded to over 25 stores from coast to coast. With the success they had seen with their original brands, the store created their own private-label merchandise in 1974, and found a large success with the growth opportunities that this provided. Banana Republic tends to be a little more expensive than the other Gap counterparts, but provides more dressy and higher quality clothing for important and more than casual occasions.
