Gap is selling 'one-of-a-kind' sweatshirts for $200 - and it's a desperate mistake

Gap

Gap is selling cotton t-shirts for nearly $200.

• Gap is selling t-shirts and sweatshirts for nearly $200 as part of a limited-edition collection.
• The collection is a stark departure from the value-focused strategy of the brand's parent company.
• Gap is following in the footsteps of J.Crew, which in 2008 unveiled a higher-priced line with items costing $250 to $3,000. Mickey Drexler, J.Crew's CEO at the time, later attributed the company's years-long sales declines to driving prices too high.

Gap has been closing hundreds of its namesake stores due to weak sales growth and focusing instead on growing its lower-priced business, Old Navy, as shoppers increasingly search for more bargains.

Gap CEO Art Peck has attributed Gap's weak sales growth to "creative mistakes" and shoppers' increasing focus on value.

Now Gap is making a stark departure from this strategy and releasing a new, limited-edition collection featuring cotton t-shirts and sweatshirts costing as mush as $198.

The line, which Gap is calling "The Archive Reissue Logo Originals," is reminiscent of Gap's heyday in the early 2000s.

It features an oversized $188 v-neck sweatshirt imprinted with a large Gap logo and a $188 short-sleeved patchwork t-shirt that displays the "Gap Athletic" logo and US and British flags, among other items.

Gap

"Each piece in this collection is a one-of-a-kind design, made by deconstructing and remixing vintage Gap logo sweatshirts and tees from out archives," Gap says of the collection. "Every garment is put together by hand in our New York City design studio. Only a handful of these 'new originals' exist."

With its pricey collection, Gap is following in the footsteps of J.Crew, which in 2008 at the height of the recession unveiled a higher-priced line called J.Crew Collection with items ranging in price from $250 to $3,000.

Mickey Drexler, J.Crew's CEO at the time, later attributed the company's yearslong sales declines to driving prices too high.

"We gave a perception of being a higher-priced company than we were - in our catalog, online, and in our general presentation," Drexler told The Wall Street Journal. "Very big mistake."

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