A & F Lives

Elephant guns go for $40,000

The self-proclaimed "greatest sporting goods store in the world" is back. Abercrombie & Fitch's classy clientele included heads of state from Theodore Roosevelt to King Hussein, and its bison suede coat, for example, was considered a steal at $2,000. A&F, however, slid into bankruptcy three years ago after a long battle with less prestigious, but more practical, retailers. Now Houston's Oshman's Sporting Goods has bought the firm's name and mystique, and this week it is opening in Dallas the first full-size new Abercrombie & Fitch store. Oshman's already has plans for A & F to return within two years to a new location in Manhattan, where the store began servicing the elite of sport in 1892.

Oshman's Chief Executive Alvin Lubetkin says he is convinced that there is still a market for the exotic fare that made A&F celebrated. The Dallas store has already stocked up with a $350 rhinoceros-shaped leather hassock, $300 pipes made from bruyere roots and $40,000 elephant guns inlaid with gold and platinum. A discriminating car collector can pick up a new version of the famed Abercrombie Runabout sports convertible for $20,775. If any buyer cares, the car gets a surprising 25 m.p.g. on the highway.

While fostering its links with the past, Oshman's will also try to broaden A & F's appeal to the higher reaches of the middle class. The failed A&F's marketing strategy was to expand its range of upper-crust products beyond sports goods into general clothing. The new A&F will try to be both trendy and traditional, but stick to sporting goods, sportswear and glamorous gifts. It will carry a full line of jogging togs and roller skates in addition to the elephant guns. Says Lubetkin: "We're going to make A&F the store for the active and adventurous person." He sees it as the kind of place in which Teddy Roosevelt would have shopped. -

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