Old Navy

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Old Navy-Best Workplaces in Retail 2019

Employees say: 
“This company embodies what it stands for: Family, Fun, and Fashion. Coming to work when you walk through the doors, you feel excited and pumped to be at work. Everyone is collaborative, eager to learn new things, and knows when to have fun.”

Best Large Workplaces in Retail

Companies doing the most to create inclusive cultures for minorities, LGBT employees, and women.

Employees say: 
 
&nbsp; 
 
"They truly value diversity and a different point of view. They walk the talk when it comes to community involvement, equality and equal rights." 
 
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<a href="http://reviews.greatplacetowork.com/old-navy">Read the Great Place to Work review here.</a>

The Best Workplaces for Diversity

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% of Women

% of Women mid-level managers

% of Women Executives

% of Women front-line managers

% of Boomers or older

% of People with disabilities (self-identified in Great Place to Work's Trust Index Survey)

% of LGBTQ (self-identified in Great Place to Work's Trust Index Survey)

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Old Navy Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Old Navy | Fortune

Old Navy Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings | Fortune

Stan Choe

The Associated Press

Gap says Trump’s tariffs could cost the company a whopping $300 million, sending shares into a tailspin

/2025/05/30/gap-tariffs-costs-shares-dive/

In this episode of Fortune Daily, we go inside Gap’s attempt to turn cultural relevance into a sustained retail comeback.
After cycling through five CEOs in five years, Gap Inc. is betting on CEO Richard Dickson—the former Mattel executive who helped revive Barbie—to restore one of America’s most iconic brands. His strategy: stop relying on constant discounts and start telling a story consumers want to buy into at full price.
Fortune Senior Writer Phil Wahba takes us inside Gap’s remodeled Flatiron flagship and sits down with Dickson for Behind the Business. We examine the brand’s renewed push for fashion, celebrity partnerships, and viral marketing—from Hailey Bieber’s campaign to Gap’s Katseye dance video—and explore whether cultural buzz can deliver lasting sales growth.
While the core Gap brand has posted 11 consecutive quarters of comparable-sales growth, the broader turnaround faces headwinds as Old Navy and Athleta navigate challenges. Plus, Phil breaks down the rising trend of CEOs publishing lengthy online essays: who are they for, and why are they writing them?
Watch Phil’s full feature video here: https://youtu.be/PwDqR7Sa_rk

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Additional images courtesy of Getty Images

Inside Gap’s High-Stakes Comeback | Fortune Daily

Features

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Stores have to be good. You cannot be 100% online, and it turns out young people like going to stores if the stores are fun. Hello from New York, I'm Ellie Austin and this is Fortune Daily. 10 of white t-shirts, a viral dance video featuring Cats Eye, and a pair of jeans designed by Hailey Bieber, Save Gap. The iconic retailer has had 5 CEOs in 5 years, and it's lost a lot of its cultural power in the process. But now current CEO Richard Dixon, who's also the executive who helped rebuild Barbie, is betting that Gap can win back its cultural relevance and then Wall Street. And actually the Gap brand is showing signs of life with comparable sales up 10% for its 11th straight positive quarter. But at the same time, Old Navy, which is the brand that drives more than half of parent companies, Gap Inc.s revenue just posted its first decline since 2023. So what's going on at one of America's most recognizable apparel brands? Well, Fortune senior writer Phil Weber went inside Gap's very chic remodeled flat iron flagship here in New York to find out whether a cultural comeback can indeed become a business turnaround. Let's take a look at his reporting. Gap fell into a cycle. Too many stores, excess inventory, and over-discounting that taught customers to wait for the sale. The Gap brand lost nearly half of its sales and closed more than 60% of its stores globally. We weaned ourselves off of the overpromoted, over-signed offerings. It doesn't mean that we're not a value-oriented brand at all. In fact, we love our distinction as a value-oriented brand great prices, great style, and great quality. After cycling through four CEOs in four years, Gap hired Richard Dixon. He helped revive Mattel's Barbie to a record $1.7 billion cultural phenomenon. Part of the challenge when we started this reinvigoration, you'd come into our stores and we were more about price than product. It was about stuff, not story, and so we took the And said, OK, let's edit this stuff into a story and let's start to tell our product story in a way that is primary. So Phil, we just saw that clip of your interview with Gap CEO Richard Dixon, and as we saw you walked the floor of the big flagship store here in New York, what's different in a Gap store today compared to 5 years ago? There's a lot more storytelling and it's a lot more fun. Um, that store in particular is the model of what they want to have at all their stores, so there's References to the past, pictures of the first Gap store from 1969. There's also references to their new successes, gigantic posters of Hailey Bieber. In uh Gap jeans, she's their new um uh celebrity collaborator. So there's just, it, it, uh, they're really touching the past and the future at the same time in their stores. Is it working? It absolutely is. The Gap as a brand is on fire. The gap has been struggling for more than a decade, and now suddenly quarter in, quarter out is growing by double digit percentages, and there's a lot of buzz. They've been doing ads with Cats Eye, the collaboration with Hailey Bieber, and so many others, and so Dixon's focus on cultural relevance, as he calls it, has Really helped the brand come back. So one of the things that Dixon says is, or his theory is that a brand can't sell its way out of irrelevance, and I think this links back to why he's focusing so much on storytelling. But unpack that a bit for me from your time spent with him. What did you learn? So the Gap, the brand, not the company, but the brand. Ended up relying a lot on discounting. This happened, it happened at Levi's. It happened at Abercrombie. It happened at American Eagle. It was astonishing how cheaply you could buy a pair of jeans or a t-shirt in there. And so what happened is that because all these brands went on autopilot and they didn't really have a point of view or have anything to say, so the only way you could spur people to buy it is to cut prices, and then that created this addiction to discounting. And it has been a long slog for the Gap, and they seem to have broken that cycle. Um, Dixon came from Mattau where he really helped revive Barbie, and I think he, you know, was a key figure in getting that film to the big screen. How much of what worked on Barbie the doll can work for Gap Inc. I guess we're talking about. So and remind us the four brands that fall under Gap Inc. So Gap Inc. has the Gap. It has Old Navy, which is its biggest brand by far. 6% of revenue. It has Banana Republic, which is doing better. It has struggled for years, but it's starting to turn a corner. And then Athleta, which is, you know, Lululemon competitor, but that, that brand is in a lot of difficulty right now. OK, tell me a bit about why Banana Republic is doing well and Athleta is not doing well. Well, Athleta, Lululemon is also struggling, so there's a shift away from athleisure clothing, but they've just, they've been off trend for a very long time and people stopped paying attention. Banana Republic is starting to make a comeback. They were a little higher end than the Gap, and but they've tried all sorts of positionings in the market and lost people started to. Not understand what is Banana Republic for. They feel it feels a lot more lux now when you walk into a Banana Republic store than it did say a few years ago. But going back to the Barbie question, was that was kind of the success of Barbie and the revamping of that brand attractive to Gap when they brought Dixon in? Well, it was the reason they brought him in. He, he used to work in the apparel industry, so before Barbie, Mattel, but at at Mattel, he reinvigorated the Barbie franchise by bringing in different body sizes, different ethnic groups, and made her very relevant, and then of course there was a movie that was a hit, and so he comes to the Gap and he to Gap and he understands that. Clothing is just clothing if it doesn't have a story to tell, and he told me that with time, um, Gap Inc. had forgotten how to really maximize storytelling, and a sweatshirt is just a sweatshirt unless it has a story behind it. And so these creators that they are now engaging with, Cats Eye for instance. How do they help tell the story of the product, because it's one thing to see the cat's eye viral dance video, which I think we've all seen on social media. It's really like a captivating thing to watch. It doesn't automatically drive you into the store to buy the denim skirt that one of the dancers is wearing. Well, it catches people's eye, and that's where the other part of his work has been important too. Um, you, you reignite interest in the brand, so people might give you another chance, and then they go to the stores like, oh, the store is, uh, dynamic, it's fun, the product is better. And in fact, uh, they re-elevated the quality of Gap products because that's one of the things that when you're spiraling downward, you start to cut corners. Has that had a knock-on effect on price? Yeah, yeah, so they're able to charge more full price on. More items, but it's still a work in progress. I mean, again, not everybody cares that Cats Eye says that that's a nice sweatshirt. A sweatshirt has to have it stand on its own values. So Cats Eye piques interest. It reminds people that Gap exists and then it puts them in the conversation and it also gets you on TikTok and I mean it has worked brilliantly, but also the strategy is. harkens back to what made the gap so big in the 80s and 90s. You know, there was that famous gap spot where people were dancing in khakis, which reminds me of what Cats Eye did. So there's always a little bit of a hint of the past. And you know, you had Sarah Jessica Parker, you had Madonna, you had Missy Elliott back in the day. So this is really sort of just taking the gap back to what made it big to start with, especially in the 90s, it's biggest. They did have talking about big name collaborations, they did have a collaboration with Kanye West and Yeezy that very much went south. Tell us a bit about that and how much is that haunting the company at this point? Well, they've gone through it, but that was during the period of throwing spaghetti at the wall, and Kanye West, for all his artistic genius, not a reliable person when you're a mass brand. He was supposed to develop all sorts of products and the only thing that they ever showcased was that gigantic hideous puffer jacket. Um, so that, that, that was, uh, that was just trying to latch onto celebrity without really thinking through what it could do for the brand, and they lost a lot of money as a result of that. They lost a lot of money and they lost a lot of time, crucially. Mhm. Um, Dixon said I thought it was a really interesting leadership story that when he came into the company there was a positivity bias and the execs were not facing problems and challenges head on. Um, what did that look like specifically? Well, it's just, there was a focus on when things went well to tout them but not examine why things that failed failed, and actually what's interesting. The thing is that that was also something that Macy's CEO flagged to me last year, Tony Spring, that when he got there, nobody ever wanted to talk about the problems. Everything was like, oh well, we did this collection, it did well, and he said and our stores are dumps, we have to do something about it. And then so. In both cases you've seen that candor and honesty without falling into negativity and cynicism have really helped brands come back. You speak to an analyst in the video feature who says who's very skeptical about that sort of 10%. That we see Gap trumpeting, that their sales are going up every quarter, and he says that everyone's kind of revenue is going up as a result of tariffs. Is that correct? He is, and there's a certain amount of inflation that's lifting everybody, but even pardon me, even putting that aside, Levi's has had a turnaround. Abercrombie and Fitch's had a turnaround. American Eagle, so if the gap weren't growing, it would be very worrisome. So there is a little bit of Yes, it's staging a comeback, but it's not unique in doing so, and that's also why the stock has not had liftoff as people might have expected. The stock has remained relatively flat. We've talked about the stores. How does Gap do well as e-commerce these days? I know Dixon says he sees. The people coming into the stores and enjoying the experience of shopping. What does its e-commerce presence look like? They have a very big online business, but they really need, and in fact this has become the consensus in retail land, is stores have to be good. You cannot be 100% online. And it turns out young people like going to stores if the stores are fun. And so the Gap store uh in the Flatiron District here has records, and it has fantastic vintage photos by Anna Leibovitz of spokespeople of years past next to Hailey Bieber. So you have to make your stores interesting. You also have to make them attractive to the Instagram generation. Absolutely. Um, so I mentioned in the intro to this to this conversation that while Gap is doing well, Old Navy, which is a really, you know, 50%, it constitutes 56% of revenue for Gap Inc. is not doing well. So how do you read the story of Gapping more generally? Is this really going to be a turnaround? Well, uh, as Old Navy goes, so goes Gap Inc. and, um, you know, Old Navy has also tried celebrity collaborations, you know, they, they, uh, they used to be, you know, they used to have that golden touch too, and in fact right now they have a collaboration with Cardi B, uh, but that's not enough, and so, uh, Old Navy has sort of lost its position. It's not helping that Walmart has been doing. A lot of really trend forward stuff at those price points and so Old Navy has to figure out what its value proposition is and it's been several quarters of weakness and they just changed the CEO from Target and Walmart. Target, yeah, Michael Francis, who was at Target a very long time ago, and so that shows you that the Richard Dixon playbook. Um, works, but celebrity collabs on their own aren't enough. You really have to have, um, Clothing that is on trend and you have to have absolutely peerless supply chains, some of the less sexy stuff of apparel, and you have to have good prices and you have to really differentiate yourself, differentiate yourself from others because Walmart and Target. are their competitors and fast fashion as well. And so this is Old Navy is actually the biggest clothing brand in the country after Nike. Phil, thank you so much. Where can people watch your full Gap feature? They can go to YouTube to the Fortune section, but specifically the Behind the Business tab. So we wanted you to stick around, speak to you about another subject which you recently wrote a CEO daily essay about, um, was very pertinent to the moment we're in. CEOs writing these enormously long essays on all different platforms. Um, I'm thinking about Dario Amodai's essay this weekend about the long. Safety of AI, it scrolled on and on and on despite being very important. What's going on? Why are CEOs writing these things? Well, part of it is, uh, they want to position themselves as big thinkers, but also there's a bit of a land grab happening in trying to get public opinion about AI, uh, but there's also a lot of ego involved. I think that, um, they tend to think that they're experts at everything and that everybody is hanging on their every word. And what could be said in 2000 words is said in 13,000 words. It's a bit like having a sub stack or being a contributor at Forbes. No offense, and so it, it's, it's they're trying to shape public opinion but also position themselves as people who are thinking these big things. Do you think they have teams helping them? Do they have editors? Are they the ones actually writing these posts? Uh, they're a little difficult to read and they clearly need an editor, so I'm guessing that they might be writing it themselves and then just having one person say, I'll just have a look. And that person probably said this is phenomenal. Warren Buffett is known for writing thought pieces, but generally he errs on the more succinct side. Is that correct? Well, when he was, uh, that was his annual letter to shareholders, so it was one time a year, but remember you. Millions of people who are trying to figure out how to invest like he did, and there was a point to it and it was clearly earned that audience. This is a little bit like, OK, well I'm just gonna, you know, a stream of conscience, put this out on the website and people will read it. At what point do you earn the right to be read if you're one of these big tech guys? Well, they do have the right to be read, but they should be edited and make it. Cleared, we, we don't need to know every single, uh, thought that they have and how it all connects. I mean, everybody needs an editor. It's, it's hard for journalists to admit it, but we, we need editors. We really do. It always ends up bad, so thank you. Thank you. That's it for Fortune Daily. I'm Ellie Austin. Please remember to like and subscribe. It really does make a difference to the show and other people finding us. I'll see you tomorrow and in the meantime, I'm off to explore the Gap flagship. OK, thank you guys.

[ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] We deeply believe in this notion of the democracy of style. And so what does that mean? So for us, it means A brand and a business that is fully inclusive. It solves for every age, every gender, every income level, every body, shape and every customer. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] Being the most welcoming and open and inclusive meritocracy as a company culture and also having our customers experience that as they shop with us. That is something I am extremely excited about. [ MUSIC ]

Old Navy CEO Sonia Syngal named CEO of Gap Inc.

Briefing

There are now 37 women leading Fortune 500 companies.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Art, the big news for Gap is that you finally have hired a new CEO for the Gap brand. What's he going to do to fix it up and get it growing again? He understands the brand. He understands the aesthetic. He's truly an omnichannel executive. He has very high standards in terms of how he execute quality, trend, in-store experience, et cetera. And I think he's got an amazing opportunity here with a great brand to really make Gap brand in a moment in time when the brand's place should be here and now. Bring it back to relevance. What's really holding Gap back? I think part of it, frankly, is the fact that we lost a little bit of the focus of the brand, tried to do too many things, tried to go to places in fashion that didn't make sense for the brand. And that's the other thing I see with him, super tight in his focus about what the brand should be. It's just been the opposite story with Old Navy. It is just doing great. It now accounts for nearly half of the whole company's revenues, a big chunk of profits. What's behind the Old Navy success story? What's the biggest reason? Focus and discipline on what the brand stands for, and executing against what consumers expect every day in a very consistent way. Value, trend, fun, family, those are key parts of the business. And retail is hard, but retail is easy, oftentimes. And it's really about that consistency and discipline. You know, retailers everywhere are all struggling to figure out this balance between how many physical stores you need and how to still keep up the strong online presence and demand. Now you've closed hundreds of Gap and Banana Republic stores. You've opened lots of new Old Navy stores. So do you think you have the right mix here? I think the right mix is dynamic, honestly. We want to be where the customer is, serve them how they want to shop. Basically, they want to browse, they want to buy, they want to fulfill. Be wherever they are, and make money wherever they are doing that. And if that means I close more stores and I grow my e-commerce business at an accelerating rate, I am totally good with that. The customer is going to shop how they shop. We want to be where they are. Do you think you have the right mix, though, of stores and online? We're going to close more Gap stores. It's the oldest label that we have in the business. How many? We haven't said the exact number yet. And over the last several years, we've closed over 600 stores. We're going to continue to be nimble. And we're doing the work right now, and we'll continue to do that, and some Banana Republic stores as well, and open Old Navy and Athleta stores. I've got to ask you about Amazon. It's soon going to be named-- I was really surprised to hear this-- the number one clothing retailer here in the US. What is your strategy to compete with Amazon? You know, our strategy to compete with Amazon, first, is to have great brands. And people come to clothing-- you and I both do-- because of a brand that they love. I've also said very publicly that I want to be where my customer is. And so I'm not shy about like we do in China, doing business with Tmall in China. We continue to talk to everybody in the business that's relevant. And I just want to be present and accounted for and make money where my customer is. What do you think it takes to compete effectively against Amazon? Is there a retailer out there who's figuring it out? My e-commerce business in Q4 grew 30%. So that's a super-- and we have one of the biggest apparel e-commerce businesses on the planet. I think we're competing pretty effectively with Amazon right now. Do you think you can do even more? I do. I do. We've continued to talk about how we can grow our e-commerce business at an accelerating rate. We're super pleased there. And let's remember, 80% of apparel purchases still take place in stores. And that's a place where I can compete with Amazon all day long, because they don't have clothing stores. So looking ahead, let's say, three years from now, what will the future Gap look like? How will it be different from the way we see it today? You know, when you go into Gap, what I want you to see is I want you to see amazing, well-made, versatile essentials for your wardrobe. And that's where Gap is at its strength, a great pair of jeans, well-priced. A great pair of khakis, a t-shirt that lasts and is amazing, a woven shirt, et cetera. Old Navy, fun fashion for the family. Athleta, amazing performance lifestyle. And Banana is really about your more dressy and professional space. And then, what else will there be? I'm looking and have my eyes wide open. All right, so you're telling us that you might make another acquisition? Give us some hints. I love Athleta. That's the hint I would give. We have a great portfolio today. And I believe we're going to be in an environment where we have the resources to add something else to the platform. So you may be looking for more athletic Lululemon-type of acquisition? The performance space, the performance lifestyle space is certainly super interesting. There's other spaces that we're looking at as well. I love the intimates space. We have an amazing intimates business in the company we might build on. And again, not signaling anything imminent, but I'm always eyes wide open and very curious about what's out there. 

Gap CEO Is Looking for Acquisitions: "I Have My Eyes Wide Open"

Finance

Retailer plans to close more Gap and Banana Republic stores and open additional Old Navy and Athleta stores.

aren't the big news for Gap is that you finally have hired a new CEO for the Gap brand. What you going to do to fix it up and get it going again? He understands the brand. He understands the ecstatic. He's truly an Omni Channel executive. He has very high standards in terms of how we execute quality trend in store experience, etcetera. And I think he's got an amazing opportunity here with a great brand to really make Gap Brandon a moment in time when the brand's place should be here and now bring it back to relevance. What's really holding Gap back? I think part of it, frankly, is the fact that we lost a little bit of the focus of the brand, tried to do too many things, tried to go to places in fashion that didn't make sense for the brand. And that's the other thing I see with him super tight and his focus about what the brand should be. It's just been the opposite story with Old Navy. It is just doing great. Uh, it now accounts for nearly half of the whole company's revenue. A big chunk of profits. What's behind the Old Navy success story. What's the biggest reason? Focus and discipline them, what the brand stands for, and executing against what consumer it's expect every day in a very consistent way. Value trend, fun, family. Those are key parts of the business, and retail is hard, but retails easy oftentimes, and it's really about that consistency and discipline. You know. Retailers everywhere are all struggling to figure out this balance between how many physics, physical stores you need and how to still keep up the strong online presence and demand. Now you closed hundreds of Gap and Banana Republic stores. You've opened lots of new old Navy stores. So do you think you have the right mix here? I think the right mix is dynamic. Honestly, we want to be where the customer is served them, how they want to shop. Basically, they want to browse. They want to buy. They want Phil, be wherever they are and make money wherever they are doing that. And that means I closed more stores and I grow my e commerce business, that accelerating rate. I am totally good with that. The customer's gonna shop where they shop. We want to be where they are. You think you have the right next, though, of stores and online. We're gonna close more gap stores. It's the oldest label that we haven't. How many? We haven't said the exact number yet. Um, and over the last several years, we've closed over 600 stores. Um, we're gonna continue to be nimble and we're doing the work right now. We'll continue to do that. Banana Republic stores as well. And open old navy and athletic stores I've got to ask you about Amazon is soon gonna be named. I was really surprised to hear this Number one clothing retailer here in the U. S. What is your strategy to compete with Amazon? You know, our strategy to compete with Amazon first is to have great brands and people come to clothing. You and I both do because of a brand that they love. I've also said very publicly that I want to be where my customer is, and so I'm not shy about like we do in in China doing business with team all in China. We continue to talk to everybody in the business that's relevant, and I just want to be present and accounted for and make money. Where my customers. What do you think it takes to compete effectively against Amazon? Is there a retailer out there who figured it out? Um, my e commerce business in Q four grew 30%. That's a super, and we have one of the biggest, apparently commerce businesses on the planet. I think we're competing pretty effectively with Amazon right now. You think you could do even more? I do. I do. We've continued to talk about how we can grow our e commerce business at an accelerating rate. We're super pleased there. And let's remember 80% of apparel purchases still take place in stores, and that's a place where I can compete with Amazon all day long because they don't have clothing stores. So look in your head, Let's say, three years from now, what will the future gap look like? How will it be different from the way we see it today? You know when you go into Gap, what I want you to see if I want you to see amazing, well made, versatile essentials for your wardrobe, and that's where Gap is at its strength. A great pair of jeans. Well, priced a great pair of khakis T shirt that lasting is amazing. A woven shirt, etcetera, old Navy fun. Fashion for the family, Athleta, Amazing performance, lifestyle and banana is really about your more dressing and professional space. And then what else will there be? I'm looking and have my eyes wide open. All right, so you're telling us that you might make make another acquisition. Give us some hints. I love Athleta. That's the head I would give. We have a great portfolio today, and I believe we're going to be in an environment where we have the resource is toe. Add something else to the platform. So you may be looking for more athletic Lululemon type of acquisition. The performance space that performs lifestyle spaces certainly super interesting. There's other spaces that we're looking at as well. I love the intimate space. We have an amazing, intimate business in the company. We might build on and again, not signaling anything imminent, but I'm always ID y eyes wide open and very curious about what's out there.

Welcome Sonya. Thank you. Hi everybody. So, as you just heard, Sonia is in the process of getting old navy ready to spin off from Gap Inc. Next year. And my colleague Phil Barba profiled you and I Most Powerful Women issue that's when you guys have seen around. And there was something from that story that jumped out at me which is you described your attitude and old navy's attitude as being like a teenager who like can't wait to leave the nest. So I want to just hold on to that metaphor for a second asked like what is the one thing you are most Looking forward to being able to do once you're out from the parental eye. [ LAUGH ] Some of us have to think I think far back of what it feels like to be 25, which is what Old Navy is. We're a 25 year old brand and it's been a great thing to be part of a company that has a portfolio of iconic brands. But at this moment, I am so excited about the opportunity to spin and take this moment in our history to be what I like to term an eight billion dollar startup. And so we have the scale and the Ubiquitous aspect of the brand that is big and powerful and connected to the American consumer. And yet there's this opportunity to really think about what we wanna be when we grow up, right? The startup side of it, the opportunity to invent, reinvent, change. So I'm excited about those possibilities that I think as a mono, company as a mono brand company, it will afford us the ability to sort of plot the next 25 years. Well, I mean, obviously you're excited about the possibilities, but there are advantages to being a big company are able to share resources like IT, and you also have this scale to negotiate, with your suppliers, with your partners. So as you stand up as your own company, what do you see as the biggest challenge on that front? Certainly, we've had advantages, with being part of the larger company. [ UNKNOWN ] on its own, though, is sizable. And for our industry, we sit as the Number two biggest brand in America now. And so that gives us a, I think a scale that allows us to get the leverage that we need. That being said, separating a company to two is no small feat. It's like doing brain surgery, if you will, and so we're in the middle of that. I'd like to say it feels a little bit like we're seven and a half months pregnant with a 10 pound baby and we're ready to deliver that baby and. Tired sounds. Yeah, so that is that's the here and now challenge you know, I think post spin it's gonna be about how do we keep a little bit of the the maverick attitude that the brand has how do we not become a Too complacent to competent, how do we stay paranoid, humble and all those things that I think will keep us relevant. I think it's very important in a competitive environment. I like that stay paranoid. So we hear a lot about the retail apocalypse whether or not that's an accurate phrase. And what we see from a lot of retailers is reducing the number of stores, shrinking stores. But Old Navy has announced that you're effectively planning to double your store account. From, I think, around 1, 100 to ultimately 2, 000. So, why when everybody else is going the other way, do you think that's a path forward for you? You know, we have been opening stores for several years now. So it's not really a new strategy per se. It's more sharing more broadly what our strategy has been. And ultimately it all stems from the North Star of our business strategy which is, like we we deeply believe in this notion of the democracy of style. And so what does that mean? So for us, it means a brand in a business that is fully inclusive. It solves for every age, every gender, every income level, every body shape, and every customer. And as we've explored where we show up and where we don't show up We had largely stayed out of towns that are below 200, 000 people as brand. And there are many, many towns across America where I feel like our customers are underserved. I hear from them all the time. In fact, there was a An article in, I think the Cape Cod Gazette or something like that. A few weeks ago, where a customer spoke about the fact that window may be opened in Cape Cod. It was like the cavalry came over the hill because he no longer had to drive 45 minutes to the mainland. So, to me it's taking advantage and, serving our customers more effectively. Well, you talked about underserved customers, and actually right before we came on, you mentioned to me that there is a pilot program that you are in the mixed of that you haven't really talked about much publicly, so can you tell us about that? Sure, I mean under the north style of the democracy of style, we are paying deep attention of our plus custimer, and We've always been in that space. We've had a strong online business, for our past customer we've done a 75 store pilot but we felt like we wanted to go deeper and understand more fully how to best service that population size. And so we went really deep, we lived with some of our plus customers, we shop with them, we We laughed and cried with them. And from that experience, from that human- centered experience our strategy evolved. And so we have a 30 store pilot happening right now where we have created a fully integrated experience in our women's business where you can shop double zero to four x. For every style at the same price, and the reaction that our women are seeing is, that we're seeing from our women, incredible. I mean, they're just so happy that they are being treated like every other woman wants to be treated, and so. And how big is, do you have a sense of how big the plus size Customers is for you? [ UNKNOWN ] the market is under reported. But if you look at the demographics of America, the average size woman is size 16. Right. And so we don't think it's a very well reported segment but a hugely underserved segment. Okay, I wanna pivot and actually talk just for a minute about your path. To Old Navy, and I understand that your interest in fashion and entrepreneur entrepreneurial fashion goes really far back. Yeah, you know, I have probably a classic immigrant experience. You know, I was an immigrant in the country and and from that. I think all the good about which is you get access to all the opportunity, all the education and the tough part of that which is you look different, you sound different, you feel different and so I remember being 12 ish and my full height and Very, very awkward that age is many 12 year olds are and, really nothing fit and that question that we've all asked ourselves, a million times, what am I gonna wear, was a really tough one at the time I, I couldn't afford much, my body was, not easy to dress and so from that, necessity. Was born this, desire to create clothing and, it went from, a need based thing to a passion and really my formative years in my teen years was spent doing that and designing making clothes and it became a passion. But again back to, I think an immigrant background, then when I think about. Really where my parents came from, which was not a lot, in fact, less than not a lot. Really the educational guidance was, you really pursue professional or education that is more secure, more established. So my sister became the doctor, I became the engineer. Yeah. And I think that's probably a familiar story to some in the room. It was a great path though. Because really, my love of making things. I did mechanical engineering. I worked in the auto industry for six years. And the product is really the red thread for my career. Whether it was clothing or cars or Or computers, sometimes, as well. From fashion to engineering. Yes. Back to fashion and, plus, engineering. Yes. Any questions for Sonia in the audience? Questions? We have one, over here. You know the drill. Please identify yourself Hi, Carla Blacker from Dutch Villa Germany's international broadcaster. Do you have plans to also spread out in Europe? You know we are I'd say we're pretty young in the arc of our brand life. You know, we're 25 years old many apparel brands. That we compete against our 50, 60, 70 years. And so, I think as we look at global expansion, it's a long journey for us. We're focused primarily in North America. We have some franchise businesses in about 15 countries. So more to come as the years unfold. I have a question. You mentioned working briefly in the auto industry? Yes. So Sonya worked in a Ford [ UNKNOWN ] plans in college, right. So you were in your twenties. You are supervising men who are probably twice, three times as old as you were. What are that experience teach you about managing? Yeah, it was a fun, fun time, I guess I'll use that word. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] To cover up some of the other feelings. [ LAUGH ] It was fascinating, it was a union shop, it was the midnight shift, it was I bought a boiler room job, if you will. Okay. You know, and it was but at the same time, you know what you really learn is people are people and connecting with people about what matters, what's important is the ultimate connector, so, got through it and I think enjoyed it in the end. And you know every opportunity like that is a learning opportunity and something you take with you. Now. I also have a question about your predictability. So that you've said that the big part of your job at Old Navy is looking a year I had, two years I had to figure out what is gonna be back? Has anything surprise you on your time? Well, some things are definitely interesting. A great brand is a brand that you can rely on and count on. And that's what we strive to do at the same time, fashion is forever changing. Mm hm. Right? And it is remarkable when you step back and you think about how people dress, and how that's changed over the years. I'll share an example of seven, eight years ago, we did not even have an active business, for example, right? And now our active lifestyle business is a billion dollars of our eight billion and the casualisation of how Americans dress Continues. You recently hired an executive from Athleta. That's right. That's right. My Chief Creative Officer has joined us as the old CEO of Athleta, and so we definitely see that trend continuing. And all I have to do is look at my 18 year old son because Don't know, street joggers also known as sweatpants has become, you know has become okay to wear to dinner to date to learn how to work, to sleep. And so that is you know, these are I think that is the fun of fashion is Yeah, things are constantly changing. And so staying relevant is important. And is there one thing, we have to wrap up, but is there one thing you would tell all of us, like we should go out and add to our closets now and will be thanking you in a year or two years? Well, I was. No sweat pants please. Right, right. Well, I have to advocate for our Rockstar jeans. I'm wearing the now and they are. I think the number one women's Jean in America, so please go try them, they will fit all of you > how many of those do you sell a day? > we sold forty thousand a day, so that's cool, so that, and then for a little fashion, the camera woman behind the stage was commenting on my jacket so please Let's go by that too. [ LAUGH ] Thank you so much Sonia.

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