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WATCH: Abercrombie & Fitch for the Homeless

Polo shirts, cargo pants, and flip-flops for everyone--including the homeless.

By May 15, 2013
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O95DBxnXiSo]

In his #FitchTheHomeless video, L.A. writer Greg Karber picked through what he calls the “douchebag section” at a Goodwill thrift shop to rack up some Abercrombie & Fitch clothing, which he then gave out to homeless people on Skid Row in East Los Angeles.

Now that 67 percent of the apparel-purchasing population is plus-sized, many retailers (such as H&M) have begun embracing larger sizes. Abercrombie, on the other hand, has held onto an outdated beauty standard by not carry women’s sizes XL or XXL, reports Business Insider.

(MORE: Abercrombie & Fitch: We’ll Pay ‘The Situation’ to Stop Wearing Our Clothes)

In a 2006 Salon interview, Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries divulged:

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he says. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either…

That’s why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that.”

In today’s HuffPost Live interview, Karber said he was “so upset” about Jeffries’ comments that when he went on Facebook to complain, someone online said, “Don’t worry, karma will catch up to this guy.” Karber realized he couldn’t wait for karma. And he wants you to join him: In the video, he asks viewers to find all the Abercrombie clothes you’ve “mistakenly purchased,” donate them to your local homeless shelter, and then tweet about it using the hashtag #FitchTheHomeless, which already has thousands of re-tweets.

“I hope the end goal is to help a lot of people. I hope that some good comes out of this. I don’t want to be exploitative of the homeless. But I think this is an opportunity to address two issues at the same time. I want people to no longer to associate Abercrombie & Fitch with cool clothing… They’re not hip nor sexy,” Karber explains.

MORE: How Attractive Clothes Shoppers Affect Our Buying Habits