How Private Equity and Holding Companies Have Degraded Quality at Heritage Brands

Pick up a Brooks Brothers shirt and turn it inside out. Look at the shoulder stitching. If it looks like a rat's nest of tangled thread done by someone who couldn't give a shit, that's the business model working exactly as designed.

Brooks Brothers was founded in 1818, dressed 40 presidents over the following two centuries, and made the coat Lincoln was wearing the night he was shot. For most of that run the name meant one specific thing: quality American tailoring at a price that reflected it.

Now think about Eddie Bauer. They used to sell gear with a lifetime warranty, the kind where you could...

One company owns Brooks Brothers, Champion, Eddie Bauer, Billabong, Sports Illustrated, and the licensing rights to Elvis's likeness. They don't make a single product themselves.