Don and Doris Fisher opened the very first Gap at 1950 Ocean Avenue in San Francisco, 1969, selling just men’s Levi’s jeans and record tapes. Later that year, The Gap Stores, Inc. went public with an initial offering of 1.2 million shares at $18 each.
Gap grew into an empire alongside Banana Republic and Old Navy, embodying a breezy, optimistic American style. Its khakis and logo hoodies defined a generation, cementing Gap as one of the most recognised retail brands of the late 20th century.
But ubiquity can lead to fatigue. By the early 2000s, Gap’s positioning wavered between mass and aspiration, losing ground to faster-moving rivals like Zara and H&M, while also ceding premium denim territory to niche players.
Between 2001 and 2021, the retailer shuttered nearly 2,000 stores and shed $3.5 billion in annual sales.
In 2023, Richard Dickson, credited with reinvigorating Barbie at Mattel, joined as CEO. By the time he joined, Gap had become a case study in heritage-brand decline. His mission was to rebuild Gap and remain culturally relevant.
This case study, in partnership with Tracksuit, provides an analysis of Gap’s comeback strategy.
Gap’s Brand Awareness
Gap ranks among the top brands in awareness within the Clothing (Both Genders) category in the US, with 82% recognition, just behind Levi’s, Old Navy, and Hanes:
Gap’s Marketing Strategy
1. Cultural Relevance Through Campaigns
Gap is undergoing a creative revival, with recent marketing efforts embracing bold freshness and cultural relevance to re-energise the brand:
- Better in Denim, starring girl group Katseye, generated 8 billion impressions and briefly made Gap the No. 1 searched brand on TikTok.
- Get Loose, a dance-led campaign with Troye Sivan, revived the brand’s 90s choreography-led DNA but tailored it for TikTok virality with an emotional marketing strategy.
- Feels Like Gap, fronted by indie icon Parker Posey, played with irony and nostalgia to reframe heritage as playful, fun and fresh.
- GAP X Beis, when lifestyle brand Beis teamed up with the heritage brand for a travel-focused capsule collection consumers were sent into a frenzy. The limited edition collection blended GAP’s iconic simplicity with Beis’s practical travel-first design, blending both nostalgia and modernity.
2. “Fashiontainment” as Strategy
Dickson describes Gap’s positioning as “fashiontainment”: merging fashion credibility with the energy of music, celebrity, and choreography. The campaigns are soundtracked, cast, and choreographed for shareability, prioritising cultural heat over traditional product marketing.
3. Redefining Relevance for Gen Z
In order to maintain its status as a generational brand without losing momentum and relevance, Gap knew that they had to re-engage their younger audiences, who make up 31% of their category buyers in the 18-34 yrs age group.
The data indicates mounting challenges for this group. From Aug 2024 to Feb 2025, Gap’s awareness was down 7 points and consideration was down a further 12 points (equating to 8.2M less people considering the brand). If they’re losing Gen Z, future demand and sustained long-term growth is at serious risk for the brand.
From March 2025, we can see the tides are turning for Gen Z and Millennials, with stabilising funnel metrics, and notably, awareness-to-consideration conversion rate is up 7 points. This is a strong signal that their recent top-of-funnel brand work like their Katseye collab is driving meaningful shifts in their brand health with this audience.
However, there’s certainly work to be done further down the funnel, as consideration-to-preference conversion is still on the decline for this age group. Time will tell whether the relevance and trust they’re building with Gen Z today, will translate into the sales of tomorrow.
How Gap Is Converting Younger Shoppers
Across the category, top-of-funnel conversion is most strongly influenced by perceptions of relatability and trust, followed by ‘Is for people like me’ and ‘Is a brand I trust’ are the strongest ToF conversion drivers across the category, with ‘Value for money’ and ‘Is a quality brand’ also holding significant influence.
Gap has seen meaningful progress with 18–34-year-olds over the past six months: trust has grown from 32% to 40% (+8pp), while perceptions of quality rose from 43% to 51% (+8pp).
The shift signals growing resonance with younger consumers and the brand’s ability to reposition itself in a competitive market. For older demographics (55+), however, recall has improved but perceptions of trust, value and relevance have yet to follow suit, highlighting a more complex challenge for future growth.
The Results
Gap’s renewed marketing momentum is translating to business impact. In a recent post on Gap Inc’s Instagram, Dickson shared Q2, 2025 was another strong quarter for the brand:
- Net sales rose 2.2% to $3.5 billion.
- The Gap brand grew 5% to $724 million.
- Gap is now seeing its seventh straight quarter of comparable sales growth.
- Social buzz, red carpet moments, and viral campaigns put Gap “back in the conversation,” in Dickson’s words.
Importantly, awareness and consideration trends among young consumers, once in freefall, are stabilising. Trust and quality perceptions are rising, pointing to the campaigns’ ability to reframe Gap’s brand image.
Beyond the numbers, Gap has regained what it had lost most: attention, and their reinvigorating playbook is winning.
Strategic Priorities
Looking forward, Gap’s challenge is less about rediscovery and more about consistency:
1. Drive awareness among younger consumers
The recovery with 18–34 year olds is encouraging, with conversion lifting from 50% to 57%. This shows the GAP’s marketing activity is resonating. GAP should sustain targeted activity, reinforced with their current positioning, to keep building momentum with this group.
2. Double down on conversion drivers
Gap’s trust and quality perceptions have both increased significantly among 18-34 year olds in the past six months, which has undoubtedly had a positive impact on the brand’s ToF conversion. Consistent reinforcement of these associations, along with other key drivers like relevance and value, could be meaningful to push consideration further.
3. Consider Leveraging Long-standing Consumers
While brand activity has reactivated Gap in the minds of 55+ year olds (awareness up to 92%), there is a drop-off in converting them to consider the brand. Gap could explore methods to further leverage trust, quality and relevance among these longer established consumers, providing them with reasons to consider Gap when they are making purchasing decisions.
Measuring brand work has always been difficult, but data, and tools like our partner Tracksuit now shows its impact.
Gap, once losing relevance with their younger audience, is stabilising and growing in one of the most competitive categories (Clothing). For marketers, the message is clear: brand drives long-term growth, data simply proves it.
Gap’s resurgence is a case study in how heritage brands can harness nostalgia without being trapped by it. By fusing fashion credibility, digital-first storytelling, and data-backed marketing, Gap has re-established itself as a cultural player.
The Tracksuit data tells a story of perception shifting, trust and quality metrics climbing, awareness stabilising among Gen Z, and cultural cachet translating to business recovery.
After years of irrelevance, Gap isn’t just back in closets; it’s back in the cultural conversation, experiencing a renaissance as a brand synonymous with music, fashion, and celebrity.
Data discussed in this article has been provided by Tracksuit, the affordable, always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies. Brand building is hard, proving it is even harder. If you’re launching big campaigns like Gap that put your brand and credibility on the line, Tracksuit is here to back you up.
