Ralph Lauren’s Staying Power & Pacsun’s Retail Comeback

Today, during Ralph Lauren’s first investor presentation since 2022, C.E.O. Patrice Louvet mentioned that the company defines its business as “inclusive luxury.” That’s great, if a little like Veep’s Selina Meyer talking about “continuity with change.” But the stock price is up more than 70 percent over the past year, so something is clearly working. 

Still, the brand needs to continue growing across multiple channels—not just men’s, where they are strong right now, but women’s, Gen Z, international, and outlet. Owning inclusive luxury will also require significant growth in the handbag category, which accounts for a single-digit percentage of their total revenue. The brand owns less than 1 percent of the global premium handbag market, which gives it significant room to grow. 

Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren has reclaimed its upscale brand identity by cutting U.S. promotions by 50 percent, per the executives on the call. (Their outlet customers, often seen as the value segment, still average $100,000 in annual income.) Louvet acknowledged the volatility in the economy and political system but maintained that Ralph Lauren’s diversified approach—from $30 Polo shirts to $3,000 Purple Label suits, and from outlets to exquisitely merchandised flagships—leaves them well-positioned for whatever comes next.

Pacsun, a staple of 1980s California surf culture, went bankrupt in 2016 and was subsequently rescued by Bay Area private equity firm Golden Gate Capital. Since then, it’s morphed into a teen retail powerhouse as well as a suburban gateway to brands like Edikted, Brandy Melville, and Tiger Mist. Two years into the top job, Pacsun C.E.O. Brie Olson seems to be going for the kind of glow-up that Fran Horowitz pulled off at Abercrombie & Fitch.

Pacsun has 300 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and according to a source, store traffic is up 17 percent year to date. While e-commerce represents a third of Pacsun’s total business, the TikTok shop has been especially impressive—they’re the number two denim brand on the platform, doing $13.3 million in revenue on $2.1 million of ad spending from August 2024 to July 2025, according to Charm.io. Overall, they’ve doubled their revenue from TikTok year over year.

Pacsun’s breakdown is around 50 percent in-house brands, the rest wholesale, in an assortment targeted at Gen Z and Gen Alpha tastes. Brands like John Galt, Brandy Melville, and Edikted benefit from the exposure of being merchandised in Pacsun storefronts—Edikted, for instance, only has eight storefronts of its own. The merchandising mix also includes Princess Polly, a brand from Australia’s Gold Coast founded in the early 2010s, which makes hoco (a.k.a. homecoming) dresses and trend-driven items teens gravitate toward. While Fear of God Essentials, another brand in the Pacsun portfolio, can feel like an adulting version of streetwear—with sweat sets and t-shirts, but also canvas pants, oversize blazers, and denim and leather jackets—the price point makes it a reasonable next step for their customer. 

Pacsun, which has also invested considerably in its own research, recently released its youth trends report. Even so, just like any other retailer, it will remain a few steps behind fickle teens, who will always get the last word.