It’s not simply you—you actually have been seeing much more of Hole currently.
Over the previous couple of years, the model has launched into a broad enterprise turnaround. It hired Richard Dickson, Mattel’s former CEO who turned Barbie right into a phenomenon. Then it brought on Zac Posen as its new artistic director. It launched an elevated sub-brand, GapStudio, and it’s bringing again nostalgia-driven types like low-rise denims.
However maybe more practical than any single enterprise determination has been Hole’s unabashed embrace of collaborations. Many times, Hole’s partnerships have stunned buyers by tapping into corners of tradition and style that increase the viewers for the traditional American model. There have been collabs with girls’s style manufacturers Cult Gaia and Dôen (twice), Black design advocacy platform Harlem’s Trend Row, baggage firm Béis, and funky golf-wear model Malbon.
For individuals who doubted Hole’s style bona fides, these collabs have been meant to show them incorrect.
Is Hole truly plugged in?
Mark Breitbard, the president and CEO of World Hole Model, has been attempting to reply that query with a convincing sure for the final 5 years. When Brietbard joined Hole in 2020, he was coping with a disaster of relevance. “Having been across the enterprise for a very long time, I at all times felt that the model simply wanted extra,” he says. “The model deserved higher, and the model had good artistic simply dying to get out.”
Now, dozens of collabs later, a unique firm has emerged from the cryogenic freezer—one that customers are beginning to truly care about.
A brand new period for Hole
Step-by-step, the Hole model began to hold cachet. “That’s actually the story—multiple companion, one marketing campaign—it’s the story of all of it,” says Breitbard, referring to the regular “drumbeat” of storytelling he and his crew are constructing by way of its partnerships and marketing campaigns. Relative to the story {that a} revived Hole is attempting to inform, “all of this artistic is the narrative,” he says. And is intrinsic to its purpose of “restaking our declare as an American icon.”
However sturdy artistic requires a stable basis to work from. In 2020, when Breitbard moved from his function as president and CEO of Banana Republic to affix Hole in his present function, the casual-wear model had nowhere to go however up. Actually, the final time Hole was within the dialog, low-rise denims have been in model (assume 2000 to 2010).
Breitbard has extremely broad duties. “I lead the Hole model enterprise. It means all the pieces that you just see that’s Hole is beneath my purview,” he says. Product, advertising and marketing, shops, e-commerce, partnerships, and “all of the experiences that go together with that,” he provides. The Gapaissance is made up of many artistic decision-makers, however on the finish of the day, Breitbard is the one who makes the ultimate name.
When he stepped into the function, he first observed that the model wanted a cleanup. “Hole had quite a lot of issues, beginning with relevance,” Breitbard remembers of the corporate’s well being when he first joined. “The enterprise mannequin was damaged in some methods.”
A short abstract of his to-do listing:
- Scale back the Hole’s “overstored” retail footprint (they closed 350 shops)
- Reinvent product
- Reduce the variety of stock-keeping items (SKUs)
- Reinvest in high quality
- A number of rounds of layoffs, all of which befell by way of 2022
- Adopted by new artistic hires in 2023, together with its head of artistic, Calvin Leung, and company companion, Invisible Dynamics.
CEO Dickson, credited with Barbie’s pink tsunami of a comeback throughout his time as president and COO at Mattel, additionally joined in 2023. At that time, the corporate felt established sufficient to maneuver on from digging itself out and begin increase optimistic momentum. In 2024, Hole tapped Posen to go up its new, higher-price-point sub-brand, GapStudio, itself a relevance play by way of purple carpet and superstar dressing.
That’s additionally when the collaboration technique began in earnest. (There have been just a few early collabs: the ill-fated, 10-year YZY partnership in 2020, which led to 2022, adopted by the extra profitable Hole x Dapper Dan collab in 2022.) In keeping with Hole, the corporate not often engaged in model partnerships previous to Breitbard’s onboarding: about 24 collaborations over a span of 40 years, from 1979 to 2019.
Since Breitbard joined the corporate, Hole has launched greater than 15 partnerships (about three per yr—a five-fold enhance over the prior common of about two each three years). By mid-2025, Hole is operating six to eight main partnerships per yr.
In 2024, Hole began to drop extra frequent—and surprisingly covetable—collabs, like with Dôen and Cult Gaia. The sort that may trigger you to textual content your buddy a hyperlink with no less than 5 query marks: “Hole?????”
The corporate additionally started launching traditional Hole adverts with new expertise: Troye Sivan, Tyla, and most not too long ago Katseye, choreographed by Robbie Blue. All of this gives a number of approaches to reinvent its “icons,” as Breitbard describes it.
The technique is supposed to reestablish its personal core types and its personal model relevance by way of affiliation with companions that carry style and cultural credibility. “We had the enterprise beginning to hearth in ’23 with quite a lot of the items there,” he says. “Then a mixture of all of the totally different strikes we’ve been making. We ramped each single one among them up—ramped up the advertising and marketing campaigns, ramped up the collabs, ramped up the storytelling, and received increasingly targeted.”
That features a targeted partnerships technique. In keeping with Breitbard, any new partnership requires just a few issues: a transparent inner understanding of established model codes (described as “rooted in denim” and the “genuine voice of Americana”), worth alignment with potential companions, a powerful artistic crew, and a differentiated story and viewers.
“That occurs when a narrative can solely be instructed with that companion, and that the companion can solely inform with us,” he says. However for Breitbard, it in the end comes right down to a fundamental relevance components, which I name the “group chat litmus check”: “Is it new? Is it surprising? And is it cool?” he asks.
Relevance and its cousin, authenticity, are model qualities which can be each troublesome to outline and universally chased. Each model needs to be a part of the cultural dialog, as a result of that in the end establishes credibility within the eyes of the patron and creates a large advertising and marketing funnel by way of which to interact potential clients. Consider it as branding delicate energy.
What unites all of those partnerships is the thought of authenticity and upholding Hole’s DNA. “We do undergo nice pains to make sure that the model codes stay upheld in all the pieces we do,” Breitbard says. “However having a powerful artistic crew very locked in on who we’re permits us to take extra dangers; it permits us to have attention-grabbing partnerships that really feel new and surprising. In order that’s it. We depend on nice artistic expertise.”
The halo impact
Model relevance results in model fairness, which ends up in gross sales. Collaborations assist set up that: 29% of consumers who make a collab buy are new to the model, in accordance with Hole. However partnerships additionally provide a halo impact for its core product: 20% of shoppers who made a collab buy additionally added a Hole merchandise to their cart, in accordance with the corporate. And partnerships have additionally confirmed vital to establishing longtail enterprise leads. Collab clients skew youthful—beneath age 40.
I questioned mates about their present notion of Hole.
“I’ve observed how Zac Posen has turned the ship. However not till this Katseye advert, have I been inquisitive about truly shopping for from them,” a 33-year-old PR skilled based mostly in L.A. instructed me.
“Froth,” says a 35-year-old Australian advisor based mostly in New York. “I beloved the [Katseye] advert and walked right into a Hole retailer for the primary time in my life.”
“I believe it’s getting cooler once more, and so they have trendier issues in retailer,” a 39-year-old New York-based clothier instructed me. “I’ve purchased just a few issues not too long ago.”
In keeping with Breitbard, nobody partnership finest captures the resurgent period of Hole. Somewhat, it’s the technique as an entire. “Nice artistic begets nice artistic in the identical manner with expertise and bringing extra expertise,” he says of his crew and its current output. Reflecting on the current partnerships and distinct campaigns, he says: “All of this artistic is the narrative.”
Proper now, the artistic is setting the tempo—and it’s including as much as a comeback nobody noticed coming.
