Correction: A previous version of this commodity stated that BCBG no longer operated stand-alone stores.

Old retailers don't die. They just become due east-tailers or branded products at somebody else's stores.

Or that's the instance for some. This holiday season one could discover displays of The Sharper Image products at Target and FAO Schwarz products at Barnes & Noble and Bon-Ton stores. The Limited is at present an exclusive make at Belkin stores and Circuit City is trying to make a come up back, besides, with a new e-commerce site and store concepts.

These are all names of once-prominent retailers that have gone broke and closed their stores. Retail has a long history of resurrecting brands from failed shop chains. The overarching reason for this is adequately straightforward: Even if a business organisation fails at physical retail — by overextending their footprints, taking on as well much debt, investing as well little in stores, declining to win over younger shoppers or merely declining in popularity — it's brand might all the same carry value.

"I retrieve in that location'southward a fundamental difference between having a business organization model problem and having a brand trouble," Michael Dart, a partner in A.T. Kearney's private disinterestedness practice and writer of the upcoming volume Retail's Seismic Shift, told Retail Dive. When bondage close, "y'all terminate upwards with a lot of customers saying, 'Wow I liked that identify. I liked the store. It'south a shame it's gone,'" Dart added.

Or, every bit Align Cohen, main industry analyst at The NPD Group, put it in an interview, " There are millions of people who had purchased these brands, who grew up with some of these brands." That disinterestedness means someone buying the brand out of bankruptcy, or some other crisis, can have instant proper name recognition for a different venture — be information technology a label or due east-tailer or catalog visitor, Cohen pointed out.

Just the promise and durability of a known make, fifty-fifty if it's decades old, isn't necessarily infinite. "The brusque-term opportunities, they're pretty strong," Cohen said. "When a retailer goes out and stays online only, generally the shelf life, if they're not really operating on all cylinders, is really only a few years. … I have to really spend a lot of time and free energy sending you to my site if I'1000 a brand trying to resurrec t myself."

"At that place are millions of people who had purchased these brands, who grew up with some of these brands."

Marshal Cohen

Principal Industry Annotator at The NPD Group

All the same a defunct retailer reinvents itself, there must be a matching concern model for that format, and it still has to go down to the nitty gritty business organization of making coin. Lauren Bitar, managing director of retail consulting at RetailNext, told Retail Swoop that success ways making margin goals, growing year-over-twelvemonth, staying financially stable and winning return shoppers — in the principal, the same goals a physical retailer has.

"You take to be operating a profitable business organisation that is serving a unique need to its customers," Bitar said. "If y'all're having to give away product in social club to get purchases, you're just going to fail again."

With the recent years' uptick in retail bankruptcies, more brands have entered the post-retail brand afterlife. Below we've taken a expect at some of these resurrected brands, including some of the most recent cases, to see how they've adapted to life after concrete retail.

  1. Sharper Epitome

    Sharper Paradigm'southward eclectic electronics all the same sell online and through catalogs while its products can be found in stores like Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond.

    After filing for defalcation in 2008, the erstwhile mall staple Sharper Image ultimately liquidated its 180-plus stores. Facing tough competition in the electronics space, the company grappled with sales declines in the years before information technology filed for bankruptcy. As The New York Times wrote at the fourth dimension of its initial bankruptcy filing , "It turns out that buyers of R2-D2 Interactive Droids ($129) are not the best echo customers."

    Merely today the 40-year-erstwhile seller of offbeat gadgets and gifts exists equally an eastward-commerce and catalog retailer, which is how it began. Private equity firm Camelot Venture Group relaunched the Sharper Image's website and catalog in 2010, later on acquiring the rights the previous year.

    Separately, in Dec 2016, consumer products maker ThreeSixty Group bought the rights to make branded products under the Sharper Image proper name for $100 million . Those products sell at other retailers including Target, Macy's and Bed Bath & Beyond, as well every bit the namesake'southward website and catalog.

    "In its heyday, Sharper Epitome, what it was known for was really cool, leading-edge tech and gadget stuff. People still call up that."

    Nick Egelanian

    President of SiteWorks International

    "In its heyday, Sharper Image, what it was known for was really cool, leading-edge tech and gadget stuff. People withal remember that," Nick Egelanian, president of retail development consultants SiteWorks International, said in an interview. "A brand isn't a name. A brand is a concept."

  2. FAO Schwarz

    Toys R Us closed FAO Schwarz's flagship store in New York in 2015. A new storefront could be coming before long.

    The once-iconic high-finish toy shop FAO Schwarz has been featured in movies and was a tourist draw in New York City for decades. It's since gone through several stages of evolution — or decline, depending on your perspective.

    FAO Schwarz​ filed for bankruptcy in 2003 afterward damaging price wars with Walmart and other retailers. The toy seller was eventually acquired by Toys R Usa, only to be closed close to three years ago.

    As the Washington Post noted in 2015, the dear toy store created an "experience" — or equally The New York Times described it in 2003, " a sure retail fantasy" — that drew customers into stores. Only many of them didn't buy anything, and the experience they got from visiting came free.

    Toys R United states airtight FAO Schwarz's flagship shop in 2015 and then the next year sold the brand property to ThreeSixty Group (buyer of some of Sharper Image'due south brand properties, likewise). Both Toys R United states and ThreeSixty Group had tried to capitalize on the brand'south indelible currency with Americans.

    "Information technology is a depressing story, because for many people, that image of FAO Schwarz is part of their vacation tradition,'' Chris Byrne, editor of a toy merchandise publication told The Times in 2003. ''It is an unabridged holiday tradition that is going away, or at the very least, is being jeopardized and volition modify radically."

    ThreeSixty Group'south acquisition of FAO Schwarz's brand rights helped keep that tradition live for consumers who still remember and have a relationship with the proper noun. To heave toy sales during the holidays, disbelieve department shop Bon-Ton chain (which is grappling with deep financial problems) added FAO's full assortment to 186 stores terminal year. That assortment  included a toy pianoforte mat fabricated famous by Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia in the movie "Big."

    Barnes & Noble as well featured FAO Schwarz toys at its stores during the holidays as part of an endeavour to, equally the volume seller'south CEO Demos Parneros said in a November printing release, "curate an array of sectional books and other products to brand shopping easier and gifting more meaningful."

    FAO could soon be making a render to concrete retail as well. The company plans to open up a new (much smaller) store in Rockefeller Plaza in New York, co-ordinate to the Commercial Observer.

    All this shows that the FAO Schwarz all the same means something to a lot of people, merely not enough to support a total retail chain. The looming question for it and other revived brands is: for how much longer? "If you didn't grow up with FAO Schwarz, you don't know what it is. It ways nothing to you lot," Cohen said.

  3. The Limited

     The Limited-brand clothes volition be sold every bit an sectional, private brand at Belk stores.

    "This isn't goodbye…" Or and so The Express told its customers as it shuttered its roughly 250 remaining stores last January, merely a few weeks earlier filing for Chapter 11 .

    Founded in 1963 by current L Brands CEO Leslie Wexner, The Limited by the 1980s helped define casual fashion. The retailer, once a host to some major brands that it later spun off (among them Abercrombie & Fitch and Lane Bryant), boasted drifting buying teams that curated stylish designs from boutiques around the world. The company so brought those styles to market via a nimble supply chain that pre-dated fast way — a category that ultimately vanquish The Limited at its ain game.

    A turn in the 1990s toward older women's workwear sapped the make of much of its energy , co-ordinate to Lee Peterson, who spent 11 years at The Limited and is now an executive vice president with retail design firm WD Partners. The Limited, like many retailers to get bankrupt over the past two years, was a private disinterestedness buyout. Bought by Sun Capital in last decade, The Express's owners allowed it little financial room to reinvent itself or accommodate to a changing retail world.

    By the end of 2016, the retailer was a shell of its former cocky, beset past falling traffic and offering styles that could as well exist establish at rivals like Loft, and at department stores and fast style retailers. Every bit it looked to restructure, it also suffered executive turnover that left the retailer without a solid become-forward strategy.

    In curt, there were plenty of practical and strategic reasons why The Limited's retail model collapsed. "A lot of customers liked the product, liked what it stood for," Dart said. Only, he added, The Limited's business model could no longer back up itself amidst price deflation and competition for customers. "Yous don't take to lose as well many customers in a retail outfit" for information technology to fail, Dart said. "You can withal have 80% or ninety% of customers that withal similar you. Simply that'south notwithstanding enough [decline] to crusade a crisis."

    When another private equity firm, Sycamore Partners, bought The Limited's intellectual property (including its e-commerce business) out of bankruptcy for about $27 million concluding Feb, it was placing a bet that The Limited nonetheless had enough customers that cared about the make. Sycamore then paired The Limited with some other retailer in its portfolio: Belk department stores. Belk appear in December that The Limited-brand clothes, in add-on to being sold online, would be sold as an sectional, private brand at Belk stores .

    Sprint said that client awareness and The Express'southward long history, were among its chief brand assets. "I know the Express. I know what that's going to sell and what it's going to wait similar," he said, describing customer reactions. He likewise pointed to existing customer data files, which nowadays a "rich target to marketplace" — an especially valuable asset given the high cost of acquiring customers online — every bit "something that'southward really highly valued."

  4. Wet Seal

    Advisory business firm Gordon Brothers bought Wet Seal'southward assets at sale for $three million.

    In 2002, when Moisture Seal was withal a public company, shares hit $25 as consumers embraced its laid-back, surf-and-sun aesthetic. Merely styles changed, as they and so oft do amid younger demographics, and two years later its stock plummeted to a little over a dollar .

    The ascent of fast fashion sellers like Zara, Forever 21 and H&G sealed Wet Seal'due south fate. Those companies' rapid supply chains brought clothes to stores faster, preserving their margins by ensuring they didn't accept as much backlog inventory. It also fabricated them better adapted to rapidly irresolute trends.

    "Wet Seal had been selling forever, since the 1960s, and they only kind of got mowed downward," Bitar said. "They kind of lost their manner over what their aesthetic would exist."

    Before long before its first Affiliate 11 filing in 2015 — which came afterward the company lost more than $150 million in a span of two years and defaulted on $27 million in bonds — Wet Seal abased its Arden B make and closed 338 of its more often than not mall-based stores without warning. (That collection some employees to mail service angry signs in vacant store windows .)

    Individual equity business firm Versa bought the beleaguered brand in April 2015 for $vii.5 one thousand thousand three months after it filed, only to get looking for a buyer less than two years later on every bit information technology mulled nonetheless another bankruptcy . That 2nd defalcation filing came last Feb , shortly after The Limited shuttered all its remaining stores and laid off almost 150 corporate employees.

    In March, global restructuring, investment, advisory and branding firm Gordon Brothers bought Wet Seal's assets at sale for $three 1000000 with plans to  "rebuild and reposition the brand and develop a unique new business model to best position it for future success," co-ordinate to Gordon Brothers President of Brands Ramez Toubassy.

    "Shop locations are free advertising. They only have a website at present."

    Lauren Bitar

    Director of Retail Consulting, RetailNext

    Wet Seal is back as an eastward-commerce retailer, but the futurity of the brand is far from sure. "Their demographic has grown up a fiddling chip," Bitar said. "Are they going to try to go them, or try to be this teen-early 20s brand again. They await like they're trying to be Express. What is their unique aesthetic?"

    Non having stores also puts the make at a disadvantage. "Shop locations are gratuitous advertising. They only have a website at present," Bitar said.

  5. American Apparel

    Subsequently buying the American Apparel brand for $88 million, Gildan moved quickly to restart wholesale and and so east-commerce operations.

    American Wearing apparel, with its made-in-the-United states of america ethos, was a become-to apparel retailer for nuts. But fast fashion, changing consumer habits and a growing discomfort with the retailer's highly sexualized marketing took a toll over the years.

    The company also suffered during a bruising battle with founder Dov Charney, ousted in late 2014 . Ultimately, Charney, whose vision largely defined the brand during its lifetime, tried to buy back his visitor during its get-go bankruptcy belatedly in 2015. The $300 million bid topped estimates of the brand's value entered in court, but it also came with the stipulation that Charney would return. The board rejected his offer.

    After emerging from Chapter 11 as a individual visitor , American Apparel went on to file for a second defalcation in 2016 .

    Ultimately, Canadian wearable basics wholesaler Gildan Activewear bought American Clothes'due south intellectual property and some manufacturing equipment (simply non its stores) out of defalcation a little over a year ago for $88 million. Leading up to the auction, several other companies jockeyed for the company'due south assets. California-based apparel maker Next Level Apparel, teen apparel retailer Forever 21, band licensor Authentic Brands Grouping and even east-commerce giant Amazon were said to take prepared bids .

    Gildan was able to become American Apparel's wholesale sales and distribution up and running within 4 weeks of the conquering. Within six weeks, the visitor also started Southern California-based production of key styles for American Wearing apparel's Made-in-the-USA collection. By final August, American Dress had re-launched e-commerce operations .

    "In the six months since the brand went silent, the outpouring of love for this brand has been great," Gildan Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications Garry Bong told Retail Dive in August. "We are very thankful to this make's loyal fans for their patience and support every bit we bring this iconic make back, ameliorate than ever and ever Sweatshop Free."

    Now the brand has turned its attention to rethinking its marketing in the era of #MeToo, a necessity given that the brand's founder and original driving force has been accused of sexual harassment. Charney, meanwhile, has made significant process in launching a new brand , Los Angeles Dress.

  6. Excursion City

    Later on liquidating in 2009, Excursion City made a run every bit an online just player, which ended. So there was 2016'southward aborted comeback. At present it is plotting notwithstanding another comeback.

    Circuit City one time had more than ane,500 stores across the U.Due south and Canada. Simply it had long played 2d fiddle to swain big box electronics retailer Best Buy. Circuit Urban center's low wages and out-of-engagement stores in unenviable locations didn't help its competitiveness. So came an internal investor boxing and a recession, and with information technology a pullback in consumer spending and a freeze in credit markets.

    The company filed Chapter 11 in 2008 — during the holidays, arguably the worst possible fourth dimension — with plans to become more competitive and, later in the process, to find a buyer. Neither happened. Vacation sales complanate. No acquisition agreement materialized. In Jan 2009, the retailer liquidated .

    For years afterward, Circuit City operated every bit an e-commerce retailer. That ended in 2012, though, when owner online electronics retailer TigerDirect bought the Circuit City and CompUSA brands and consolidated them, co-ordinate to Internet Retailer.

    The electronics retail market hasn't exactly gotten easier to crack since then (consider the bankruptcies of RadioShack and HHGregg). Today, Amazon is a beast and Best Buy has upped its game , with much effort and focus. And Walmart and Target are non exactly bit players in electronics sales either.

    The most contempo headlines that Circuit Urban center was " back from the expressionless " emerged more than a year ago, when two retail veterans said they were plotting a comeback for the brand . The plan included up to 100 new smaller-format stores and highly trained employees. But those plans stalled some six months later, ahead of the opening of a new prototype store. CEO Ronny Shmoel said at the fourth dimension that the team behind the revived Circuit City was "taking our fourth dimension to go this right."

    At present — finally — movement. The company announced early on January, at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, that Circuit Urban center would relaunch on Feb. 15 . The new plans include "a dynamic, social-focused e-commerce site, along with various concepts of innovative retail stores," the company said.

    Circuit City is also partnering with IBM Watson commerce, which incorporates AI and other new retail technologies into its spider web platform, according to a printing release . The website allows various ways to shop — via room layouts, category or brand, according to Dealerscope. The company too shared plans for a concept store, designed with the Taylored Group, which will be spaces of about x,000 square feet and feature demo areas and displays as well as community areas for hanging out, pedagogy and other activities, co-ordinate to Dealerscope .

    Perhaps more modest than a 100-store buildout, the new plans for Excursion City seem to rely on the current common wisdom about retail. The planned stores sound like a hybrid of Apple tree's community-focused gathering places and Best Buy's practical demo areas. And the e-commerce site sounds like it at least attempts to offering something that has mostly eluded online shopping and so far: a unique, discovery-laden experience.

  7. BCBG

    Two brand holding companies bought the BCBG intellectual belongings in June later a bankruptcy sale.

    BCBG Max Azria Group had been floundering for years, leading to its bankruptcy filing last March. The brand portfolio struggled to win a following and maintain sales while the company buckled under a debt load that by 2013, had risen to $685 million. By the beginning of New York Fashion Calendar week in February 2017,BCBG, a 20-year veteran of the show, was making headlines for bankruptcy buzz rather than its wear.

    On June nine,BCBG appear that 2 companies — Marquee Brands and Global Brands Group Holdings — would purchase for an undisclosed amount most of its assets in bankruptcy. Per the programme, Marquee would larn the intellectual property of the flagship BCBG brand, and Global Brands would acquire avails associated with the performance of the BCBG business. Many saw the outcome every bit the about hopeful in the rash of recent retail bankruptcies, with the long-respected BCBG Max Azria brand kept alive by its buyers.

    BCBG ultimately shuttered close to 120 locations but continues to operate 42 stand up-solitary stores in the U.S., and is available internationally online and through more 300 partner shops including major departments stores such as Macy'south. It's withal a stiff presence, albeit much reduced from the brand's peak.

  8. HHGregg

    HHGregg'due south website is live once more after an LLC bought it's avails for $400,000.

    The electronics retailer HHGregg suffered for years every bit electronics became bolt trafficked by Amazon online and in stores past mass merchants like Walmart and Target. The company airtight stores and laid off some 1,500 employees in a cost-cutting mensurate just days ahead of a bankruptcy filing in March .

    At the fourth dimension of filing, the retailer had a term sail signed by an bearding heir-apparent (later outed as the retailer's advertizement bureau, which was owed millions). That deal for HHGregg's assets would accept brought the retailer out of bankruptcy debt-gratis, but it collapsed within weeks of the filing .

    And then-CEO Bob Riesbeck said in the spring that his company had talked with more than 50 individual equity firms and other parties, but couldn't find any takers for the retailer's business organization. Without some other buyer lined up, HHGregg ultimately opted to liquidate in April with a plan to close its remaining 220 stores over the adjacent ii months or and so.

    In June, an entity named Valor LLC paid a mere $400,000 to buy HHGregg's intellectual property , outbidding Sears Holdings and other prospective buyers, according to the Indiana Business Periodical. Past August, HHGregg was dorsum online with promises of a "grand opening," but, as the Indianapolis Star pointed out: "It'southward unclear what that ways , though. The new owner of HHGregg'south brand isn't elaborating."

    Today HHGregg'south website is live and features pictures of HHGregg stores that no longer exist. Yous tin can go to the site and gild TVs and washing machines. The brand's Facebook page says that "HHGreg was i of the nation'south leading retailers of home appliances and consumer electronics." Information technology adds, "At present nether new buying, we will before long be opening i of the nearly expansive appliance and electronic websites available." Requests to the company for more than details were not returned.

    Whatever exactly the new owners practise with the brand, information technology could still have value left in it. According to Dart, "HHGregg yet had loads of people who loved the store, what it stood for, the experience inside."