Who Owns Brooks Brothers?

Henry Sands Brooks opened H. and D.H. Brooks and Company at the corner of Catherine and Cherry Streets in Manhattan in 1818. The store was originally a ready-to-wear concept at a time when custom tailoring was the norm for well-dressed men, making it a retail pioneer.

After Henry's death, his four sons took over the business and renamed it Brooks Brothers in 1850. The brand introduced several innovations that became enduring American fashion standards: the button-down collar shirt (adapted from English polo players in 1896), the sack suit (the basis of American business casual tailoring), and seersucker fabric popularised in the American South.

Abraham Lincoln wore a Brooks Brothers coat to his second inauguration in 1865. The brand dressed subsequent presidents including Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama. The Kennedy connection in particular cemented Brooks Brothers' preppy aesthetic as an aspirational American identity.

Through the 20th century, Brooks Brothers remained family-controlled before a series of ownership changes: sold to Marks and Spencer in 1988, then to Retail Brand Alliance in 2001, then to Italian investment group Marchon in 2016.

In 2020, Brooks Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after 202 years of operation, unable to sustain its retail store network through the COVID-19 pandemic. Authentic Brands Group and SPARC Group acquired the brand out of bankruptcy for approximately $325 million. ABG holds the IP; SPARC Group (now Catalyst Brands) operates the retail and e-commerce business.