• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, May 3, 2016

Aéropostale, which was born as a Macy’s private-label brand for teens and has grown into more than 700 retail shops after it set out on its own, will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the coming days and close more than 100 of its outlets before the May rent payments are due, the Wall Street Journalreports.

“The brand opened the first of its mall-based specialty stores in 1987. Eleven years later, management joined with other executives and Bear Stearns Cos.’s merchant banking business to buy the business. Aéropostale went public in 2002,” writes Matt Jarzemsky. “But the company, which had 21,000 employees as of January 2015, has posted losses in its last three fiscal years amid a steep decline in sales.”

“The chain thrived in the ’80s and ’90s, but is now caught between competitors in the teen market like arch-nemesis American Eagle, as well as the upmarket Abercrombie & Fitch and cheaper fast fashion retailers that also cater to teens and children,” writes Laura Northrup for Consumerist.

That would be the likes of Forever 21, Uniqlo, and H&M, observes Phil Wahba for Fortune, reporting that Aéropostale’s comparable sales were off 6.7% during the 2015 holiday shopping quarter and are down 40% since it was in its prime six years ago.

“Aeropostale’s shares were delisted by the New York Stock Exchange last month after shares traded below $1 for an extended period. Its current market value of $30 million is a fraction of that at its peak in 2010, when the company was worth $3 billion on the stock market,” Wahba writes.

“Aéropostale said in March it was exploring a potential sale of the company,” Brian Sozzi reminds us on TheStreet. “With its financials in shambles because of a series of fashion missteps and heightened competition, Aéropostale said it would re-brand some of its mall stores into what it calls ‘Aéropostale Factory.’ According to the company, about 60% of its stores — or roughly 486 — tend to attract customers looking for basic, affordable items such a hoodies and t-shirts with an Aéropostale logo.”

Running under the headline “These Photos Support Reports of Aéropostale's Looming Bankruptcy,” Sozzi’s story is illustrated by one forlorn storefront with a gate down and another picture of a Garden City, N.Y., shop where “amidst warmer spring temperatures on Saturday, Aéropostale was trying to hawk its brand new t-shirt styles for $3.99, likely in a bid to get cash into the business.”

Other retailers in their adolescence have certainly shared the chain’s misery of late. 

“The last two years have been unkind to mid-range teen-focused clothing retailers, with DEB, Wet Seal, and dELiA*s, shutting down, and PacSun reorganizing under bankruptcy protection,” Northrup points out.

“A bankruptcy out of Aéropostale would have been unthinkable a decade ago, when the company was the cheapest of the ‘three As’ behind American Eagle and Abercrombie, selling a logo-laden version of teen prepdom that reigned supreme in the suburbs. The store has changed in recent years as teens have abandoned logo-driven clothing in pursuit of fast-fashion chains like H&M, skate-inspired looks, and athletic brands like Nike,” writes Sapna Maheshwari for BuzzFeed, citing Nomura Securities analyst Simeon Siegel's observation a few months ago.

“The three As had to reinvent themselves,” he said. “They used to be able to take a polo shirt, decide what the components would be, slap an animal on it and charge varying degrees based on what the animal was. That doesn’t work anymore.”

Its efforts to rebrand itself as Aero in 2014 with a flurry of social media placements on the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Vine also didn’t work, apparently. 

In addition to its Web sites, the company operates more than 700 Aéropostale stores principally targeting 14-to-17 year olds in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada, as well as 25 P.S. from Aéropostale stores in the U.S. that cater to the 4-to-12 year-old market. Since November 2012, it also has operated GoJane.com, an online women's fashion footwear and apparel retailer. In addition, licensees operate more than 300 Aéropostale and P.S. from Aéropostale locations in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, according to the company’s corporate profile page. 

Jay Gee Melwani Group, distributor of the brand at four locations in Singapore and two others in Malaysia, tells the Straits Times’ Wong Siew Ying that it has not yet heard from New York HQ about the chain’s future direction. 

“The stores will remain open for the time being, as long as they are able to supply us the goods,” says managing director R Dhinakaran.