 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2019) |
 | |
 A Modern Gymboree location | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail (original), eCommerce |
| Founded | 1976 |
| Products | Children's clothes & Toys |
| Parent | The Children's Place (2019–present) |
| Website | www.Gymboree.com |
Gymboree is a sub brand of The Children's Place. Gymboree began with operating retail stores between the early 1970s and the later 2010s. It was founded by Joan Barnes. [1]
[[File:Crazy8 Children's Store Southern Park Mall.jpg|thumb|Crazy8 inside Southern Park Mall (Closed 2019)]] In 1986, the company opened a chain of clothing stores named Gymboree. Gymboree stores offered coordinating children's clothing. The sizes ranged from newborn to size ten. As of January 2019, it operated 380 Gymboree stores, 154 Gymboree outlets, 147 Janie & Jack stores, 253 Crazy 8 stores, and 11 Crazy 8 outlets in the U.S. and Canada. [2]
Crazy 8 was started in August 2007. It featured lower-priced clothing and was Gymboree's direct competitor for The Children's Place and Old Navy.
In 2010, Bain Capital acquired the company for US$1.8 billion. [3]
In June 2017, Gymboree announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. [4] In September 2017, the company emerged from bankruptcy. [5] [6]
In November 2018, it was reported that Gymboree would file for bankruptcy for the second time in 14 months, and as a result, Gymboree announced plans to discontinue the Crazy 8 brand after the holiday season. [7]
On January 17, 2019, Gymboree filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and eliminated all Gymboree, Gymboree Outlet, and Crazy 8 brick-and-mortar formats as a result. The company sold its Janie & Jack brand to Gap, Inc. [8]
In July 2016, The Gymboree Corporation sold the Gymboree Play & Music business to Zeavion Holding, a private company with a focus on the education and entertainment sectors. Gymboree Play & Music is now completely separate from the Gymboree Corporation and is operating parent-child play classes for ages 0–5. As of 2023, Play & Music operates in over 40 countries and has more than 733 centers internationally. [9]
On June 24, 2019, the Gymboree was acquired by The Children's Place, who announced that Gymboree would become a digitally native sub brand with store-within-a-store locations at The Children's Place stores. [10] It was announced on January 30, 2020, that The Children's Place would debut Gymboree in February that year, featuring an "early access" program that would allow early access to the first 10,000 customers who register a spot. [11]
In November 2005, Gymboree settled a lawsuit relating to overtime compensation in Riverside, California for $2.3 million. The lawsuit alleged that Gymboree did not pay mandatory overtime or provide required meal breaks. [12]
Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is an American department store chain that operates 663 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Men's, Women's, Boys', Girls', Baby, Bedding, Home, Fine Jewelry, Shoes, Lingerie, JCPenney Salon, JCPenney Beauty, as well as leased departments such as Seattle's Best Coffee, US Vision optical centers, and Lifetouch portrait studios.
Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids and various others. The company was founded in 1948; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters located in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area.
The Disney Store is a chain of specialty stores created on March 28, 1987 and sells only Disney related items, many of them exclusive, under its own name and Disney Outlet. It was a business unit of Disney Consumer Products with the Disney Experiences segment of The Walt Disney Company conglomerate.
Barneys New York is an American department store chain founded in 1923 by Barney Pressman. The company operated full-line department stores in the United States from 1923 until 2020. Authentic Brands Group acquired Barneys' intellectual property in 2019, and has licensed the brand to Saks Fifth Avenue for specialty departments within its flagship stores since 2021.
Payless ShoeSource Worldwide, LLC, is an American multinational discount footwear chain. Established in 1956 by cousins Louis and Shaol Pozez, Payless was a privately held company owned by Blum Capital, and Golden Gate Capital. In 1961, it became a public company as the Volume Shoe Corporation, which merged with The May Department Stores Company in 1979. In the 1980s, Payless was widely known in the U.S. for its Pro Wings line of discount sneakers, which often had Velcro straps instead of laces. In 1996, Payless became an independent publicly held company. In 2004, Payless announced it would exit the Parade chain and would close 100 Payless Shoe outlets. On August 17, 2007, the company acquired the Stride Rite Corporation and changed its name to Collective Brands, Inc. As of 2020, Payless is owned by a group of investors led by Alden Global Capital and Axar Capital Management.
Sports Authority, Inc. was an American sports retailer based in Englewood, Colorado. At its peak, Sports Authority operated 463 stores in 45 States and Puerto Rico. The company's website was on the GSI Commerce platform and supported the retail stores as well as other multi-channel programs. A joint venture with ÆON Co., Ltd., operates "Sports Authority" stores in Japan under a licensing agreement.
K·B Toys was an American chain of mall-based retail toy stores. The company was founded in 1922 as Kaufman Brothers, a wholesale candy store. The company opened a wholesale toy store in 1946, and ended its candy wholesales two years later to emphasize its toy products. Retail sales began during the 1970s, using the name Kay-Bee Toy & Hobby.
Goody's Family Clothing Inc. was an American chain of department stores, owned and operated by Stage Stores and headquartered in Houston, TX. It specialized in retailing on-trend apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, and housewares.
Stage Stores was a department store company specializing in retailing off-price brand name apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, and housewares throughout the United States. Stores were usually located in shopping malls and centers or in standalone locations. The corporate office was located in Houston, Texas.
Ann Inc. is an American group of specialty apparel retail chain stores for women. The company is headquartered in New York City and currently operates as a subsidiary of Ascena Retail Group. The stores offer classic-styled suits, separates, dresses, shoes and accessories. The brand is marketed under five divisions: Ann Taylor, Loft, Lou & Grey, Ann Taylor Factory, and Loft Outlet.
Wet Seal was an American fast fashion retailer, headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The retailer specialized in selling clothing and accessories. The company was founded in Newport Beach, California, by Lorne Huycke in 1962 as "Lorne's". The "Wet Seal" name is derived from a comment Huycke's wife made during a fashion show that a model wearing a bathing suit looked like a "wet seal." The company was incorporated as Wet Seal in 1990.
The Children's Place Inc. is an American specialty retailer of children's apparel and accessories headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey. It also markets apparel under the Children's Place, Place, Baby Place, and Gymboree brand names.
Charlotte Russe Inc. is an American clothing retail chain store that operates in the United States, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Fashions in the stores are targeted at women in their teens and twenties. As of September 2023, Charlotte Russe operates 196 stores, mostly in malls and shopping centers.
Sears Holdings Corporation was an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was the parent company of the chain stores Kmart and Sears and was founded after the former purchased the latter in 2005. It was the 20th-largest retailing company in the United States in 2015. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018, and sold its assets to ESL Investments in 2019. The new owner moved Sears assets to its newly formed subsidiary Transformco and after that, Sears Holdings Corporation was closed.
Edison Brothers Stores, Inc., was a retail conglomerate based in St. Louis, Missouri. It operated numerous retail chains mainly located in shopping malls, mostly in the fields of shoes, clothing and entertainment, with Bakers Shoes as its flagship chain. The company was liquidated in 1999, though some of the chains it operated continued under different owners.
Retail apocalypse refers to the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains, beginning around 2010 and accelerating due to the mandatory closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Transform SR Brands LLC is an American privately held company formed on February 11, 2019, to acquire some of the assets of Sears Holdings Corporation. The new company is owned by ESL Investments. Following the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of Sears Holdings on October 15, 2018, Transformco purchased the surviving assets owned by Sears Holdings for $5.2 billion.
Janie and Jack is a children's clothing brand founded in 2002 in San Francisco, California. Their current product range includes clothing for newborns up to 24 months old, as well as boys and girls up to age 18. As of 2021, the brand currently operates 115 retail locations in the United States in addition to its online retail platform.
