Fobs who have ruined Abercrombie & Fitch

Ed. note: Granted, I'm pretty much too old for A&F now but nonetheless...

Many moons ago, in the late 90s to mid 2000s, wearing Abercrombie & Fitch (and Hollister to a lesser extent) in Canada meant something special. That you either went to the States to go shopping and had good enough taste to not just go buy from the same old Canadian chains or you bought it online or through the catalogue (having a catalogue meant you were extra special because that meant you got onto their mailing list from a prior purchase or some other method, so you got to receive the catalogue to gawk at the hot shirtless guys). Basically, it meant there was a conscious effort for you to buy the Abercrombie & Fitch brand and it wasn't like you were wearing it because it was on sale and you bought it for no other reason than that and you just can't walk around naked.

Since they opened up the stores in Canada, and as of late with their crazy sales (a recent thing because as recent as 2009-2010, a mere 20% or 25% is most you could hope for and even then, you might as well just buy it at full price because the good sizes are always quickly sold out), it's like every fresh off the boat person is decked out in A&F.

Those of us who are Asian but fall into the "I was wearing Abercrombie & Fitch before it became commonplace amongst all the fobs" tend to find ire with this phenomenon because it automatically lumps us, visually and subconsciously, into the same group. A big homogenous group of fobby Asians who bought a shitload of A&F because it seems name brand and it was hella cheap on sale.

I don't want to ever be lumped into fob culture because that's far removed from me. But now whenever I don a piece of clothing that has the moose emblazoned on it, I feel like I should preface things with "I'm not a fob but...".