A store that resides under the
corporate umbrella of
GAP, Inc along with
GAP,
Old Navy, and
Banana Republic. Founded in
1986,
Gap Kids was the first step up the stairs that led
GAP, Inc to a thirteen
billion dollar a year revenue under the newly established
Millard Drexler regime. Following in the footsteps that led the
GAP division of
GAP, Inc to be so successful, Drexler immediately put into play the same
Best Practices that were used in the
GAP at the time. Centering it's business around
basics and limited
fashion appareal,
Gap Kids quickly became the leading retailer of children's clothes throughout the
United States.
The next step for Gap Kids, the opening of BabyGap in 1990. As the name implies, BabyGap offers clothing for infants and toddlers. BabyGap is never a stand alone store, as it has been incorporated into the Gap Kids store, which in some cases is attached to the GAP store, thus forming a GAP 2000 or GAP Flagship store. Current flagship stores are in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, and Berlin. Flagship stores incoporate all aspects of the GAP division stores and offer the entire GAP clothing line, as opposed to the select merchandise offered at level two through five stores.
In 1995, GapKids went international when the Tokyo, Japan and Berlin, Germany stores opened. These two stores were incorporated into the soon-to-be-called GAP 2000 store model with all three stores incorporated into one site.
In 1998, Gap Kids and BabyGap offer their online medium, GapKids.com and BabyGap.com, respectively. The addition of this medium, as well as the seamless intergration into the daily shopping procedure boost the Gap Kids and Bab Gap sales to four times what it was prior to the online introduction.
As of 2001, Gap Kids is still the leading retailer of children's clothes in the world, surpassing both Gymboree and Abercrombie and Fitch Kids in annual revenue.
Also to note; as of mid-2002 a particular Gap Kids location has been employing the legitimate niece of The Motor City Madman. Said neice's name is The Nuge.