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Fast-fashion retailer Forever 21 files for bankruptcy, again

Published: 17 Mar. 2025, 17:04

Shoppers enter a Forever 21 fashion retail store at the King of Prussia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Sept. 30, 2019. [REUTERS]

Fast-fashion retailer Forever 21's U.S. operating company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in six years on Sunday, hamstrung by dwindling mall traffic and mounting competition from online retailers.

The move likely means liquidation for the company, which was unable to find a buyer for its roughly 350 U.S. stores. Its trademark and intellectual property — still held by an entity called Authentic Brands Group — may live on in a different form.

The rise of e-commerce, paired with the slow death of the mega mall in the United States, has been an ongoing headwind for Forever 21. It previously filed for Chapter 11 in 2019 and was bought out of bankruptcy by Sparc, a joint venture between label owner Authentic Brands Group and mall operators Simon Property and Brookfield Asset Management.

Forever 21 said it will conduct liquidation sales at its stores while simultaneously carrying out a court-supervised sale and marketing process for some or all of its assets.

The company listed its estimated assets in the range of $100 million to $500 million, according to a filing with a bankruptcy court in the District of Delaware, with liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion. The filing also showed creditors numbered in the range of 10,001 to 25,000.

In the event of a successful sale, Forever 21 said it may pivot away from a full wind-down of operations to facilitate a going-concern transaction.

The company said its stores and website in the United States will remain open and continue serving customers, adding that its international stores remain unaffected.

Forever 21 is owned by Catalyst Brands, an entity formed on Jan. 8 through the merger of Forever 21's previous owner, Sparc Group, and JC Penney, a department store chain owned since 2020 by mall operators and Simon Property Group.

When Catalyst Brands was formed, it said in a statement that it was "exploring strategic options" for Forever 21.

Authentic Brands will continue to own Forever 21's trademark and intellectual property, which could live on in some form. Authentic Brands CEO Jamie Salter last year called acquiring Forever 21 "the biggest mistake I made."

Founded in Los Angeles in 1984 by Korean immigrants, the brand at its height was popular among young shoppers on the prowl for stylish but affordable clothing. By 2016, it was operating around 800 stores globally, 500 in the United States.

Reuters