18 years ago, I was a 15-year-old sophomore in high school during the year 2006. Where were you 18 years ago? If you were in high school or college, you might remember the era of "preppy mall brand" clothes.

At my school, you couldn't walk down any hallway without seeing this incredibly popular clothing brand's logo or smelling one of the perfumes/colognes sold at their store. In the early and mid-2000s, brands like Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, Sperry, and Aeropostale were everywhere. Where I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, one of these brands seemed to dominate the rest.

Hollister Co. is owned by the parent company Abercrombie & Fitch and was established in the year 2000, according to Industry Fashion. Despite the 'preppy California beach vibe' the brand was known as, Hollister was founded in Cleveland, Ohio.

This bird logo was everywhere at my school.

Is Hollister Still Around?

I'll be the first person to admit that I know absolutely nothing about fashion these days. I might buy a new shirt and dress pants for the occasional wedding but when it comes to my everyday life, I just wear what I have. I don't have any kids and at 33 years old, I have no clue what high school kids or college students think is cool.

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According to Glossy, these 'preppy' brands like Hollister were once the highest-ranked brands amongst teens. Now, they prefer 'fast fashion and streetwear.' Once again...I have no idea what that means but supposedly Hollister doesn't sell it.

Teens have apparently moved on from 'preppy' clothes which had me curious if Hollister was even in business anymore. It turns out that despite the drop in popularity, there are plenty of Hollister stores still rocking in 2024. According to Scrape Hero, there were 443 Hollister stores in the U.S. as of February 22nd, 2024.

Iowa has 3 of the 443.

You can find Hollister locations in Davenport, West Des Moines, and Sioux City.  There was once a store location in the Coralville area but that store has permanently closed. While I don't envision myself buying anything from Hollister anytime soon, it's pretty interesting to see these stores still operating this many years later.

18 years ago, there was an unfair stereotype that we kids who didn't wear Hollister had for kids who did. If someone wore Hollister, they either grew up rich or they were jerks and this couldn't be further from the truth.

In every teenage drama show, there is one character who has a bunch of money and/or is a bully to everyone else on the show, whether it's the jock or the popular girl. Those of us who didn't buy clothes from Hollister viewed these kids as those jerk characters we'd see on TV. 18 years later...it's kind of funny to think about how stupid that is. Jerks come in all different kinds of clothes.

If you were in high school or college in the 2000s, do you remember the Hollister logo? Did you really like the pants or the cologne that they sold? What was your favorite store to purchase clothes from? If you weren't in school at that time, what was the popular clothing brand when you were in school? Let us know in the comments!