Brooks Brothers' Ken Ohashi breaks down the decisions behind a 1 billion dollar comeback

When Ken Ohashi took over Brooks Brothers, the label was fresh out of Chapter 11, still typecast as a suit-and-tie business, and losing money. Five years later it turns over more than 1 billion dollars across 600-plus doors, sportswear makes up close to a third of sales, and nine new stores are opening in 2026.

"We're not trying to invent a new Brooks Brothers. We're bringing the best of Brooks Brothers back to the forefront," Ohashi told FashionUnited.

Ohashi got there the way he seems to get everywhere: methodically. He spent four years auditing retail and fashion companies as a certified public accountant at Arthur Andersen before he ever sold a shirt.

"Arthur Andersen really taught me how to look at a business holistically. Numbers reveal what's actually happening beneath the surface," he said. "That foundation helps me separate a symptom from the real problem and figure out which levers are actually going to improve the business."

He joined the American retailer Aéropostale in 2002 to help take the company from privately held to publicly traded, working on a 275 million dollar initial public offering and a later 175 million dollar secondary offering. He rose to senior vice president of international and global licensing, opening more than 300 stores across 17 countries in under five years as the chain scaled from around 200 stores to roughly 1,000.

"The biggest lesson was that what gets you to one point isn't necessarily what's going to take you to the next," Ohashi said. "Hypergrowth requires systems, infrastructure and the right talent at the right time. But it also requires a lot of discipline. You can't open stores just to hit a store-count target."

That experience informed how he is growing Brooks Brothers today, Ohashi said. “We’re expanding in the U.S. and internationally, but we’re being thoughtful about it. Growth matters, but sustainable growth also means knowing where to invest—and when to say no.”

Learning what not to touch

Ohashi went on to become president of international and global retail at Authentic Brands Group, running a four billion dollar portfolio outside the US and helping form SPARC Group, a retail joint venture with Simon Property Group. That experience, he said, shaped how he approaches a heritage label.

"A great heritage brand already has a DNA," he said. "Your job isn't to invent something completely new. It's to understand what made the brand meaningful in the first place, protect those qualities and then find ways to make them relevant again."

Ohashi was named president of Brooks Brothers in September 2020, two months after the company filed for Chapter 11, and added the chief executive title in early 2021 as the acquisition by Authentic Brands Group and Simon Property Group closed. In January 2026, Catalyst Brands, the group that now owns Brooks Brothers, also put him in charge of the American lifestyle brand Nautica.

Finding the North Star

The turnaround, Ohashi said, did not start with product. "The first thing we did was reestablish the North Star for Brooks Brothers. The brand had become very narrowly associated with suits and ties, so we needed to clarify why Brooks Brothers matters," he said. Only once that was settled did he bring in Michael Bastian as creative director, tasked with turning a shirt-and-suit business into a broader lifestyle brand.

"Sportswear and casual product used to be a very small part of the business," Ohashi said. "Today, they account for nearly one-third of sales, and we've grown those categories while continuing to grow our legacy businesses."

What stayed, and what had to close

Ohashi pointed to real estate as the hardest call of his first year. "The most emotional one was closing our flagship at 346 Madison Avenue," he told. "That building meant so much to Brooks Brothers, to our employees and to generations of customers. We were all incredibly sad to see it close, but we also knew it was the right decision for the future of the company."

Its replacement opened in 2025: a global flagship at 195 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, inside a former AT&T headquarters building, close to where Brooks Brothers first opened on Cherry Street in 1818.

Brooks Brothers has also built out a business-to-business uniform arm; United Airlines, its largest client there, put more than 54,000 employees into Brooks Brothers uniforms after what the industry association NAUMD called an extensive testing and fit programme.

"United selected Brooks Brothers because of our expertise in fabric development, quality, comfort and durability," Ohashi said. "It was an incredibly rigorous process involving labor leadership, employee feedback and multiple wear tests."

The customer base has shifted alongside the real estate. "Our average customer age has come down by about five years," Ohashi said, describing Gen Z shoppers who treat suiting as "an intentional fashion choice" rather than a daily uniform.

Back on the runway

Brooks Brothers returned to the New York Fashion Week calendar in September 2026 for the first time since 2018, staging its spring/summer 2027 collection at Radio Park in Rockefeller Center. The collection drew on the brand's own archive — the button-down oxford shirt, seersucker, novelty sweaters — alongside a capsule with upcycling artist Jack Wooster.

The show came a year after Brooks Brothers settled into Catalyst Brands, formed in January 2025 when SPARC Group merged with JCPenney. Catalyst also owns Aéropostale, Lucky Brand, Eddie Bauer and Nautica.

"We retain a great deal of autonomy in the areas that really define Brooks Brothers," Ohashi said of the arrangement. "The power of Catalyst is the infrastructure behind the brand. It gives us the best of both worlds."

‘Work hard and be nice to people’

Ohashi often describes his leadership philosophy simply as "work hard and be nice to people" — but he's quick to push back on the idea that the two are in tension.

“I don’t see kindness and accountability as opposites. You can be firm, set high standards and give people very clear direction while still treating them with respect. Being nice doesn’t mean every decision is up for a vote, and it doesn’t mean avoiding difficult conversations. It means being honest and clear while preserving someone’s dignity, especially when the message is difficult,” he said. “I also believe people work hard when they care. My job is to give them reasons to care.”

Beyond the boardroom

Ohashi lives in Brooklyn with his husband, Adam Freed, and their two children. He has steered some of the brand's philanthropy toward causes tied to his own path: a partnership with Braven, which helps first-generation students build job-readiness skills, and support for StartOut, which backs LGBTQ+ founders. In 2022, he was named to Outstanding's LGBTQ+ Executive Role Model list and to Gold House's A100 list of Asian and Pacific Islander leaders.

The next five years

Asked what Brooks Brothers looks like five years out, Ohashi points to roughly 40 more US stores, deeper investment in e-commerce and loyalty, and continued growth in the uniform business. But the ambition, in his telling, has more to do with continuity than scale.

“We want to maintain a balanced, multigenerational customer base—serving the loyal customer who’s been with us for decades while introducing younger customers to Brooks Brothers through suiting, sportswear and fashion. Ultimately, we want Brooks Brothers to remain the most trusted expression of classic American style and to keep helping people show up with confidence for the most important moments in their lives,” he said.