Wet Seal

Company Profile

No Wet Seal store operates today, and this page deliberately links no Wet Seal store website: after the January 2017 closure, the brand name passed to Gordon Brothers, but the old store web address has since been disputed as a cybersquatted domain in a trademark case, so it is not a trustworthy destination. What stands here is the chain's record - a pioneer fast-fashion retailer for teen girls and young women, 496 stores strong in 2009 across its Wet Seal and Arden B chains, undone within a decade by the same teen-fashion competition it had once outrun. As a closed retailer, the page carries no marketplace shop box.

Headquartered in Foothill Ranch, California, The Wet Seal, Inc. was a leading specialty retailer of fashionable and contemporary apparel and accessory items. The December 2016 account - the last full company description before the end - called The Wet Seal, LLC a pioneer in fast fashion retailing, selling apparel, footwear and accessories designed for teen girls and young women of all sizes through retail stores nationwide as well as an e-commerce website: 171 stores in 42 states at that point. Its pitch was to use the power of fashion and fun to help its customer express her individuality and fit in while standing out, listening closely, keeping it real, and offering the product at a great price.

The fuller store record shows how fast the chain shrank. On July 4, 2009, the company operated a total of 496 stores in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, including 413 Wet Seal stores and 83 Arden B stores. By January 2012 it operated 558 retail stores in 47 states and Puerto Rico across its two chains at the count given in its financial summaries of the time - and then the teen-fashion market turned.

A Short History Note

Wet Seal began in 1962 as a Newport Beach, California swimwear shop - Lorne Huycke's 'Wet Seal' name came from a wetsuit-like sheen on a model in a swimsuit - and grew into a mall staple for junior apparel, competing with Forever 21 and Charlotte Russe for the same customer. The end came in two bankruptcy steps: on January 7, 2015 the company announced it was closing 338 of its retail stores, expecting to operate approximately 173 stores and its internet business afterward; on January 15, 2015 it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; and in January 2017 it was reported that Wet Seal was closing all of its stores immediately and terminating all staff and employees. The three Apparel Search blog reports of those weeks are linked from this page.

The brand name itself was bought out of the closure by Gordon Brothers in March 2017 and relaunched later that year as an online-only label. One warning belongs with that afterlife: the old wetseal.com web address is not a safe guide to the brand today - it has been the subject of a trademark dispute as a cybersquatted domain - so this page deliberately links no Wet Seal store site, and as a closed store chain it carries no marketplace shop box.

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