Arrow is a direct to consumer brand of menswear owned by

Authentic Brands Group Authentic Brands Group LLC (ABG) is an American brand management company headquartered in New York City. Its holdings include various apparel, athletics, and entertainment brands, which it partners with other companies to license and merchandise. ...

and primarily vended by

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

. ''The Arrow Collar Man'' was the historic

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

campaign featuring male models who appeared in advertisements for shirts and detachable shirt collars manufactured by

Cluett Peabody & Company Cluett, Peabody & Company, Inc. once headquartered in Troy, New York, was a longtime manufacturer of shirts, detachable shirt cuffs and collars, and related apparel. It is best known for its Arrow brand collars and shirts and the related Arrow C ...

Troy, New York Troy is a city in and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It is located on the western edge of the county, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany, New York, Albany. At the ...

. The original campaign ran from 1905–31, though the company continued to refer to men in its ads and its consumers as "Arrow men" much later.

''The Arrow Collar'' ads were a collaborative production of New York ad agency Calkins and Holden; Cluett, Peabody advertising director Charles Connolly; and commercial illustrator J. C. Leyendecker. One of Leyendecker's models was his partner, a Canadian named Charles Beach. Another model was a young

Huntley Gordon Huntley Ashworth Gordon (October 8, 1879 – December 7, 1956) was a Canadian actor who began his career in the Silent Film era. Profile Gordon was born in Montreal, Quebec, and educated in both Canada and England. He had various jobs includi ...

. According to Leyendecker himself, there were six men besides Beach who posed for the Arrow Collar ads:

Jack Mulhall John Joseph Francis Mulhall (October 7, 1887 – June 1, 1979) was an American film actor beginning in the silent film era who successfully transitioned to sound films, appearing in over 430 films in a career spanning 50 years. Early years Mu ...

, Neil Hamilton, Robert Allen,

Brian Donlevy Waldo Brian Donlevy (February 9, 1901 – April 6, 1972) was an American actor, who was noted for playing dangerous and tough characters. Usually appearing in supporting roles, among his best-known films are '' Beau Geste'' (1939), '' The Great ...

Mahlon Hamilton Mahlon Preston Hamilton, Jr. (June 15, 1880 – June 20, 1960), was an American stage and screen actor. He was the son of a bartender born in Baltimore, Maryland, the eldest of four children, with the rest of the siblings being girls. Census ...

, and

Reed Howes Hermon Reed Howes (July 5, 1900August 6, 1964) was an American model who later became an actor in silent and sound films. Early life Howes spent the beginning of his childhood in Washington, D.C. before moving with his parents to Ogden, Utah, Og ...

. Actor

Earle Williams Earle Williams (born Earle Raphael Williams; February 28, 1880 – April 25, 1927) was an American stage actor and film star in the silent era."EARLE WILLIAMS EXPIRES: Bronchial Pneumonia Ends Brilliant Career of Pioneer Filmland Favorite", ''L ...

modeled the collars at the height of his fame in the World War One years. Hundreds of printed advertisements were produced from 1907 to 1931 featuring the Arrow Collar Man. The fictional Arrow collar man became an icon and by 1920 was receiving fan mail. Fans would cut their favorite collar men out of advertisements and hang them on their wall. He inspired a

Broadway musical Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), many of the extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatr ...

Helen of Troy Helen (), also known as Helen of Troy, or Helen of Sparta, and in Latin as Helena, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda (mythology), ...

'' in 1923.

Attached collars

In the early 1920s, Cluett, Peabody & Co. began manufacturing their shirts with attached collars in response to consumer demand and became the most successful company in the U.S. at that time. Their sales increased to 4 million collars a week and Arrow shirts with attached collars were being exported to foreign ports such as Batavia (

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

) and the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...

. The Arrow Collar Man campaign ended in 1930, having been one of the most successful advertising campaigns in history.

Recent history

In 2004, the Arrow brand was

acquired ''Acquired'' is a podcast by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal about business history and strategy. As of 2024, the podcast has more than 600,000 monthly listeners. History Gilbert and Rosenthal worked together at Madrona Venture Group and ini ...

by longtime competitor Philips-Van Heusen, owner of the

Van Heusen Van Heusen is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Billy Van Heusen (born 1946), American football player *Jimmy Van Heusen (1916–1990), American composer *John Manning Van Heusen, Dutch immigrant in America, after whom PVH Corp ...

brand. Under PVH, the Arrow brand was positioned as slightly less expensive than Van Heusen. On June 23, 2021, it was announced that the Arrow brand would be sold to

alongside Van Heusen,

Izod The Izod Corporation (officially stylized as IZOD; ) is an American midrange clothing company that produces dressy-casual clothing, sportswear for men, and footwear and accessories. It is a division of Authentic Brands Group, and is current ...

, and

Geoffrey Beene Geoffrey Beene (born Samuel Albert Bozeman Jr.; August 30, 1924 – September 28, 2004) was an American fashion designer. Beene was one of New York's most famous fashion designers, recognized for his artistic and technical skills and for creatin ...

. The sale was completed on August 2, 2021, with United Legwear & Apparel Company named as its licensee alongside the Van Heusen brand, and until 2023, the Geoffrey Beene brand. The Arrow trademark is currently owned by

and is manufactured and marketed alongside Van Heusen by United Legwear & Apparel Company under a long-term

licensing A license (American English) or licence ( Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another par ...

agreement. The primary retailer for the brand is

. The brand was formerly sold by

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...

, and

Kohl's Kohl's Corporation (Kohl's is stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain store, chain. currently has 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Hawaii. The company was founded by Polish immigrant Maxwe ...

In popular culture

* In the

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and exces ...

novel, ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' () is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with Jay Gatsby, a mysterious mi ...

'' (1925),

Daisy Buchanan Daisy Fay Buchanan ( ) is a fictional character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel ''The Great Gatsby''. The character is a wealthy socialite from Louisville, Kentucky who resides in the fashionable, "old money" town of East Egg on Long Island, ...

says to Gatsby, "You always look so cool. You resemble the advertisement of the man . . . you know, the advertisement of the man", which is understood to be a reference to the Arrow Collar Man. * Lyrics from Irving Berlin song "Puttin' on the Ritz" include the line "High hats and Arrow collars..." in the 1946 version. * Cole Porter referred to "Arrow Collars" in his song: "You're the Top" from the 1934 musical ''

Anything Goes ''Anything Goes'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, revised considerably by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madc ...

''. * Lyrics sung by Julie in F. S. Fitzgerald's comic one-act play ''Porcelain and Pink'' from the 1922 short story collection ''Tales of the Jazz Age'' include the lines "When the Arrow-collar man / Meets the D'jer-Kiss girl". * In Season 2 Episode 9 of ''

30 Rock ''30 Rock'' is an American satire, satirical sitcom television series created by Tina Fey that originally aired on NBC from October 11, 2006, to January 31, 2013. The series, based on Fey's experiences as head writer for ''Saturday Night Live' ...

'',

Jack Donaghy John Francis "Jack" Donaghy ( ) is a fictional character on the NBC sitcom '' 30 Rock'', airing from 2006 to 2013. The character was created by series creator Tina Fey, and is portrayed by Alec Baldwin. He was introduced as the Vice President of ...

is described by

Liz Lemon Elizabeth Miervaldis Lemon is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American television series '' 30 Rock''. She created and wrote for the fictional comedy-sketch show ''The Girlie Show'' and later ''TGS with Tracy Jordan''. She is ...

's father as "looking like an Arrow Shirt Model" after he's stunned by Jack's appearance.

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Attached collars

Recent history

In popular culture

References

Further reading

External links

See also