'Barbie magic': How former Mattel CEO is trying to revive clothing retailer Gap

Richard Dickson became CEO of apparel retailer Gap in 2023 after spending nearly 20 years – with a short break – leading Mattel. He brought Barbie to the big screen, helping deliver “blockbuster financial results” for the toymaker. Now he is trying to recreate the “Barbie magic” at Gap, the owner of clothing brands once worn by Madonna and Cindy Crawford. Wall Street is optimistic about the effort.

Gap, the owner of Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta, announced in summer 2023 that Dickson would leave Mattel to lead the apparel company. At the time, theaters were packed with audiences watching the “Barbie” movie, for which he served as executive producer. Gap said in its press release that Dickson was one of the lead architects behind Mattel’s global transformation, which reinvigorated brands including Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Fisher-Price, and restored the company to growth.

That led many to speculate that he would try to recreate the Barbie magic at Gap, the New York Times wrote. Dickson himself commented: “It’s actually the same playbook. It is not so much that the playbook is unique; it’s the methodology and the execution that’s unique.”

When Dickson arrived at Gap, the retailer generated more than $15 billion in revenue – roughly three times Mattel’s sales – but its market capitalization stood at about $3.4 billion, or roughly half of Mattel’s market value, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The company’s revenue and comparable sales had been declining. Gap was cutting jobs, closing stores, and trying to speed up product development, while losing ground to global chains such as Zara, and online retailers including Shein.

In the past, Gap had hired CEOs with strong operational backgrounds, but this time the company decided to change strategy and choose someone capable of making its brands culturally relevant again, the Wall Street Journal wrote. The company had “lost the ability to know who our customers are,” Bob Martin, who was serving as interim CEO at the time, told the newspaper. “Richard knows how to bring brands to life.”

Dickson managed to do that twice at Mattel. He joined the company in 2000, and several years later Barbie’s popularity began to decline, the Wall Street Journal wrote. Dickson decided to eliminate what he called “brand goulash”: he standardized the branding, unified the dolls’ signature color, and reduced the number of licenses, which at one point had reached 1,000.

Dickson left Mattel in 2010, then returned four years later to once again modernize Barbie dolls after sales had fallen again. Internal research showed that Barbie had become outdated and no longer reflected the image and diversity of modern girls, notes monthly business magazine Fast Company. More in-depth analysis showed that the doll “wasn’t a reflection of cultural relevance. She didn’t look like the world that we live in,” Dickson told the publication. He expanded the brand’s lineup to include more body types and ethnicities, the Wall Street Journal wrote.

So what exactly is the “Barbie magic”? In an interview with the New York Times, Dickson described it this way: the key is defining why a brand exists and what makes it distinctive. Gap was inclusive long before inclusivity became a mainstream concept. “We sold jeans for all races, all sizes, all sexes. We bridged the generation gap in the experience through music. Music was the connective tissue,” he said.

Dickson set out to revive the brand through music. That led to an advertising campaign featuring British group Jungle and Grammy-winning artist Tyla. The video quickly spread across social media and generated more than 2.4 million views on YouTube alone. Gap later collaborated with pop star Troye Sivan, while the company’s campaign featuring girl pop group KATSEYE generated 400 million views in just three days.

“They’re saying: ‘Did you see this? Did you feel this?’ That is when you get emotional connection to a brand,” Richard Dickson told the New York Times.

In April, the Fashion Institute of Technology dedicated its annual gala to Dickson’s career and his legacy of brand reinvigoration, from his work at Mattel to his role at Gap, where he has been credited with “ushering in a new era of American style.”

In less than three years under Dickson’s leadership, Gap’s market capitalization has climbed to $8.5 billion. For fiscal 2025, ended January 31, the company reported a 2% increase in net sales to $15.4 billion. The metric has now risen for two consecutive years, while comparable sales have increased for eight straight quarters, Dickson said while discussing the results.

“Over the course of three years, we’ve emerged a better company. Now we move into the next phase, which is to build momentum,” he told the New York Times.

Wall Street shares his optimism: 16 analysts rate the stock a “buy,” five “hold,” and none “sell.” The average target price is $30.86 per share, implying upside of nearly 32% versus the closing price on Friday.