What’s In Your Cart?: American Eagle CMO Craig Brommers on Honey Deuce cocktails, hotel toiletries and New Balance sneakers
Welcome to “What’s In Your Cart,” a new series from Modern Retail where executives at some of the world’s biggest brands and retail companies tell us about their personal shopping habits — from their favorite finds and guilty shopping pleasures to most regrettable buys and impulse purchases. In July, we spoke with Kelly Cook, CEO of David’s Bridal. Next up is American Eagle’s CMO, Craig Brommers.
Craig Brommers has built his career shaping some of the biggest names in casualwear. For the last five years, he’s served as the Chief Marketing Officer at American Eagle. Before American Eagle, Brommers’s career spanned iconic brands including Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch and Calvin Klein. Yet, when it comes to Brommers’s personal shopping habits, the longtime retail veteran isn’t focused on just keeping up with the latest styles. Instead, he approaches shopping with the mindset that experiences and purchases should create lasting memories.
That perspective comes through in everything from the way he approaches gifting to his guilty shopping pleasures. “Life is all about memories that we create for ourselves, for our families, with our friends,” he said. When Brommers does indulge in material things, he leans toward items that bring him back to a specific place or feeling. That includes sneakers gifted by a friend that have since become a personal uniform or a speaker that soundtracks summer paddleboarding sessions near his Connecticut home.
So what does that philosophy look like in practice? Here’s an inside look at some of the things Brommers has bought recently.
Memorable splurges
Brommers’s most recent splurge came during a trip to Italy with his daughter, when a transit strike forced him to buy a first-class train ticket, the only class of service that was available to purchase at the last minute. It turned out to be much more luxurious and expensive than he expected.
“It blew my mind,” he said. “They’re serving you lovely Italian wines and cheese, and the service provided is just so attentive and warm.” Even though it ended up being costly, the memory was worth the splurge. “I don’t regret it at all,” he said. “It was definitely more expensive than I would normally do, but I’ll always have that memory.”
Favorite finds
When it comes to more everyday purchases, Brommers is all in on New Balance’s T500 sneakers. After a friend gifted him a pair, he’s been snapping up every colorway he can get his hands on. “When you find something that totally is your style, fits your personality, why not go deep?” he said. “I’m probably more of a deep shopper than a wide shopper.”
He’s also fond of smaller buys that punch above their weight, like a waterproof JBL clip-on speaker he uses while paddleboarding. As Brommers put it, “It’s a moment to exhale and be out there alone and enjoy it for myself.”
Similarly, Brommers has begun experimenting with TikTok Shop, where he recently bought a candle from Homesick, a brand known for scents tied to places and experiences. One scent in particular stood out: the Honey Deuce, the signature cocktail served at the U.S. Open. “There is a Honey Deuce candle that evoked a very specific memory,” he said. “It totally talked to me because it was really more around the specificity of place or the specificity of an activity than a scent itself.”
Go-to gifts
When it comes to gifting, Brommers keeps it simple. For his wife of 28 years, he prefers to ask directly what she wants to avoid “gifting disasters.” For friends and colleagues, his go-to is wine, often from smaller producers that spark conversation. “I think something like a good bottle of wine … is memory-inducing,” he said. “Generally, when you have a bottle of wine open, it’s good conversation, it’s laughs and good times.”
Guilty pleasures
His guilty pleasure? Hotel toiletries. “I was that guy who, when I stayed at a nicer hotel, I stole those toiletry bottles from the hotel,” he admitted. Now that many hotels have switched to refillable dispensers, he takes photos instead and orders the products online. A recent favorite is Byredo’s Gypsy Water scent, which he first discovered in Cabo San Lucas. “I’m now a collector of toiletries in a way that I probably do not need to be,” he said.