Behind Pacsun’s strategy for keeping a pulse on the changing tastes of Gen Z

All of these are prime examples of how Pacsun is doing more “social listening,” CEO Brie Olson told Modern Retail in an on-site interview at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show last week. Richard Cox, Pacsun’s chief merchandising officer, also joined the interview. He and Olson explained that Pacsun takes cues from its Gen-Z shoppers and then tailors its product releases, marketing and technology appropriately. This data has enabled the brand to do everything from collaborate with McDonald’s to open more stores in malls.

Read excerpts from Modern Retail’s interview with Olson and Cox below, edited for length and clarity.

Let’s talk about PS Community Hub. How does it work, and why did you develop it now?

Olson: “It’s really a convergence of community, commerce and creativity. It was launched in response to social listening and understanding where the pain points were: for consumers to build their own brands, to be a part of an overall ecosystem of a brand and to have long-term, sustainable opportunities to create value. The app feeds into other ecosystems that our users already use, such as TikTok and Meta platforms. But, in the end, it really celebrates the special relationship we have with our customers without any limitations.

[For instance,] you don’t need to have 5,000 followers to be a part of the platform. You could be a part of the community without having to earn affiliate commission. Or, you could have 250 followers and be a part of the affiliate community. This is just one step forward in terms of creating more space for our community to thrive in an app that is less transactional — and where participation and engagement are converting into commerce.”

Why was it important for you to develop your own proprietary technology, rather than work with a tech partner?

Olson: “If there’s something that exists that’s really great, then we’re happy to partner and bring it to life. In this particular case, our leadership team met with our community partners, and we did a lot of listening. We put together the key criteria of what we were looking to build. We were hard-pressed to find a partner who had something timely and available that we would be able to use as a foundation. We’re very grateful to our leadership team and Shirley Gao, our chief technology information officer, who were able to take this innovative idea and translate it into something that’s really never been done before.

The process was relatively smooth, in terms of what you would expect. Oftentimes, when you’re building something from scratch, it’s actually easier than integrating into something. That flexibility from the get-go to be able to design and develop whatever we dreamt of was a huge benefit and a real positive. And I think the timeline that we did this in — under 12 months — was relatively impressive.

This launch is in our alpha-beta phase, and we’re still going to be doing a lot of learning. There will be consistent upgrades as we go, on a quarterly or monthly basis. We’re going to get a lot of community feedback, and we will continue to build based on that. In the end, this was built for our community. So, the most important [indicators] of how it needs to evolve will be feedback from the community.”

You launched the Youth Advisory Council last year. What are some of the early things you’re hearing from members? And have you made any changes to Pacsun as a result of their feedback?

Cox: “We hosted [the members] at our office recently, and we were able to get good insight. From a product perspective, we previewed what was coming down the pipeline. We made some adjustments based on: ‘What do you love?’ ‘What don’t you love?’ ‘Would you wear this?’ ‘What do you think your friends or people in your community would like about this?’ … It was very much Q-and-A style. But, they did leave us with food for thought in terms of things to talk about [on the Pacsun side]. And we actually previewed the PS app to them and got some insight ahead of time.”

Olson: “Yes, they weighed in heavily on the logo and the design and impact. I would say, surprisingly, they felt that the actual flow and use of the app was much improved, versus everything that exists. That was very affirming to get that feedback and have them be what we call ‘super users.’ For the last three months, a large group of community members, brand ambassadors and employees have been ‘super using’ this app and giving feedback. … It’s not a static piece of work.”

What is your No. 1 target customer in 2026? And how do you plan to encourage them to shop at Pacsun more?

Cox: “We still target [ages] 16-24, so we’re speaking to Gen Z and Gen Alpha. We get to be experts on both and what they care about. There are definitely differences between the two, but 16-24 is what we want to own. That’s who we speak to, and that’s who we’ll continue to speak to going into 2026.”

Olson: “One of the ways we’re engaging with those cohorts in a different way than in the past is the launch of the Pacsun Youth Report. That launched in September through GlobalData, with over 6,000 respondents. We got a more in-depth view of some of the shifts, both behaviorally and from an emotive standpoint, across these two cohorts. To Rich’s point, that helps us to better flesh out the distinctions, the differences, the similarities, and how we might market, engage or create these platforms of the future to cater to these coordinates of audiences.”

That Youth Report had some notable findings on what Gen Z and Gen Alpha prioritize. For example, they rated mental health No. 1 as something “important in your life right now.” Could you share more about building the Pacsun brand in direct response to the answers from that survey? More broadly, how are you hoping to capture the needs and desires of both Gen Z and Gen Alpha?

Olson: “I think PS Hub is a great example of ways we’re addressing some of what we heard in the surveys, but also the customer intercepts that the team is constantly working on. It’s not one touchpoint [that we look at]. … It’s really a compilation of all of the feedback.

And yes, we have a more community-first approach versus a campaign approach, in terms of marketing. It’s not necessarily about seasons. We’re looking at different opportunities to engage with our consumers all the time. But, we’re also not just jumping on every social trend because it exists. The team is pretty thoughtful about our four [focus] pillars of music, art, fashion and sport, and how those weave into the overall story we’re telling about inspiring the next generation of youth.”