How Gen Z nostalgia for 2016 may revive Abercrombie & Fitch

If you’ve been online the past month at all, you likely encountered at least one hyper-saturated, neon-colored throwback post captioned somewhat along the lines of: “2026 is the new 2016.” What started as a social media meme could be lighting the fire for a broader shift in the cultural zeitgeist that might also boost retail brands synonymous with the era.

The trend has dominated the social media cycle the past few weeks. On Jan. 16, a Spotify-linked Instagram account revealed that user-generated “2016” playlists soared more than 790% since Jan. 1, with top tracks added including Zara Larsson’s “Lush Life” and Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.” The post’s caption was: “2026 is the new 2016.” A day earlier, the Instagram account for Hollister, a subsidiary brand of Abercrombie & Fitch, posted a heavily filtered carousel depicting emblems of 2016, including Polaroid cameras and the era’s quintessential skinny jeans.

Meanwhile, relative search volume for “2016 aesthetic” worldwide spiked to all-time highs on Google recently, underscoring the trend’s growing traction.

While the 2016 resurgence is playing out online, the question crossing investors’ minds is whether this nostalgia reset could translate into a retail revival for brands that once defined the mid-2010s. One sign that the nostalgia wave is translating into real-world consumer behavior is that young adults are rediscovering the appeal of brick-and-mortar shopping after years of e-commerce dominance.

“Not that they don’t buy most of their stuff online, but they like being in the store,” Jan Kniffen, CEO of J. Rogers Kniffen Worldwide Enterprises, a retail consultant, said in an interview with CNBC.

The shift reflects a deeper cultural undercurrent, as younger consumers increasingly find themselves longing for the carefree and familiar comfort of the mid-2010s.

Reset shaped by today’s economic unease

Joel Marlinarson, social media strategist and owner of Coldest Creative, first identified the 2016 nostalgia trend in a TikTok post last July that has been viewed 1.1 million times. Marlinarson told CNBC that many Gen-Zers look back at the time as one that was less performative and more authentic, particularly as it relates to social media.

“I think people see this era as a universal feeling of the world being lighter,” he said.

Jamie Cohen, a digital culture expert and assistant professor of media studies at Queens College in New York, told CNBC that this “consistent retro nostalgia” is in line with young adults reminiscing about the last period of time before the “ensh*ttiification” of social media.

“There’s a yearning for that period of simplicity in the aesthetic, of course, that leads into fashion as well,” he said.

Joanne Hsu pointed to a more structural issue — the earlier period was defined by a strong economy post-financial crisis, underpinned by low interest rates and inflation. By contrast, Hsu, director of consumer surveys at the University of Michigan, believes that the revival today is a negative…