When Kendrick Lamar stepped out onto the stage in flare jeans for his Superbowl halftime show, it was the gift American Eagle did not know it was getting in 2025, said Craig Brommers, Chief Marketing Officer at apparel brand American Eagle Outfitters.

“Kendrick Lamar walks out on the biggest stage on the planet wearing flare jeans and everyone on the planet equates flare jeans with American Eagle back in the mid-2000s, and this thing goes crazy,” Brommers said while speaking at Shoptalk 2025 on a panel about leveraging social listening to identify emerging trends.

American Eagle’s team was ready to jump into the conversation on social media, having fun engaging with consumers and ensuring the brand was a part of the conversation. “This is the role and responsibility of the CMO, to literally step out of the way and let the team rock and roll and have fun,” Brommers said.

And the social media team did, ensuring the American Eagle brand stayed top-of-mind during this flare jean resurgence trend. Blommers cited the following stats:

• 85% increase in searches on its site, ae.com, for flare jeans
• 121% increase in positive social media mentions for the American Eagle brand
• 25% increase in foot traffic in stores

American Eagle had to pivot at a moment’s notice to start manufacturing more of its flare and boot-cut jeans, plus have these styles featured in its creative. Even now, roughly two months later, the brand is still sold out of some of its flare styles.

Build Your Social Listening Muscle to Pivot Quickly 

To back up a bit: American Eagle had a marketing plan in place for the Super Bowl. The brand already had campaigns in place with Philadelphia Eagles player Cooper DeJean and NFL quarter back Trevor Lawrence. The day before the big game, Brommers thought his job was done.

“I think that best laid plans in modern retail can be completely torn up overnight—and for the best reasons,” Brommers said. “We pivoted the entire marketing plan overnight.” Brommers credits his team and the entire organization for working together to react fast and execute on this fast-moving trend.

“We have that muscle built within our organization, not just in marketing, but with our digital friends, with our supply chain friends, with our operational friends. And I think that that is how we have been winning in this marketplace over the last couple of years,” he said.

The brand is able to do this is by inserting “social listening” into its weekly management calls, where the digital and marketing teams can share data about what is trending and what products may pop soon, so they can be ready to react.

One example of that is that the retailer now launches its Halloween products and marketing campaigns in June. While that seems too early, even for him, the products are selling out and going viral on TikTok. “Our team is listening to what our customers and users are excited by and fanning the flames behind the scenes,” Brommers said.

The brand also has a panel of about 2,000 Gen Z consumers where it can ask questions and pitch ideas. “We’re practicing retail at the speed of Gen Z, and I can tell you Gen Z is pretty damn fast,” he said.

American Eagle Taps Into Influencers at Scale 

American Eagle has a group of about 700 influencers that it works with every season. It also started using artificial intelligence tools to help its team select more influencers to grow this number even more. The tool will evaluate if an influencer has the style sense and values that align with American Eagle. “The game that we’re going to be playing is thousands of influencers every season,” he said.

Store Associates May Be the Best Content Creators of All 

Another way American Eagle is scaling its influencer program is through its recently launched program called “My AE” that uses store associates as influencers. Today, it generates 500 pieces of content per week, and that will only continue to increase.

This content is also outperforming its other social media content, he said. For example, in a head-to-head contest between the same look on a model in a beautiful setting, compared with that look on an associate in a fitting room, the store associate post wins every single time, he said.

And while American Eagle is a large brand with a robust budget, Brommers has learned that top-quality content does not have to be expensive. “To me that was the real unlock for us of, hey, we should take advantage of these amazing store associates to help us scale our content needs up,” he said. “I absolutely would encourage other retailers to not just look outside—look inside in developing your brand story.”