Tailored Brands

Tailored Brands' 2020 bankruptcy ended the parent company of Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank, demonstrating how workplace clothing retailers were devastated by remote work's elimination of their core use case. The company operated 1,400 stores selling suits, dress shirts, and business attire; COVID-19 made all of it unnecessary overnight. The mechanism failure was occasion dependence meeting demand shock. Men's Wearhouse's core business was suits for job interviews, weddings, and office work. When offices closed and weddings were postponed, demand collapsed. The company had no casual alternative to offer customers who still needed clothing but didn't need formalwear. Tailored Brands' 2014 acquisition of Jos. A. Bank for $1.8 billion had loaded the company with debt while creating brand confusion. The acquisition was supposed to combine complementary customer bases; instead, it created complexity and debt. The company emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership with fewer stores and a rental-focused business model—pivoting from ownership to rental acknowledges that occasional formal wear doesn't justify wardrobe investment. The original ownership structure was eliminated; private equity took another casualty.