Ivanka Trump Fashion Label Doing Badly? Nordstrom Drops Brand After Grab Your Wallet Boycott Campaign

Luxury retailer Nordstrom announced Wednesday it was dropping Ivanka Trump-branded clothes and shoes from its catalogue of brands. And while a lot of people questioned the company if the decision was political, Nordstrom insisted it was based purely on the performance of the brand.

An anti-Trump activist group, Grab Your Wallet, was campaigning for the change for months, following the Washington Post releasing a 2005 video in which President Donald Trump talks about grabbing women “by the pussy.” The group called for people to boycott Nordstrom because it carries products that carry the name of Trump’s eldest daughter. Other than Trump-owned businesses, the group lists on its website a number of other companies that associate with those businesses, either by selling products — such as Ivanka Trump-branded goods sold by retailers — or by advertising in ways that could benefit Trump, or even those whose CEOs support the president.

Nordstrom was bombarded with questions on its Twitter account, and it gave the same reply, albeit using different words, to all of them, essentially saying the Ivanka Trump brand had poor sales, prompting the company to not stock it for the ongoing season. Below are a couple of typical answers:

The department store chain reportedly issued a statement along similar lines, in which it said it changes about 10 percent of the brands it sells every year, based on how they performed, and that Ivanka Trump’s brand just happened to one of those.

Even when it began stocking products carrying the Ivanka Trump label, the company had to clarify in November 2016 it was not a political move.

Grab Your Wallet is taking credit for the move. Co-founder Shannon Coulter told the Post in an email: “The cause and effect here is very clear. Over 230,000 Tweets and who knows how many millions of dollars’ worth of missed purchases later, they finally heard us.”

The move may not be a political one from Nordstrom’s point of view, but it seems politics definitely had a role to play in the decline of Ivanka Trump’s products at the luxury retailer. There are still four pairs of Ivanka Trump shoes available on the company’s website but it is perhaps a good thing Ivanka has decided to give up her management positions in her company so she can advise her father in Washington, D.C. After all, business doesn’t seem to be booming.