The Children’s Place Plans to Purchase Gymboree and Crazy 8 – And Gap is Buying Janie and Jack

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The Children's Place shopping bag

Heads up Gymboree and Crazy 8 fans!

If you’re a fan of Gymboree and/or Crazy 8, you may be happy to hear that The Children’s Place just announced that they’re planning to acquire both of these brands. 🙌🏻

As many of you know, The Gymboree Group filed for bankruptcy last month and made plans to close all 700+ Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores, with hopes of selling the high-end Janie and Jack brand. And it looks like they just received a bid from Gap, Inc. for $35 million! 😱

Gap Kids Jeans

That’s right! Gap Inc., which also recently announced that they plan to split into two different companies, is planning to purchase Janie and Jack’s intellectual property, website, customer data, and other assets, if approved by the bankruptcy court. This will allow them to focus on building their portfolio with higher-end brands.

What do you think of this change?


See which Retailers Have Filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

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Comments 35

  1. Hols

    I worry that the quality of Gymboree clothing and designs will diminish now that it’s owned by The Children’s Place. I hope that Gap will maintain their current comfortable and casual children’s line — Jamie & Jack is nice for special occasions, but it’s not somewhere I shop regularly.

    • Allison

      Agreed. I only buy on clearance at children’s place because the clothes do not last. I love Gymboree for their quality and will pay for it

    • C

      The quality of Gymboree is far from what it once was.

      • Tracy

        I agree C

      • Jamie

        It was getting a lot better last year, i bought a lot of my daughters outfits from Gymboree in the last couple of years and i was impressed with its quality.

    • Joanna

      I’m sure it will diminished once The children’s place takes over and that really sucks because it’s getting harder and harder to find good quality kids clothes.

      • Rachel

        You may want to try Cat and Jack. They have a 1 year warranty on their clothes, and all you need is either your receipt or credit card you bought it with.

        • tinanash

          I did not know they had a one year warranty. Wish I did before because I absolutely challenge the quality of the clothing. If you buy the cheaper stuff there is a huge difference. You need to go the right side of the department to get the better quality. I find the price is soo worth it.
          The new athletic brands and most of Target s new brands in every department are not great but some of the better lines for kids are a go for the kiddos. Sure hope they stand by Gymborees quality.
          Good luck moms.

    • Lauren

      I worked for Gymboree from 2004-2007.
      The quality and cuteness of Gymboree has gone down tremendously already..
      Luckily my little one has nearly a whole Gymboree wardrobe from those years for the 1st few years!!
      Little man is coming next month!

  2. Jennifer

    I love the childrens place clothing for my kiddos I just hope the prices of their brand do not go up because of the purchase of crazy 8 and gymboree

    • shelly

      I agree. I love their sales and free shipping. I really hope that doesn’t change.

      • OregonLexy

        Love free shipping

    • nikis22

      I love children’s place the most so this is fabulous!!

  3. Linsey

    I think this is great! I was so sad about GYmboree and Crazy 8. I don’t really like The Childrens PLace though, so I hope their style of clothing doesn’t leak into Gymboree and Crazy 8. Along with their bad quality. I can’t believe The childrens place has stayed while Crazy 8 and Gymboree went out of business!

    • Tracy

      I agree! I LOVE Crazy 8!

    • Jamie

      I agree 100%

  4. B

    Crazy 8 and Gymboree design WAY cuter clothes (at least for boys) than other brands so I was upset I was pretty much stuck w Carters. This is fabulous news! Children’s place clothes has gotten a little MEH in their designs for boys and baby when it used to be so cute.

  5. B

    their prices are already similar unless they’re on clearance in my opinion

  6. Lola

    I think this is great, it gives hope for those of us that still love the retail in store shopping experience. While I do love my Amazon and online shopping it’s good to hear that these companies are trying to reinvent themselves.

  7. Ms Frizzle

    Eeeeekkkkk!!! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS NEWS!!

    • Mary (Stellar Sidekick)

      Yay! 🙂

  8. Kelly

    Great…. I hope they don’t ruin the brands with the wildly innapropriate sayings they put on their own stuff. Seriously who buys a shirt saying not listening for their kid?

    • Allison

      Like the tee shirts at children place that say “feminist like mommy” ….what?!?!?!

    • doig18

      Right! It’s unbelievable what some of the sayings are on these clothes and it’s for kids who have no idea!

      • Katie

        What’s so controversial about being a feminist…that means you believe in inequality for women?!?!

        • Katie

          I meant equality

  9. NV2007

    I guess it’s good someone is picking up the brands but if their jeans and whatnot fall victim to the terrible TCP quality, I’m out for all of it. I loved Crazy 8 especially and Gymboree for cute, dressier clothes. TCP is good for real casual styles, but I’ll pick Target over TCP now any day. I’m really disappointed in TCP quality. There was a time you could get decent quality at a reasonable price – now the prices are reasonable on sale, but the quality is not.

    • Mary (Stellar Sidekick)

      It will be really interesting to see what happens if it goes through! 🤔

  10. Melissa

    This is exciting since I was sad to see Gymboree & Crazy 8 close up. My daughter is five and most of her clothes were from Gymboree. Of course once they changed the quality and style over the last year or so I stopped shopping there. I prefer the cute matchy outfits with kittens, mermaids, etc. I don’t care for the sayings on shirts for her age. I do occasionally shop at Children’s Place but I feel like a lot of the outfits are too mature for her. I really hope that they don’t cheapen the Gymboree brand by making it similar to what they already sell.

  11. Kat

    I’m sorry, it’s still target for my kids. Their clothing wears well and is reasonably priced. Janie and jack – waaaay too expensive and gap just doesn’t cut it.

  12. Kathy

    Off topic, I recently found Crazy 8 store credit from my old purse. It’s over $40. Is there any way we can still use it? Any recent experience? TIA

    • doig18

      I went in because I had over $200 in their Gymboree gift cards and they told me that the store nor online could process them. I’m holding on to them though to see what happens with this merger.

    • Lori

      I was at Crazy 8 around mid-Feb and they told me that it was the last day that they’d be accepting store credit. I actually called because I attempted to use online it a few days prior, but they said that store credit was never able to be used online. I never realized that :/

  13. Linda

    I so agree, Gymboree quality and style has gone down over the past few years. I hope they go back to the quality clothing of a few years ago. So happy that Gymboree is coming back! Hope for the good.

  14. Mama San

    TCP has a great marketing strategy with great prices to match their styles. I also love that they have matching sets for the family. I never shopped at Gymboree and stopped shopping at Crazy 8 bc I never found their clothes cute enough to spend that much $$ on kids clothes. There was definitely a disconnect with their marketing strategy. Hopefully, TCP would change it all up. Add some cute styles at affordable prices.

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