Remember when you could hit up your local suburban mall, catch a show from a pop star next to the food court and buy a new zip-up while you were at it? History is repeating itself.
On Tuesday, Gap announced it was launching a collaboration with emerging boy band Just Your Type (JYT) in the company’s first project for its “fashiontainment platform.”
No, we’re not really sure what that is either. According to Gap, the platform “leverages the power of its iconic brands to create content.” It says it will co-produce a docuseries about the group’s formation and early journey, design a capsule clothing collection with the five members and create social media content to accompany the project.
Taking a page out of the pop playbook of the 1990s and 2000s, the collaboration will also feature a mall tour across the U.S.
CBC News reached out to Gap about whether the tour will come to Canada, but has not heard back.
JYT is a five-member boy band made up of performers Recker Eans, Toby Green, Caden Adamonis, Bryan Chan and Tyler George.
Haven’t heard of JYT? That’s not surprising — the group just released their debut single What U Want at the end of last year, and only have four songs out in total.
But music executives have been betting big on the group from the start.
In January, the group was officially signed by Republic Records in partnership with Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Freddy Wexler, who developed them. Wexler has worked on hits for artists including Justin Bieber, Blackpink and Ariana Grande.
“From the moment these five kids stood in a room together, I knew we had something special. JYT isn’t a manufactured boy band; they chose each other,” Wexler told UDiscover Music, a Universal Music Group-backed site. “America hasn’t launched a global boy band in decades, and these kids are about to change that.”
With smooth harmonies and a knack for dancing in formation, it seems JYT are being positioned as spiritual successors to boy bands such as NSync and the Backstreet Boys — and potentially the American answer to the tightly choreographed, aesthetically and musically polished groups that have come out of South Korea, such as global K-pop sensation BTS.
The group may be young, ranging from ages 15 to 17, but most have been working in entertainment for years; the band includes two former touring members of Kidz Bop, and some members have appeared as backup dancers in music videos and in guest roles on TV shows.
The collaboration suggests that Gap is doubling down on attempts to reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha. The company scored a viral ad campaign in 2025 featuring girl group Katseye, who performed a choreographed dance in Gap denim. This followed the hiring of designer Zac Posen to help boost its cultural capital in 2024.
“This campaign demonstrated the power of the playbook in action, featuring trend-right product, amplified by culturally relevant storytelling,” Richard Dickson, Gap CEO, said of the ad on a call with investors about the company’s third-quarter results earlier this year. Comparable sales in that quarter rose five per cent, driven by the success of the ad, according to CNBC.
Dickson called the collaboration a “true cultural takeover,” relying on a methodology Gap will continue to build on in the future.
The clothing giant’s boy band gamble is a continuation of this, one marketing expert says.
“Inevitably, young people do set the tone in trends like this. So you’re not doing this just so that you connect with teenagers and young adults,” said Max Valiquette, a communications professional and trends expert. “You’re doing this because if they say something is cool or interesting, it does tend to have an impact on older demographics and drive what they purchase, as well. “
Groups like New Kids on the Block, the Backstreet Boys and even pop icons like Britney Spears famously performed in shopping centres when they were starting out, taking advantage of and driving foot traffic to these locations.
It “makes a ton of sense” that Gap would want to revive this tradition, Valiquette said.
“It’s turning to a boy band to kind of test whether entertainment can fully move the needle on apparel sales, but not working with an established boy band. It is working with a boy band who are actually not established at all,” Valiquette said.
“And it’s building Gap while the band gets built. “
