How Gap Inc. Champions San Francisco’s Creative Community

American fashion retailer Gap Inc. was originally founded in 1969 as a single store on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco by Don and Doris Fisher. Today, Gap Inc. has since grown into a $14.9 billion global fashion company and host to American brands including Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta.

While the company has a global retail footprint and offices around the world, Gap Inc.’s headquarters remain in San Francisco — a creative hub on North America’s West Coast with the highest concentration of artists and arts organisations per capita in the US, according to World Cities Culture Forum.

“San Francisco is not just the birthplace of Gap Inc. — it’s woven into the fabric of our culture and brands,” Amy Thompson, Gap Inc.’s chief people officer, told BoF. “The city’s vibrant spirit of innovation, diversity and creativity has shaped who we are as a company. When we champion San Francisco’s creative community, the benefits manifest both inside and outside of our walls.”

Earlier this year, Gap Inc. made a commitment to help revitalise San Francisco’s creative culture. To support that commitment, Gap Inc. is partnering with non-profit Nest, which works to bridge equity gaps in the creative economy and provides resources to makers to help them and their communities grow and thrive. This partnership has expanded Nest’s Makers United programme — which has previously been implemented in cities such as Chicago, Detroit and New York City — to the San Francisco Bay Area. Through this initiative, Gap Inc. is not only helping empower local artisans, but also its own employees, reinforcing its commitment to San Francisco and working towards its purpose of bridging gaps to create a better world.

Through this partnership, Gap Inc. aims to uplift and support the creative community with educational resources and opportunities to grow their businesses, such as hosting events like its recent Holiday Makers Market. This event provides the opportunity for local artisans, including employees who have their own creative practices and small businesses outside of their primary jobs, to showcase and sell their wares to the wider San Francisco community. After all, 36 percent of Americans reportedly have a side hustle, according to financial services company Bankrate — a trend Gap Inc. is eager to support.

The market is intended to encourage entrepreneurial and creative talent within its employee base while enabling employee networking and community building. Now in its third year, and in partnership with Nest, Bay Area artisans were also invited to participate and, for the first time, opened its doors to the public for shopping. This year’s event, which took place on December 7 and 8, had 40 vendors across 13 categories, and attracted more than 2,000 attendees. Gap Inc. also had a host of creative programming during the market, including creative workshops and demos to inspire and engage.

“From our local partnerships in San Francisco to the innovative spirit that drives our teams across the globe, we are fostering an environment where creativity can flourish at every level,” added Thompson.

To learn more about Gap Inc.’s investment in its employees’ creative endeavours and its impact on workplace culture, BoF sat down with three of the company’s employees.

Maria Manfredi, Vice President of Design: Concept, Colour, Print & Graphics at Old Navy

How does Gap Inc. nurture creativity across functions?

At Gap Inc., we embrace the idea that creativity isn’t confined to just the “creative” roles — it’s something that can and should be practised across all functions. One of the phrases we live by here is: “What if? Why not?” It’s about exploring possibilities, questioning the status quo, and taking calculated risks. In creativity, there’s no right or wrong answers — it’s often in the grey area.

Empowerment plays a huge role in fostering creativity. We want everyone, no matter their role, to feel like they have a voice, that they can raise a question and share their opinion. For me, as a mentor, I try to be a sounding board, give others opportunities to offer different perspectives and challenge them to think differently. I encourage my team to ask questions like, “Why can’t we do that? Why not try something new? What’s stopping us?”.

Psychological safety is also important. When you’re putting forward a creative idea, you’re putting a part of yourself out there, and that can make you feel vulnerable. It’s important that people feel supported and safe to express themselves. I want to make sure that my creative teams feel like there’s no right or wrong answer and that we’re really open.

How do you foster inspiration within your creative team?

For me it starts with getting away from your desk – whether that’s stepping away from your computer or where you work from at home. We’re privileged to travel to some incredible cities and countries for inspiration, and that really helps to break the routine. You see new and different things, experience different cultures, and that can spark creativity in the team.

I also encourage the team to find inspiration closer to home, here in San Francisco. Sometimes, it’s just taking a walk to the ocean, where we have a beautiful view of Bay Bridge and the bay. Or maybe it’s getting involved in one of the many art classes or workshops around the city — we have an extensive community of artists here in San Francisco.

What’s also amazing is how inspiration flows within the team. I have some incredibly talented artists on my team who participated in the Makers Market, and they bring that outside creativity into work. They teach their peers new techniques and ways to work in new mediums, which helps inspire everyone to think in new and different ways.

What role does San Francisco and its creative community play in the wider experience of working at Gap Inc.?

When I moved here 10 years ago, I immediately felt how unique San Francisco is. The city has this dichotomy of tech innovation and creativity, but it’s also the birthplace of a number of subcultures. There’s a certain creative energy here that’s in the city’s DNA — it’s just a part of what it is. Every neighbourhood in San Francisco has its own personality and creative community. And they all have different ways of doing things.

Empowerment plays a huge role in fostering creativity. We want everyone to feel like they have a voice.

—  Maria Manfredi, Vice President of Design: Concept, Colour, Print & Graphics at Old Navy

The city itself is a dichotomy of extremes, and within that there is a beautiful creative spirit. You can see it everywhere – in the art shows, independent stores, the makers markets, and the incredible galleries like at SFMOMA. The legacy of the Fishers and what they’ve built here is incredibly inspiring too.

We’re lucky at Gap inc. because we’re so connected to that creativity. Not only do we have incredible pieces of artwork in our headquarters — I mean, there’s an Andy Warhol upstairs — but we’re also surrounded by it in the city. It’s all part of what makes working here so special.

Stefan Altorfer, Menswear Designer at Banana Republic

How does Gap Inc. help you foster and develop your creativity as an employee?

We have incredible opportunities to expand our creativity, especially through travel and exposure to global markets in the fashion industry. We travel to different countries where we can analyse and see: what does the market look like in Europe? What does it look like in Japan? This kind of exposure broadens our perspective of what is possible.

We have also heard from great creative sources like Li Edelkoort at Trend Union — I’ve never worked in a company that provided these kinds of trend insights before.

Since the pandemic, the headquarters have been redesigned, creating a wonderful collaboration space for all Gap Inc. brands. This space includes a sewing room, a screen printing facility, and even a room to paint and be creative. It’s a place where people from all brands can come together and collaborate.

Through these creative spaces, we can submit samples, mock-ups, and paintings to our creative teams. I’ve shared work from my personal brand to my team, and it’s even influenced designs in the past. Gap Inc. really encourages creativity in that sense, and people can bring anything to the table that they find inspiring — which offers a different point of view and an alternative to your traditional market research.

How has Gap Inc. and its leadership facilitated your career progression?

Mentorship plays a big role at Gap Inc.. Whilst we have targets and goals set for the company, Gap Inc. encourages employees to set goals for themselves, which offers wonderful growth opportunities. The goal-setting tools are provided by Gap Inc. and we work with our managers to achieve these goals and push ourselves in the right direction. We are encouraged to question what our personal development looks like and where we want to grow our skillsets.

My manager has played an important role in this, which has been great for me personally, because I’ve had the benefit of an outside perspective — someone who is able to look at me and my abilities from a more removed, but holistic point of view — which has allowed me to achieve what I want here and push myself.

What does the Holiday Makers Market mean to you as a creative?

Three years ago, I started my own creative business, focused on working with natural fibres and dyes. I create paints with natural products like berries, and then use them to do surface design on textiles like bandanas, scarves, and shawls.

We are encouraged to question what our personal development looks like and where we want to grow our skillsets.

—  Stefan Altorfer, Menswear Designer at Banana Republic

We are fortunate to be able to explore our personal creative endeavours through the Makers Market. It brings together people from across the company, even those who don’t work in a traditionally creative role and allows them to showcase their talent. For me, I’ve been working with natural dyes for a very long time, and this market was an opportunity for me to showcase it and grow my business.

I connected with an employee at the market whom I hadn’t met before, and she recently commissioned me to do a piece for her wedding. It’s a great example of how the market has helped me grow my practice and pushed me in my own entrepreneurship. I don’t know many companies that offer something like this, where employees can showcase their creativity and have it lead to new opportunities.

Kristy Chan, Technical Designer and Digital Product Creator at Old Navy

How does Gap Inc. help you foster and develop your creativity as an employee?

What I love most about my role at Gap Inc. is how collaborative it is. When I’m working with so many teams, I have conversations that spark new ideas that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own. It really pushes my creativity and broadens my understanding of the bigger picture. I see creativity here as a mix of problem-solving and teamwork, which makes the work really rewarding.

As I look to advance my creative career, my goal is to continue embracing the “What if? Why not?” mindset — challenging the status quo and finding innovative ways to improve our creative processes. I’m particularly excited about the potential of digital tools, like generative AI, to unlock new possibilities in product creation and workflow efficiencies. We’re always brainstorming new ways to solve problems and streamline processes with digital tools.

Gap Inc. is supportive of digital innovation ideas, and they’ve encouraged us to attend conferences on the topic. It shows how committed they are to staying ahead of the curve when it comes to digital innovation.

How has Gap Inc. and its leadership facilitated your career progression?

I’ve been lucky enough to have managers who not only advocate for me but truly mentor me. They’ve been instrumental in helping me navigate my career path, especially since I moved from technical design to the digital space.

What stands out at Gap Inc. is how approachable and supportive the leadership team is. I feel confident knowing that I can turn to them for advice or as a sounding board and I’m committed to giving back in the same way to my teams.

What stands out at Gap Inc. is how approachable and supportive the leadership team is. I feel confident knowing that I can turn to them for advice.

—  Kristy Chan, Technical Designer and Digital Product Creator at Old Navy

Since I’m fairly new in this particular role, it’s been exciting to collaborate with peers across different departments. The cross-functional exposure has deepened my understanding of how we rely on each other creatively.

What role does San Francisco and its creative community play in the wider experience of working at Gap Inc.?

San Francisco’s creative energy is a part of Gap’s DNA. On a personal note, my husband and I moved here from New York, partly because of the Bay Area’s culture of embracing small businesses and artisans. It’s truly been a supportive environment since we moved here four years ago and started our small business.

San Francisco’s creative spirit really aligns with Gap Inc.’s culture — you can see how the company draws inspiration from the community and embraces innovation. It feels good to be part of a company that’s connected to a city that values creativity. We feel connected to something bigger and I’m happy we made the move here — it feels like the right space to be in.

This is a sponsored feature paid for by Gap Inc. as part of a BoF partnership.