New Yorker

In 1971, Tilmar Hansen and Michael Simson opened the first New Yorker branch in downtown Flensburg, which at first was just a simple jeans shop. A little later, Friedrich Knapp, who managed a denim store in Braunschweig at the time, joined the company. The three eventually founded SHK-Jeans GmbH and opened their first branches throughout Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1990, Simson left the company and remained connected to it only as the owner of several properties housing New Yorker stores. In 1994, the company expanded abroad for the first time, opening a branch in Linz, Austria. The company continued to expand, entering the Czech Republic and Poland from 1998. While Tilmar Hansen left the company with a payout in 2001, Knapp was involved in the management of the company until his death in 2024 and his heirs continue to hold company shares.

Annual sales first exceeded one billion Deutsche Mark in 2001 and one billion euros in 2006 for the first time. In 2007, an LED wall covering an area of 85 square metres was mounted on the façade of the former historical Adolf Frank department store in Braunschweig's city centre, which was being converted into a new flagship store; the wall displays the company's own advertising as well as cultural events, sports and music events, news, and similar content. The project also included a renovation of the building itself, which was intended to become a "commercial building for young fashion" after the conversion. The flagship store opened in 2008 as the company's then-largest store, with approximately 3,100 square metres of retail space.

In 2014, almost two thirds of the company's revenue was generated outside Germany. In June 2023, following a refurbishment, the company opened its largest store, with more than 3,200 square metres of retail space, in Amsterdam.

In late October 2024, the company reorganised its leadership. As part of these changes, Jonas Gnauck joined the management board alongside Friedrich Knapp and Helene Steiner. Gnauck joined the company in 2011 and had been a member of the management board of New Yorker SE since May 2024. On 15 November 2024, Friedrich Knapp died at the age of 73.

Under new leadership, the company opened or modernised around 180 stores within a year and entered new markets, including Greece and Malta. On 1 April 2026, Sophie Knapp was appointed to the management board of New Yorker SE. Since then, the board has consisted of Jonas Gnauck as chairman and Friedrich Knapp's eldest daughter Sophie Knapp; at the same time, the supervisory board was reconstituted under the chairmanship of Michael Kellerbach. In the same month, the company opened its first store in Greece, in Athens.

Brands

New Yorker is a chain retailer in the young fashion segment. Its product range includes womenswear and menswear, underwear and swimwear, sportswear, and accessories, all sold under the company's own brands. The company is mainly active on brick-and-mortar retail. The range consists of the company's own brands fishbone (also called FSBN), smog, ICONO, and Black Squad (men's clothing), as well as fishbone sister and amisu (women's clothing), and censored (underwear and swimwear). The women's brand amisu was introduced in 2001. The censored lingerie line followed in 2003.

In December 2025, two sports brands, Studio 71 and Lucky Athletes, were added, bringing the total number of the company's own brands to ten. Studio 71, whose name refers to the company's founding year, 1971, is the company's first sports brand for women. The men's brand Lucky Athletes launched with T-shirts, tank tops, shorts, sports jackets, and socks.

In February 2026, New Yorker also introduced a perfume collection consisting of three fragrances for women and three for men, which is sold in its stores.

Marketing

The company's marketing targets a young audience. In the 2000s, the company presented music events such as the Love Parade in Berlin. According to a study by the market research institute GfK, 94% of 14- to 29-year-olds in Germany were familiar with the company in 2015.

Criticism

In February 2015, the company was accused of attempting to prevent the establishment of works councils. Frankfurter Rundschau reported that after a works council was established at a store in Offenbach am Main, the company spun off that location into a separate subsidiary, which was subsequently liquidated.

In November 2017, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Friedrich Knapp, the sole owner of New Yorker, was mentioned in the Paradise Papers. The newspaper described email correspondence regarding the establishment of a Cayman Islands-based aircraft leasing company, which, "for German tax reasons", would hold and lease the company's jets.

New Yorker has faced criticism from sustainability assessment organisations regarding its supply chain transparency. The independent brand rating platform Good On You assigned New Yorker its lowest overall rating, "We Avoid", stating that the company provides insufficient information about its environmental and social impacts and lacks transparency regarding measures taken throughout its supply chain. In addition, New Yorker was among the brands that received a score of 0% in the 2021 Fashion Transparency Index published by Fashion Revolution, which evaluates the extent to which major fashion companies publicly disclose information about their social and environmental policies, practices and supply chains.