Kai Braden was a shirtless greeter during the brand’s mid-aughts peak. Twenty years later, his advocacy has helped secure first-of-their-kind protections for fashion workers

Something felt off about Kai Braden’s first day working retail at an Abercrombie & Fitch store in 2006. His bosses sat him down to watch an onboarding video, but instead of learning how to properly fold shirts or work the register, Braden watched a corporate-produced montage of young men romping through fields in various stages of undress.

“[It was] stock footage of shirtless guys with their jeans falling down so you could see a little bit of their butt,” Braden remembered. He struggled to understand how this would relate to his job. “I was like, ‘What does this have to do with anything?’”