A new direction in staying warm: Inspired by a chair lift ride in the bitter cold, Toast Heated Clothes makes heated long underwear for people who work and play in the outdoors.

The patented new system of heated base layer integrates heat packs to keep your core warm. The tops have heat packs in the neck and lower back, and the pants have a heat pack just below the waistband.

Like large handwarmers, the heat packs are air activated and last 10 hours each. One or two is typically enough on mildly cold days; choose 3 or more for really cold weather. Once you try it, you’ll wear them all winter!

Designed by a former professional snowboarder, the Toast collection currently includes heated tops and bottoms for men and women. “They were inspired by snowboarding, but you can wear them walking the dog or shoveling snow” says designer Julia Aiken. "

“We have customers who wear them running, working outside and watching football. They’re also great for lounging on the couch in cold weather.”

All Toast styles are are made in North America using Polartec fabrics. Famous for inventing polar fleece, Polartec fabrics are the gold standard in warmth and wicking performance. "We deliberately source fabrics that are made in the USA" says Aiken.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. announced the opening of stores in three new international markets—Morocco, Jordan and Egypt. The company also opened its third store in Saudi Arabia, and has plans for a second store in Lebanon in early 2012.

The leading lifestyle brand, with a fleet of more than 1,000 stores worldwide, currently operates in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE through its franchise partner, M.H. Alshaya, one of the most experienced retailers in the world.

American Eagle Outfitters opened in Jordan on November 30 in Taj Mall. Morocco’s store opened in Casablanca at Morocco Mall on December 1. The Egypt store is located in Cairo’s City Stars Mall, and opened on December 10.

The partnership with Alshaya, signed in May 2009, was AEO’s first foray into bricks-and-mortar stores outside of North America. Since then, AEO has opened stores in Russia, China and Hong Kong, and signed franchise agreements for stores in Japan and Israel as well, working with various franchise partners.

“American Eagle Outfitters’ ongoing international expansion is evidence of the success and positive customer response, as well as the expertise of our valued partner, M.H. Alshaya,” said Simon Nankervis, vice president of global business development, American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. "

“We are continuously delighted by consumers’ excitement and passion for the American Eagle Outfitters brand as we pursue our international expansion strategy around the globe. We look forward to announcing new stores and additional countries in the coming months.”

Even before American Eagle Outfitters began opening stores abroad, customers around the world were fans of the brand. The company’s e-commerce site shipped internationally beginning in 2004, and today ships to 77 countries, with Italy being the latest to join.

All American Eagle Outfitters international stores offer a similar product assortment as those in the U.S., which is well known for being high-quality, on-trend fashion at affordable prices. Most stores also feature the company’s Aerie brand, a confident, sexy intimates and apparel line for young women in their twenties.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc., through its subsidiaries, (AEO, Inc.) offers high-quality, on-trend clothing, accessories and personal care products at affordable prices.

Sears Holdings Corporation is providing an update on its quarter-to-date performance and planned actions to improve and accelerate the transformation of its business.

Kmart's quarter-to-date comparable store sales decline reflects decreases in the consumer electronics and apparel categories and lower layaway sales. Sears Domestic's quarter-to-date sales decline was primarily driven by the consumer electronics and home appliance categories, with more than half of the decline in Sears Domestic occurring in consumer electronics. Sears apparel sales were flat and Lands' End in Sears stores was up mid-single digits.

The combination of lower sales and continued margin pressure coupled with expense increases has led to a decline in our Adjusted EBITDA. Accordingly, we expect that our fourth quarter consolidated Adjusted EBITDA will be less than half of last year's amount. For reference, last year we generated $933 million of Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter ($795 million domestically and $138 million in Canada).

Due to our performance in 2011 we expect that we will record in the fourth quarter a non-cash charge related to a valuation allowance on certain deferred tax assets of $1.6 to $1.8 billion. Although a valuation adjustment is recognized on these deferred tax assets, no economic loss has occurred as the underlying net operating loss carryforwards and other tax benefits remain available to reduce future taxes to the extent income is generated.

Further, we may recognize in the fourth quarter an impairment charge on some goodwill balances for as much as $0.6 billion. These charges would be non-cash and combined are estimated to be between $1.6 and $2.4 billion.

"Given our performance and the difficult economic environment, especially for big-ticket items, we intend to implement a series of actions to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model. "

"These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail – at the store, online and in the home," said Chief Executive Officer Lou D'Ambrosio. Specific actions which we plan to take include:

• Close 100 to 120 Kmart and Sears Full-line stores. We expect these store closures to generate $140 to $170 million of cash as the net inventory in these stores is sold and we expect to generate additional cash proceeds from the sale or sublease of the related real estate. Further, we intend to optimize the space allocation based on category performance in certain stores. Final determination of the stores to be closed has not yet been made.

• Excluding the effect of store closures, we currently expect to reduce 2012 peak domestic inventory by $300 million from the 2011 level of $10.2 billion at the end of the third quarter as a result of cost decreases in apparel, tighter buys and a lower inventory position at the beginning of the fiscal year.

• Focus on improving gross profit dollars through better inventory management and more targeted pricing and promotion.

• Reduce our fixed costs by $100 to $200 million.

In addition to the specific store closures listed above, we will carefully evaluate store performance going forward and act opportunistically to recognize value from poor performing stores as circumstances allow.

While our past practice has been to keep marginally performing stores open while we worked to improve their performance, we no longer believe that to be the appropriate action in this environment.

We intend to accentuate our focus and resources to our better performing stores with the goal of converting their customer experience into a world-class integrated retail experience.

We currently expect the store closure and inventory reduction actions to reduce peak inventory in 2012 by $500 to $580 million and reduce our peak borrowing need by $300 to $350 million in 2012 from levels that may have resulted in 2012 without such actions.

At December 23rd, we had $483 million of borrowings outstanding on our domestic revolving credit facility leaving us with over $2.9 billion of availability on our revolving credit facilities ($2.1 billion on our domestic facility and $0.8 billion on our Canadian facility). There were no borrowings outstanding last year at this time.

During the fourth quarter through December 23, 2011, we have not repurchased any of our common shares under our share repurchase program. As of December 23, 2011, we had remaining authorization to repurchase $524 million of common shares under the previously approved programs.

Fourth Quarter Earnings Release
The company currently plans to release financial results for its fiscal 2011 fourth quarter and full year on or about February 23, 2012, before the market opens.