Uniqlo to open two flagship NYC stores
Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo has announced that it will open its largest and second-largest global flagships in New York City in October 2011.
Uniqlo will open a retail space on Fifth Avenue on Friday, October 14, and another at 34th Street one week later on October 21.
These will be the brand’s second and third major US stores; Uniqlo opened its first flagship store in New York’s SoHo district in 2006 after exiting a couple of suburban malls in 2005. It also has flagship stores in London, Paris, Shanghai, Shinsaibashi and, from September, Taipei.
“Most people in New York City don’t know us,” said Shin Odake, CEO of Uniqlo USA. “A fashion-conscious person might know us, but if you ask 10 people walking on Fifth Avenue, I bet 10 people wouldn’t know us. So there’s a huge opportunity for us to showcase our brand.”
The store openings are part of a strategy to dominate the world’s retail market. Tadashi Yanai, the founder of parent company Fast Retailing, has declared that Uniqlo would devote itself to being the biggest apparel company in the world by 2020.
Uniqlo USA’s chief operating officer Yasunobu Kyogoku claims the company will open 200 stores, generating more than $10 billion in sales, in the US by 2020. It will open 4,000 stores worldwide by the next decade, up from the current 1,013.
“It’s a continual evolution – that’s how you keep the brand going,” Mr Kyogoku says. “We have the financial, we have the human, and we have the product resources – as well as the creative resources – behind them to make that dream happen.”
