With more than 1,100 stores worldwide, the Japanese retailer Uniqlo boosted its tristate presence considerably with the launch of an 80,000-square-foot store on Fifth Avenue in the fall of 2011, along with a second store on 34th Street.
Now Uniqlo is poised to make a splash in our area with the recent opening of a store at Westchester”™s Ridge Hill. The 24,000-square-foot store is the seventh Uniqlo in the U.S., joining a store at the PalisadesCenter in West Nyack, three in New York City, one at the WestfieldGardenStatePlaza in Paramus, N.J., and one in San Francisco.
For Shin Odake ”“ group officer of Fast Retailing Co. Ltd., Uniqlo”™s parent company, and executive vice president of Uniqlo USA ”“ Ridge Hill is precisely the place to launch the store”™s Westchester adventure. Odake knows this region. He was raised in Bronxville and has lived in Hartsdale and Greenwich.
“When I look at this area, I see that it”™s highly populated but hard to get to shopping,” he says. “There”™s no lifestyle center.”
With offerings like Apple, The Cheesecake Factory and Showcase Cinema De Lux nestled in an intimate setting off three major arteries (Central Avenue, Interstate-87 and the Sprain Brook Parkway), Ridge Hill could be that center, Odake says. “It”™s developing. They”™re trying to attract more retailers.”
The 1.3 million-square-foot Ridge Hill complex, owned and operated by Forest City Ratner Cos., opened in 2011.
Retailers like Uniqlo. Founded in Japan in 1984 as the Unique Clothing Warehouse, Uniqlo has made its reputation in part with its commitment to sensuous materials like cashmere, Supima cotton, Merlino wool and premium down.
“Quality of merchandise is dictated by quality of fabric,” Odake says.
Of course, it”™s what you do with the threads that counts. Uniqlo denim must meet stringent spinning and dyeing standards. The company has developed a HEATTECH fabric ”“ made of acrylic, rayon, polyester and polyurethane ”“ that fits close to the body, keeping you warm, dry and mobile in the winter. (Its summer counterpart is AIRism, silky underclothing that keeps you cool and dry.)
Uniqlo, whose taglines are “Made for All” and “LifeWear,” has everything from baby clothes to men”™s and women”™s wear. There are ties, socks, undies, linen shirts, stretchy jeans, dresses and artists-designed T-shirts in a panoply of patterns and a rainbow of saturated colors, offset by an airy white design threaded by polished red handrails. (The interiors are by Masamichi Katayama of Wonderwall Inc.)
Such quality, however, doesn”™t translate into hefty price tags.
“We”™re a little lower than Gap and a little higher than Old Navy,” Odake says.
All of which has meant crowds and global sales of $11.1 billion last year that are sure to grow with Uniqlo”™s plan to open 20 to 30 more stores in New York and in San Francisco.
As he graciously accepted congratulations from baby boomers and mothers with actual babies at the store”™s opening, General Manager Dean Otsuka acknowledged that lots of stores have fine clothing. What makes Uniqlo work is great clothes combined with great service, so much so that employees are trained to fold clothes on their bodies so they can keep an eye out for customers who may need assistance, he said.
For Tadashi Yanai ”“ Fast Retailing”™s founding chairman, president and CEO, who was recently named one of Time magazine”™s 100 Most Influential People ”“ Uniqlo is also about giving back. That”™s why the company has partnered with global brand ambassador and tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic in its $10 million Clothes for Smiles campaign to improve the education and lives of children around the world.
“We are a public company,” Odake says. “We realize we have to be part of society.”
