UNIQLO looks for a gap in the US clothing market
Japanese TV star ‘Gorie’ does campy promos for UNIQLO clothing
COMING TO AMERICA
Japan’s biggest clothing retailer, UNIQLO, is quietly staking out territory in U.S. malls. Will the fast-growing company become the next Gap Inc.?
MSNBC.com:….The [UNIQLO] store opened at the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, N.J., and the promotion seems to have paid off. On a recent Sunday, it looked like the insert come to life, with a striking grid of colorful clothing stacked high on the shelves along the wall like an art installation. Teenagers and young adults kept up a steady flow down the aisles. And these shoppers were discovering something that the ads couldn’t adequately communicate: At such handsome prices, the clothes were of impressive quality. “The quality of the clothes felt a lot better than I expected,” said April McNeil, a customer who’d learned of UNIQLO from a friend….
….In the decade since it was founded by Tadashi Yanai, Fast Retailing’s UNIQLO has catapulted into first place among retailers in Japan…But skepticism has greeted Yanai’s ambition, and for good reason. UNIQLO stumbled in recent years in its first steps at expanding outside its home turf, especially in the United Kingdom, which is a far less complex retail market than the fickle and fiercely competitive United States….”We have to compete with those global brands,” says Nobuo Domae, Fast Retailing’s number two executive and CEO of UNIQLO USA. “It’s better to compete with them outside our home for skills to beat them locally. We decided to fight them abroad.”…more…
I died laughing when I heard that UNIQLO (a mashup of the words “unique” and “clothing”) said it was going to start up in the USA. I didn’t know the retail market for midget clothing was that hot. (Uniqlo’s mens size “X- Large” could only sell in the childrens section in the States.)
Here in Japan, UNIQLO is seen as cheaper copycat version of the GAP, not a quality brand, unlike the better quality found in the generic chain, MUJI . If Uniqlo USA copies the upscale route MUJI in America without the obscenely overpriced items like MUJI store in NYC, they may find a large niche to fill. However, the UNIQLO stores in Japan sell like cheap Chinese clothing dyes and the goods look like Target store in the 1970s.
Read more about MUJI’s upscale strategy in the USA as reported in The New York Times magazine: Museum Quality—How a “no-brand” Japanese retail chain found a home at a MoMA store.
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November 19th, 2005 at 9:49 am
OK, you don’t like Uniqlo. No need for the really disingenuous tone though. Sure there’s a differential between size of the average American consumer and the size of clothes Uniqlo sells in Japan (though they may have the brainwave of scaling up for the US). But the emphasis being that it’s the clothes that are too small? Come on. In most places outside the US, XL is not a regular size.
I agree that Uniqlo sizes are smaller, but generally only half a size or one size smaller than, say, European sizes.
And I’ve never met anyone (Japanese) who looks down on Uniqlo like you suggest. Same can’t be said of Gap (which you compare it to) which is widely derided for its blandness.
November 19th, 2005 at 1:23 pm
I have to agree with Jon on this one, Uniqlo was one of my favorite stores in Japan. I did have trouble finding stuff that fit right, but it wasn’t due to the sizes being too small, I have that problem in America too… it’s just me. The prices are great, and I did get a nice down jacket and gloves there. Very spacious and nicely designed store compared to most Japanese clothing stores.
November 21st, 2005 at 12:02 am
I have to say that i’m a fan of UNIQLO too. I think it’s a great shop for basics, and i have managed to find a few things in my size (although admittedly, not everything). And I’d say that the quality is pretty high too. NATURAL FIBRES! You don’t see them often in Japan.
November 21st, 2005 at 2:45 am
Damn those one-letter spelling mistakes. I meant, “UNIQLO stores in Japan sMell like cheap Chinese clothing dyes”. I’ve done freelance consulting for a fragrance company here in Tokyo to help change UNIQLO’s cheap smell and image.
As far as viability, of UNIQLO’s business model goes, they have been tottering on the edge of bankuptcy three times in its 10-year history—totally unlike MUJI’s clothing and business model.
Oh, and UNIQLO’s one-size-fits-all, Japanese “free-size” concept is all part of “homogeneous” Japanese society myth.
November 21st, 2005 at 12:16 pm
I’d have to disagree with your description of Uniqlo. As long as I wasn’t porking out, their XL sizes fit me, and, for the money, the clothes were fashionable and durable.
Usually, however, the lifetime of any given item of clothing was about one or two seasons, but what do you expect when you pay 3000 yen for a sport shirt?
Uniqlo was attractive to Japanese consumers, because during the lean years of the post-Bubble decade, people could buy quality clothes cheaply. Can it compete with the Gap in the US? I think so. The Gap is overpriced compared to the quality of the clothes, and the same could be said for MUJI. And try to find anything that fits a Westerner-sized body at Uniqlo.
And you can’t really compare the business models of the two companies. Uniqlo is an individual coporation. MUJI is part of the Seiyu chain (now owned by Wal-Mart), and it’s not really branded as a clothing retailer, as it sells everything from IKEA-style furniture, to bicycles, to carpets.
Great blog, though.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
um, they actually scale the sizes up for the us stores. im normally a us size 4 and the xs in the new york store was still too big so i dont think americans will have a problem finding the right size.