By Ritsuko Ando TOKYO, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Saggy pants and o
By Ritsuko Ando
TOKYO, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Saggy pants and outsized t-shirts helped spare Japanese style model Uniqlo from the steep coronavirus-led fall in gross sales that hit rival style chains equivalent to H&M and Zara.
Now, Uniqlo founder and CEO Tadashi Yanai has shifted his sights to post-pandemic shopper spending, and he is betting that the world’s third-biggest clothes chain might want to promote greater than comfy roomwear and a pair of,900 yen ($27.50) down vests to attain his dream of constructing it No. 1.
On Friday, Uniqlo will start promoting a brand new assortment that revives a preferred tie-up with German minimalist designer Jil Sander, with appears and costs past the shop’s traditional lineup.
Dubbed “+J”, the partnership comes over a decade after Uniqlo’s first collaboration with Sander helped to bolster the style credentials of the Japanese chain finest identified on the time for its low-cost and vibrant fleece jackets.
The most recent +J assortment consists of tailor-made blazers, cashmere-wool blended coats, and Supima cotton gown shirts for each sexes, principally in black, navy, burgundy and white.
The shift upmarket will give Uniqlo a brand new gross sales avenue however is just not with out danger, coming at a time when Japan, the chain’s greatest single market, is caught in recession with customers fearful a couple of extended pandemic.
The brand new assortment’s wool-cashmere mix coats, at 22,900 yen, rank among the many highest-priced gadgets in Uniqlo historical past.
Few different Uniqlo gadgets at the moment value over 20,000 yen, with a padded parka from Uniqlo U, a comparatively fashion-forward assortment directed by French designer Christophe LeMaire, now on sale for below 6,000 yen.
HIGH PRICE TAGS
On Twitter, many Uniqlo followers expressed pleasure in regards to the return of its collaboration with Sanders, a design legend, however simply as many lamented the excessive value tags.
“It’s totally troublesome to maneuver upmarket. Individuals have a really, very robust opinion about what costs they need to pay in the case of Uniqlo and people costs are out of that vary,” stated Mike Allen, an analyst overlaying Japanese retailers at Jefferies.
Some analysts additionally cited unsuccessful makes an attempt by different informal manufacturers which have tried to go upmarket, together with J.Crew, which filed for chapter earlier this 12 months. A shift in the direction of a better value bracket is usually blamed by analysts for hastening J.Crew’s decline.
However many see little different alternative for Uniqlo as competitors intensifies, together with from beforehand unknown names like Chinese language on-line model Shein which have emerged in a now-recovered China market.
In Japan, Workman 7564.T, beforehand a favorite of building and manufacturing facility employees, is shifting into basic style. Globally, Uniqlo additionally faces powerful competitors from out of doors and sports activities manufacturers equivalent to North Face and Nike NKE.N.
Surveys have discovered that Uniqlo garments already make up at the very least one out of 10 gadgets within the common Japanese wardrobe.
“It will be troublesome to increase market share additional, in order that they want one other channel, and that is higher-priced merchandise,” Jefferies’ Allen stated.
THE L-WORD
Nicole Fall, the founding father of consultancy Asian Client Intelligence, stated the brand new assortment was well-timed as individuals need to seem skilled once they return to their workplaces, “significantly as unemployment creeps up and additional retrenchment workout routines are carried out.”
A concentrate on high quality over low costs was additionally in step with the trade’s post-pandemic shift away from quick style, she added.
“The enterprise mannequin can’t maintain low quantity and low costs however it might probably evolve to fewer items at a barely larger value level, significantly if the gadgets are related to the status Jil Sander identify,” Fall stated.
Yanai, whereas sustaining his ambition of constructing Uniqlo proprietor Quick Retailing 9983.T the world’s greatest clothes firm, has not too long ago been telling traders that the corporate needs to concentrate on garments made to final, with revolutionary materials and a focus to particulars like zippers and buttons, relatively than churning out excessive volumes of on-trend gadgets.
In an interview with Wallpaper, Sander, who not runs the eponymous model she based, described +J as a “store window for Uniqlo to indicate what degree of luxurious the corporate can obtain.”
However Uniqlo executives deny they’re aiming for luxurious.
“What we need to present is one thing genuine, one thing crafted to perfection… and supply it not simply to a sure section however to everybody,” stated Yukihiro Katsuta, head of Uniqlo’s R&D.
(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; modifying by Richard Pullin)
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