News and Press

UNIQLO to Open its First Store in Downtown Los Angeles at The Bloc

December 13, 2018

November 28, 2018, New York, New York UNIQLO, the Japanese global apparel retailer, will open its newest location in the U.S on December 13th at The Bloc, a vibrant, open-air shopping and entertainment destination located in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. The new UNIQLO store, the first in Downtown L.A. among nine other locations in the region, will occupy 12,000 square feet across two sales floors and showcase the brand’s full assortment of LifeWear, as well as special areas dedicated to the brand’s local partners and sustainability initiatives.

LifeWear is UNIQLO’s commitment to creating perfect clothing that meets the needs of everyone’s daily lifestyles. High quality, functional, affordable and constantly being improved, LifeWear is available in a variety of colors and designs for people of all ages.

Credit: Studio One Eleven *Photo shown is a rendering; Actual store exterior may vary.

“We are very excited to introduce our UNIQLO apparel, customer service and shopping experience to Downtown L.A. for the first time,” said Hiroshi Taki, CEO of UNIQLO U.S.A. “The Bloc is a true destination of inspiration, community, and connection, and we look forward to celebrating this through partnering with local people and organizations to best serve the needs of L.A.’s diverse and creative lifestyles.”

Jeff Kanne, President and CEO of National Real Estate Advisors, LLC (“National”) said: “UNIQLO’s grand opening marks another milestone for The Bloc, which has become a leading retail, office, entertainment, and lodging destination in downtown, building on and furthering the resurgence of the market. This is a classic build-to-core project—helping transform an important urban district, creating jobs, and ultimately providing strategic investments for our clients. National, on behalf of a client, controls and manages The Bloc, the largest mixed-use site in downtown Los Angeles.”

Today UNIQLO has more than 2,000 stores in 21 markets worldwide, including 49 stores in the U.S. – spanning from New York, Boston, Washington D.C., and Florida, to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and most recently, Hawaii.  Since opening its first store in Hiroshima in 1984, UNIQLO has created apparel that comes from the Japanese values of simplicity, quality, and longevity, featuring universal designs, supreme fit and comfort with the aim to improve the daily lives of its customers.

STORE FEATURES

Upon entering the store, customers will find UNIQLO favorites on the main floor, including fleece jackets, UTs (UNIQLO T-Shirts), and a special Ultra Light Down display highlighting LA locals who are doing interesting things in their community – and how they incorporate LifeWear into their everyday lives:

  • Scott Tremonti
    • Owner and Doughman of The Urban Oven, a Los Angeles based artisan wood-fired pizza company and restaurant
  • Daniel Shemtob
    • Creative Entrepreneur and Chef of Hatch DTLA, Winner of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race
  • Martin McKenna
    • Student at FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising), majoring in Merchandise Product Development A.A. and International Manufacturing & Product Development Adv. A.A.
  • Rachelle Shen
    • Student at FIDM majoring in Merchandise Product Development A. A.
  • Melissa Kehoe:
    • FIDM instructor for International Manufacturing & Product Development Adv A.A., The Business of Denim Adv. A.A., and Apparel Technical Design B.S.

 

On the second floor, more iconic UNIQLO essentials like knitwear and HEATTECH – innerwear that keeps you warm by absorbing the body’s moisture and converting it to heat – are featured, in addition to a section dedicated to local partnerships and UNIQLO’s sustainability initiatives:

  • Students from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, with a passion for denim and sustainable design, have been selected to create a UNIQLO Denim Sustainability Story using textiles from Fast Retailing’s Jeans Innovation Center. The installation will elevate the harmony between sustainable thinking and artful design.
  • The Jeans Innovation Center (JIC), located in L.A., is an R&D facility dedicated to perfecting the 3 F’s of denim – fabric, fit, and finish – while incorporating sustainable processing and production methods through state of the art technology and techniques.
  • The JIC recently developed a new washing process for jeans that reduces water usage by up to 99%, and has been adopted for the fall/winter season UNIQLO Men’s Regular Fit Jeans. By 2020 the new technology will be used for all jeans made and sold by the Fast Retailing group.

#####

About UNIQLO and Fast Retailing

UNIQLO is a brand of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., a leading Japanese retail holding company with global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. UNIQLO is the largest of six main brands in the Fast Retailing Group, the others being GU, J Brand, Theory, Comptoir des Cotonniers, and Princesse tam.tam. With global sales of approximately 2.13 trillion yen for the 2018 fiscal year ending August 31, 2018 (US $19.17 billion, calculated in yen using the end of August 2018 rate of $1 = 111.1 yen), Fast Retailing is one of the world’s largest apparel retail companies, and UNIQLO is Japan’s leading specialty retailer.

UNIQLO continues to open large-scale stores in some of the world’s most important cities and locations, as part of its ongoing efforts to solidify its status as a global brand. Today the company has more than 2,000 stores in 21 markets including Japan. In alphabetical order, the other markets are Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, U.K. and U.S. In addition, UNIQLO established a social business in Bangladesh together with the Grameen Bank in 2010, and today there are several Grameen-UNIQLO stores in Dhaka.

With a corporate statement committed to changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change the world, Fast Retailing is dedicated to creating great clothing with new and unique value to enrich the lives of people everywhere.  For more information about UNIQLO and Fast Retailing, please visit www.uniqlo.com and www.fastretailing.com.

Contact: Samantha.Levy@uniqlo-usa.com; Jennifer.brady@exposure.net

 

###