Japanese apparel designer Uniqlo has targeted an Oct. 9 opening date for its new downtown San Francisco home in the former Old Navy space on Market Street, more than five years after the brand initially departed from its three-story flagship on Powell Street. The new location will span two floors and 20,315-square feet of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, according to a news release shared with SFGATE this week, which called the opening “a new chapter for UNIQLO in the city.”
“We are proud to return to San Francisco, a city and community that have long held a special place in UNIQLO’s story,” Fuminori Adachi, CEO of UNIQLO USA, said in a statement.
The opening will bring Uniqlo’s presence up to two stores in San Francisco, with another longtime location at Stonestown Galleria. Other Bay Area stores can be found in Daly City, Emeryville, San Mateo, Concord and Pleasanton.
A mannequin inside the Uniqlo store at Stonestown Galleria. (Lynn F./Yelp)
Uniqlo plans to engage with the city further as it opens its second store, with new sponsorships and product collaborations. The brand plans to partner with the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library on literary events held across the city, including One City One Book and the Night of Ideas Read-In. Uniqlo will also provide 250 family admission vouchers for the Exploratorium in addition to supporting programming at four of its After Dark events, the company said. Locally focused artist collaborations at the store will include custom T-shirt and tote bag designs from Muni, students at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts and fnnch, the polarizing artist behind the city’s ubiquitous honey bears.
In-store displays and advertisements are slated to feature several local luminaries wearing Uniqlo clothing, including Alex Shen, founder of Lower Grand Radio; Rewina Beshue, the mixed media artist preserving her family’s historic Ethiopian restaurant, Club Waziema on Divisadero; Unity Skateboarding founders Jeffrey Cheung and Gabriel Anthony Resurreccion Ramirez; and Valerie Chapman, founder and CEO of the artificial intelligence career platform Ruth.
The Uniqlo store is opening in the former Old Navy. (Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE)
The downtown San Francisco store is also set to feature a Re.Uniqlo Studio, where customers can customize their garments with embroidery or have them tailored, repaired, donated or recycled.
The news comes as Uniqlo opens several new stores across the U.S. this year in New York City, Miami Beach, Houston and Washington, D.C.
Originally named Unique Clothing Warehouse, Uniqlo was founded in 1984 in Hiroshima, Japan, when original CEO Tadashi Yanai took over his father’s suit store, expanding it to include unisex casualwear. Uniqlo now has over 2,500 stores across the globe, with 86 in the U.S.
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This article originally published at Highly anticipated Uniqlo store returning to downtown SF within a month.