The '80s are Back: Esprit Coming to Rockefeller Center

We should be getting all excited about this, like its 1984 or something! Esprit was everywhere back in the '80s. Real People Ads, Catalogs, Superstores etc. etc., and then it started fading when the decade turned, apparently a victim of founders Doug & Susie Tompkins' ugly divorce. The company eventually got sold, packed itself up and went to Europe where it flourished. When they returned to New York a couple of years ago, they had transformed themselves from the junior resource evryone remembered into more of a contemporary lifestyle brand, bewildering its former customers. Now that they have taken a few years to retool, they are taking out 14,400 of former Barnes & Noble square feet at 600 Fifth Avenue at 48th Street, and are ready to expand aggressively having recovered from the resounding thud of their return to this market. This will be the fourth Esprit store in Manhattan joining SoHo, Flatiron and Columbus Circle branches, but it will be the highest profile unit, and better able to take advantage of the tourists (slack-jawed and otherwise) who already know the brand and swarm Rockefeller Center. Will they be able to recapture their '80s glory days? We can expect to find out in November.