CHAIN GANG: UNIQLO Heads West To San Francisco

At some point, we New Yorkers will have to share our favorite Japanese sportswear chain with the rest of America, and it looks like the first city to get it's own taste of Uniqlo will be San Francisco where the chain has just signed an lease for 29,000 square feet of flagship space at 111 Powell Street near Union Square. Thought the chain has always been clear about its intentions to ultimately have a large presence in the U.S., it has been extremely selective about choosing locations that will introduce it to regions beyond the New York City area. “We obviously need to begin this national expansion,” Yasunobu Kyogoku, chief operating officer of Uniqlo USA, tells WWD, “We want to have hundreds and hundreds of stores."

There's no further information about when, exactly, the store will open, although it's a pretty safe bet that the folks at Wonderwall are working on the store design plans as you read this. If the chain follows its now familiar form, San Franciscans will be seeing the little red squares of Uniqlo's logo popping up all over the city any time now, and that's just for starters.

Uniqlo Signs Deal for San Francisco Flagship, Eyes Further Growth (WWD)