There’s been a lot of buzz out on the interwebs and the blagoshpere lately about UNIQLO. For those not already in the know, UNIQLO is a purveyor of inexpensive, high quality, conservative fashion here in Japan. Recently they garnered attention in the US when it was announced that they would open a store in New York. Most notably though, they are also well known for their stylish t-shirts, whose designs are cycled throughout the year.
The store itself has a wonderful style, consisting mainly of plain white surfaces mixed in with brushed metal. It gives the impression of being inside Mac OS X. In addition to the touch-screen catalogues on tables, there are these cool wall street style LED tickers that appear to be giving real time information about sales trends of certain types of t-shirts. Along with that, are plasma displays showing these sales, and relationships to other shirts via a dynamic graphical hoo-ha of awesome. it all adds up to a pretty nifty, and seemingly real-time experience. (Or something out of an Orwell novel, but that’s up to the reader to figure out.)
The pictures you often see of the UNIQLO UT, are of the vending machine like walls of tubes, and as a concept, this strikes me as “Pretty Damn Cool”™. However, this effect of a multi story vending machine, is betrayed and, in my opinion, cheapened by what is not shown in the photos; the conventional clothing rack displaying the t-shirts themselves.
UNIQLO was so close to doing something new, interesting and different, and blew it in the execution. Everything about this store, from the racks of tubes, to the flat panel displays about the racks and in the tables, to even the walls themselves scream “I am modern, I am new, I am not a clothing store”. All that taken away by a rickety old rack in the middle of every aisle. I can just imagine the board room scene where this decision was made.
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