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Can UNIQLO Set the Standard for Fast-Fashion Sustainability?
Last October, UNIQLO, a clothing retailer from Japan, introduced its very first pop-up store specializing in secondhand items in Harajuku, Tokyo. This move aligns with the company’s commitment to combat waste in the fashion industry. The temporary shop was open from Oct. 11 through Oct. 22 and offered a unique selection of 400 to 500 pre-owned pieces ranging from cozy sweaters to stylish pants, meticulously collected from UNIQLO patrons.
These garments weren’t just thrown on racks; some were rejuvenated with fresh dyes, giving them a new lease on life. And the prices were great, too — approximately one-third the cost of new items. For instance, cashmere knits went for 3,000 yen (around $20) at the time.
The initiative received positive feedback, with one 21-year-old local expressing delight over the opportunity to score quality clothing at budget-friendly prices.
This eco-conscious move isn’t new for UNIQLO. The company has been actively promoting sustainability since 2001 when it started collecting and recycling used fleece items. By 2006, this effort expanded to cover all of its products. Additionally, in 2021, it introduced a clothing repair service, now available in 33 stores across 14 countries and regions.
Its recycling program accepts “secondhand UNIQLO clothes in stores for reuse and [delivers] them to people in need worldwide in the form of emergency clothing aid for refugee camps and disaster areas together with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), NGOs, and NPO. Clothing that cannot be reused is recycled as fuel or soundproofing material.”
Additionally, UNIQLO announced on its site that it will be adding “UNIQLO Upcycled” to its sustainability initiatives as of Feb. 28. “We are giving clothing a second life through upcycling,” the announcement states. “Created by expert upcyclers, Sho Konishi from New York City and Sean Lequang from Los Angeles, unsellable items are transformed into stylish, one-of-a-kind pieces available for purchase today.”
UNIQLO’s Plans To Double Stores in North America During 2024
UNIQLO also announced plans to accelerate its growth in North America in 2024 by opening over 20 new stores across the U.S. and Canada, focusing on eastern and western regions, including new markets. This expansion aims to double the number of store openings from the previous year. UNIQLO, known for its innovative LifeWear clothing, aims to provide a unique guest experience, offering simple, high-quality apparel designed to improve daily life.
In a press release, Daisuke Tsukagoshi, CEO of UNIQLO North America, said, “Stores are the heartbeat of our business, where we can engage with our local communities, hear directly from our customers, and best understand their needs to continue to improve and perfect our products. We’re looking forward to a big year ahead.”
The company has reported significant growth in North America and anticipates continued success in 2024, with plans for double-digit sales growth in existing stores. Recent viral products and designer collaborations have boosted UNIQLO’s global popularity, reinforcing its commitment to enhancing customer connections. New stores are set to open in various locations in Spring 2024, including Tacoma, Lynnwood, Braintree, Providence (a new market), Staten Island, Toronto, Calgary, and Ottawa.
Inside UNIQLO’s Transparent Supply Chain
Fast Retailing, the company behind UNIQLO, is shedding light on its entire supply chain, a move aimed at meeting demands for greater transparency in the fashion industry.
For its popular cashmere winter wear, Fast Retailing has been meticulously inspecting cashmere goat farms since 2019, ensuring the welfare of the animals. Satellite data, obtained through a partnership with the University of the Ryukyus, further aids in assessing farms’ impacts on the environment.
Since last year, the retailer has mapped out its entire supplier network for each garment, tracing back to the raw materials. This complex process involves multiple stages and countries, making supply chain management particularly challenging.
Fast Retailing’s approach involves consolidating supplier factories, aiming to reduce transaction complexities and improve quality. This consolidation has already begun, with over 670 factories brought under Fast Retailing’s direct supervision as of September 2023. The company’s focus on transparency extends to its sales and production coordination, allowing it to minimize waste and maintain high profit margins.
Looking ahead, Fast Retailing plans to localize production to shorten lead times and align with regional demand. This strategy, already implemented in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam, aims to streamline operations while complying with evolving environmental regulations, such as the EU’s proposed digital product passport system.
In response to consumer demand for more information, Fast Retailing has started disclosing manufacturing locations and the proportion of recycled materials used in its products on its websites. By providing consumers with greater insight into its supply chain practices, Fast Retailing aims to build trust and empower customers to make informed choices, all while maintaining its commitment to quality and sustainability.
Discussion Questions
How can UNIQLO’s pioneering approach to secondhand clothing sales influence broader sustainability initiatives within the retail industry, and what strategic considerations should other retailers take into account when implementing similar programs?
How might the company balance its commitment to sustainability with the challenges posed by increased store presence, especially regarding resource consumption, supply chain management, and community engagement?
What are the implications for the wider fashion industry regarding consumer expectations, regulatory pressures, and operational efficiency?
Poll
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Mohammad Ahsen
Co-Founder, Customer Maps
Kai Clarke
CEO, President- American Retail Consultants
There are lots of things fashion retailers can do to become more sustainable. Uniqlo has been at the forefront of many of them: upcycled clothing, pre-owned pop-up stores, creating more durable apparel, recycling fabrics, launching repair services, better control over the supply chain, and reducing emissions. All of this is worthy and worthwhile, and it helps reduce the environmental footprint. However, retailers are ultimately there to sell things to consumers so what they cannot do, with any degree of commercial sanity, is try to persuade consumers to spend or consume less. That’s the inherent conflict in all of this.
UNIQLO’s secondhand clothing initiative sets a precedent for sustainability in retail. By offering affordable, upcycled, reuse, repair, remade, recycle options and transparent supply chain practices, the brand promote circular fashion. UNIQLO collects used clothes in stores for reuse, providing emergency aid for refugees and disaster areas. Unusable items are recycled into fuel or soundproofing, and there’s a recent initiative to recycle clothes into new garments, starting with down products.
Other retailers should focus on efficient supply chain management, consumer education, and community engagement. Implementing such programs requires commitment, innovation, and adapting to evolving environmental regulations. To balance sustainability with store expansion challenges, UNIQLO can optimize resource use through transparent supply chains and localized production. This ensures growth while maintaining a commitment to sustainability.
The wider fashion industry faces evolving consumer expectations for sustainability. Regulatory pressures require transparency, and operational efficiency demands supply chain scrutiny. Adapting to circular practices, transparent sourcing, and efficient operations is crucial for meeting consumer demands and complying with regulations while maintaining industry competitiveness.
In the fast fashion realm, Fast Retailing/Uniqlo has been at the forefront of sustainability. Unfortunately, that’s a dubious distinction. Supply chain transparency, manufacturing innovation, community involvement, re-commerce, and other initiatives are laudable yet the elephant in the room is consumption. Uniqlo’s plan to double its store count is at odds with reducing the sheer amount of goods in circulation.
When you think about it, it’s wild that the standard is for retailers not to know everything about their supply chains. I’m cautiously hopeful that this level of visibility will eventually become industry standard.
Fast Retailing still has the issue of Xinjiang-sourced cotton and its production via forced labor related to the CPC’s suppression of Muslim and Hui minorities in that region. When UNIQLO has previously made noises about ethical production, state-controlled media and 50-cent brigades tore into the company for being “against China” and the company backed down. As Mainland China is still the company’s biggest market there is only so far they can go without a catastrophic sales impact. As such, I am skeptical these moves – while intriguing on paper – are more about window-dressing for Western markets.
Insert “fashion” (whether fast or not) and “sustainability” in the same sentence and you have a classic example of an oxymoron. Not happening, at least not effectively.
As to Uniqlo as a brand, I wish they would get on with it and open more stores! As a side note, I love seeing the Uniqlo golf outfits that the Australian PGA Pro Adam Scott wears-I want some!
How can Uniqlo grow while reducing their impact on the environment? This is at odds with the basics of retailing (and business), if Uniqlo is to be believed about their sustainability efforts, even though it seems to be paying just lipservice to their overall goal of growth and profitability.
There is always scepticism when retailers use sustainability as part of their marketing messaging and product delivery. At the end of the day it isn’t something that every retailer can copy if it doesn’t fit within their core values. We can always argue about the material impact, but the way I see if if the effort is genuine it is better alternative than landfill. It will appeal to certain segments of their buyer market which is a bonus