fashion retail founded ube yamaguchi japan 1949 ; 67 years ago 1949 headquarters midtown tower akasaka 9 chome minato tokyo japan key people tadashi yanai chairman president & ceo takahiro wakabayashi senior vice president products clothing number of employees 30 000 2008 parent fast retailing co. ltd. website uniqlo.com uniqlo co. ltd. kabushiki gaisha yunikuro pronounced you nee klo in english 1 is a japanese casual wear designer manufacturer and retailer . the company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of fast retailing co. ltd. since november 2005 . in addition to japan the company operates in fourteen countries globally . contents 1 history 1.1 origins in japan 1.2 private label strategy 1.3 labour rights record 2 sports sponsorships 3 2020 goals 4 worldwide stores 4.1 australia 4.2 belgium 4.3 bangladesh 4.4 canada 4.5 china 4.6 france 4.7 germany 4.8 indonesia 4.9 south korea 4.10 malaysia 4.11 philippines 4.12 russia 4.13 singapore 4.14 thailand 4.15 united kingdom 4.16 united states 5 notable projects 5.1 designers invitation 5.2 t shirt convenience store 5.3 uniqlock flash animation 5.4 grameen uniqlo 5.5 pharrell williams capsule collection 5.6 other collaborations 6 awards 7 locations by country 8 references 9 external links history edit origins in japan edit uniqlo in ginza tokyo . since march 1949 a yamaguchi based company ogori sh ji which until then had been operating men s clothing shops called men s shop os existed in ube yamaguchi . in may 1984 they opened a unisex casual wear store in fukuro machi naka ku hiroshima under the name unique clothing warehouse . initially from the contraction of unique clothing the brand was going to register under uni clo . however in 1988 during administration work between hong kong in relation to the brand staff in charge of registration misread the c as q and that is how the brand name was born . from then tadashi yanai changed the store name to uniqlo across japan 1 . in september 1991 the name of the company was changed from ogori sh ji to fast retailing and by april 1994 there were over 100 uniqlo stores operating throughout japan . private label strategy edit in 1997 fast retailing adopted a set of strategies from american retailer the gap known as spa for specialty store retailer of private label apparel meaning that they would produce their own clothing and sell it exclusively . they engaged the retail brand consultancy cia inc. the brand architect group to guide the company through the realization of this strategy including consulting on merchandise visual merchandising and display store design and a new logo designed by richard seireeni and sy chen of the brand architect group s los angeles office . uniqlo had begun outsourcing their clothing manufacturing to factories in china where labour was cheap a well established corporate practice . japan was in the depths of a recession at the time and the low cost goods proved popular . their advertising campaigns clothing quality and new retail layouts also proved fruitful . 2 in creating its clothing lines uniqlo embraces both shun and kino bi . shun means timing best timing but also at the same time it s a trend something that s updated and just in time neither early nor late . the company offers clothing basics but basics that are current that respond to what s going on today in art and design . kino bi means function and beauty joined together the clothing is presented in an organized rational manner and that very organization and rationality creates an artistic pattern and rhythm . all these qualities reflect the defining characteristics of modern japanese culture modern japaneseness . nobuo domae ceo uniqlo usa april 2007 1 in november 1998 they opened their first urban uniqlo store in tokyo s trendy harajuku district and outlets soon spread to major cities throughout japan . in 2001 sales turnover and gross profit reached a new peak with over 500 retail stores in japan . when uniqlo decided to expand overseas it separated uniqlo from the parent company 1 and established fast retailing jiangsu apparel co. ltd. in china . in 2002 their first chinese uniqlo outlet was opened in shanghai along with four overseas outlets in london england . but sales did not go well in england and stocks in japanese warehouses were overflowing . in 2002 and 2003 uniqlo profits dropped sharply . citation needed in 2004 the company began joint ventures with japanese fashion magazines and hired such celebrities as norika fujiwara to appear in commercials . they teamed up with new designers and profits rose including at london outlets . the acquisition of other fashion companies by fast retailing also helped the struggling company get back on its feet . citation needed uniqlo in shinsaibashi osaka . 2005 saw more overseas expansion with stores opening in the united states new york city hong kong tsim sha tsui and south korea seoul their south korean expansion being part of a joint venture with lotte . as of year end 2005 in addition to its overseas holdings uniqlo had around 700 stores within japan . citation needed by 2006 sales were 4 billion . 1 by april 2007 the company had set a global sales goal of 10 billion and a ranking among the top five global retailers joining what at the time was gap h & m inditex and limited brands . 1 fast retailing signed a design consulting contract for uniqlo products with fashion designer jil sander in march 2009 . 3 shiatzy chen has been approached by uniqlo to produce a capsule collection of ready to wear pieces to launch in november 2010 while asia s largest uniqlo store outside japan opened its doors in kuala lumpur in the same month . labour rights record edit in january 2015 a number of labour rights violations were reported at uniqlo suppliers in china . 4 5 6 7 uniqlo pledged to remedy the violations . 8 9 in june 2015 uniqlo factory workers went on strike in relation to lay offs . 10 11 in november 2015 investigations into the measures uniqlo introduced in the wake of the january 2015 revelations found that uniqlo s remedies had been only partially successful with significant violations continuing to occur . 12 13 sports sponsorships edit uniqlo furnished the uniforms for japan s olympic athletes in the 1998 2002 and 2004 olympic games as well as the uniforms for j.league s thespa kusatsu team . former no. 1 player in the world golf ranking adam scott wore uniqlo when he won the 2013 masters at augusta national golf club in augusta georgia usa . current no. 1 atp tennis player novak djokovic has been wearing uniqlo apparel since may 2012 with the 2012 french open the first tournament where he competed in uniqlo clothing . already a 5 time grand slam champion when he signed with the japanese brand djokovic has since won seven more grand slams with uniqlo 2013 2015 and 2016 australian open 2016 french open men s singles 2015 us open as well as 2014 and 2015 wimbledon . 14 japanese no. 1 kei nishikori is another prominent tennis player endorsing uniqlo . 2020 goals edit uniqlo flagship store in shinsaibashisuji osaka uniqlo jeans at their tokyo store . on september 2 2009 fast retailing co. ltd. announced that the company would target annual group sales of 5 trillion yen about 61.2 billion us dollars and pretax profit from operations of 1 trillion yen about 12.2 billion us dollars by 2020 . this means that the company is aiming to become the world s biggest specialty retailer of private label apparel with a continuous growth rate of 20 % per year . the figure breaks down as one trillion yen from uniqlo s japan business three trillion yen from its international business and one trillion yen from japan related and global brand business . clarify the company s international business target breaks down as one trillion yen in china one trillion in other asian countries and one trillion in europe and the united states . 15 worldwide stores edit this section may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience . please help by spinning off or relocating any relevant information and removing excessive detail that may be against wikipedia s inclusion policy . january 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message uniqlo currently has over 1 400 stores in 16 markets worldwide . 16 17 australia edit their first store opened on 16 april 2014 at emporium melbourne melbourne cbd and their second store opened on 17 september 2014 at chadstone shopping centre chadstone . a third store opened at eastland shopping centre on 29 october 2015 . in sydney a third store opened on 16 october 2014 at macquarie centre north ryde and their fourth store opened on 13 november 2014 at mid city centre . a new store has opened on 30 may 2015 at westfield miranda south of sydney . 18 uniqlo opened its first stores in queensland in late 2015 with the introduction of two brisbane stores at the queen street mall and the indooroopilly shopping centre . 19 on may 5 2016 uniqlo opened its first gold coast store in pacific fair shopping centre . belgium edit uniqlo opened its first store in belgium in antwerp on 2 october 2015 . 20 the store is located on the meir antwerp s most prominent shopping street . bangladesh edit uniqlo started their first store at the jamuna future park shopping complex in dhaka bangladesh in 2013 . 21 now scores of uniqlo retail stores are available in dhaka . canada edit in january 2015 uniqlo announced that it planned to open two stores in toronto in 2016 along with a goal of expanding to vancouver soon after . the two initial locations are at the toronto eaton centre which opened on 30 september 2016 and yorkdale shopping centre opening on 20 october 2016 . 22 china edit uniqlo in sanlitun beijing china . uniqlo entered the chinese mainland market in 2002 . as of july 2013 update there were 211 stores in mainland china including in beijing guangzhou chongqing chengdu nanjing ningbo shanghai shenzhen shijia tianjin and xi an . 23 uniqlo in harbour city hong kong . its first hong kong store opened in 2005 and there are now 25 uniqlo stores in that city . 24 locations include new town plaza apm plaza hollywood harbour city festival walk sunshine city plaza and citywalk . a store in macau is located at the venetian macao . 25 uniqlo opened its first taiwan store in the city of taipei on october 7 2010 concurrent with the opening of the hankyu department store which was followed by rapid expansion throughout the island and the debut of a flagship store in 2011 . as a part of an aggressive expansion strategy uniqlo has established storefronts in cities such as kaohsiung tainan taichung pingtung and hsinchu . 26 in may 2011 the magazine shukan bunshun clarification needed published a story alleging that uniqlo had forced employees at its stores and factories in china to work long hours for little pay . in response uniqlo unsuccessfully sued the weekly s publisher bungeishunj for 220 million for libel . 27 28 a 2015 online video of a couple having sex in a beijing uniqlo store changing room became notorious among chinese internet users . chinese police arrested at least five people in connection with the incident allegedly including the couple and three other disseminators of the video for having severely violated socialist core values . 29 the new york times noted that the store s exterior had become a popular venue for people to gather and take pictures in poses reminiscent of the video . 30 france edit in december 2007 uniqlo opened its first