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Discussions about the fashion industry thread

bamgrinus

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I have an interview with one of the top executives at Uniqlo/ Fast Retailing next week. Curious if anyone has thoughts on what would be some good questions? This is one of the more interesting interviews I've been able to land, so I don't want to squander it.

Some things that I'm already planning to ask:

1. How does this person see the clothing retail industry changing? Mostly interested in the person's views on fast fashion, brick-and-mortar, rising rents in expensive cities, and managing global supply chains.

2. How is Fast Retailing, Uniqlo's parent company, responding?

3. How is Fast Retailing organized in terms of its internal structure, and how does this help or hurt its responsiveness to those challenges?

4. What makes Uniqlo different from other affordable clothing labels, such as Gap or Zara?

5. What are some of the legal challenges involved in managing a global brand? (I'm hoping to focus this interview mainly on law, business, and industry-related stuff).

Personally I'd like to know more about how they approach different customer tastes in different markets. I've heard that they had problems in the past with the fact that most of their stuff is very slim and a lot of Americans either don't want or can't fit that stuff. Do they change their offerings or try to carve out a niche?
 

NO MERCY

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I have an interview with one of the top executives at Uniqlo/ Fast Retailing next week. Curious if anyone has thoughts on what would be some good questions? This is one of the more interesting interviews I've been able to land, so I don't want to squander it.

Some things that I'm already planning to ask:

1. How does this person see the clothing retail industry changing? Mostly interested in the person's views on fast fashion, brick-and-mortar, rising rents in expensive cities, and managing global supply chains.

2. How is Fast Retailing, Uniqlo's parent company, responding?

3. How is Fast Retailing organized in terms of its internal structure, and how does this help or hurt its responsiveness to those challenges?

4. What makes Uniqlo different from other affordable clothing labels, such as Gap or Zara?

5. What are some of the legal challenges involved in managing a global brand? (I'm hoping to focus this interview mainly on law, business, and industry-related stuff).

I would be very interested to know all the different avenues by which consumer information/feedback gets to the corporate office, and how different consumer data is perceived. Page views vs social media interaction vs website reviews vs in-store traffic etc... how is demand calculated for any given offering?
 

cyc wid it

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Depending on how much time you have, I'd be curious about their overall strategy when it comes to collaborations (outside of athletes that they sponsor). They work with everybody from Capcom to Undercover etc.

Also ask them to meet you outside Uniqlo.
 

Todd Shelton

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I have an interview with one of the top executives at Uniqlo/ Fast Retailing next week. Curious if anyone has thoughts on what would be some good questions? This is one of the more interesting interviews I've been able to land, so I don't want to squander it.

Some things that I'm already planning to ask:

1. How does this person see the clothing retail industry changing? Mostly interested in the person's views on fast fashion, brick-and-mortar, rising rents in expensive cities, and managing global supply chains.

2. How is Fast Retailing, Uniqlo's parent company, responding?

3. How is Fast Retailing organized in terms of its internal structure, and how does this help or hurt its responsiveness to those challenges?

4. What makes Uniqlo different from other affordable clothing labels, such as Gap or Zara?

5. What are some of the legal challenges involved in managing a global brand? (I'm hoping to focus this interview mainly on law, business, and industry-related stuff).
Their predictions on how e-commerce will change as a percent of their business in the future.

Their predictions on the success of middle price point brands going forward. Or something about how consumers will be divided by price points.

Would love to see you post a link to article here when ready...
 

LaymanX

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"Uniqlo is not a fashion company, it's a technology company." Tadashi Yanai, founder and chief executive of Fast Retailing.

That always stuck out to me. Has that sentiment changed since 2012?

We've seen hints of that with the Magic Mirror, but what lies in store in the future?
 

smittycl

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I have an interview with one of the top executives at Uniqlo/ Fast Retailing next week. Curious if anyone has thoughts on what would be some good questions? This is one of the more interesting interviews I've been able to land, so I don't want to squander it.

Some things that I'm already planning to ask:

1. How does this person see the clothing retail industry changing? Mostly interested in the person's views on fast fashion, brick-and-mortar, rising rents in expensive cities, and managing global supply chains.

2. How is Fast Retailing, Uniqlo's parent company, responding?

3. How is Fast Retailing organized in terms of its internal structure, and how does this help or hurt its responsiveness to those challenges?

4. What makes Uniqlo different from other affordable clothing labels, such as Gap or Zara?

5. What are some of the legal challenges involved in managing a global brand? (I'm hoping to focus this interview mainly on law, business, and industry-related stuff).
Environmental impact of fast fashion, synthetic fabrics, etc? I remember you had already done some work on that topic, right?
 
Last edited:

cb200

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Question for fast retailing executive, change of CEO at Theory from a co-founder seems like a fairly distinct point in a companies lifespan. The outgoing CEO had been quite supportive of US based manufacturing and supporting the ecosystem needed for smaller brands in the US. How does "local" production and development fit inside the supply chain for the brand moving forward?
 

dieworkwear

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Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. These are all really great and I'll try to ask as many as I can.

This story is for an alumni magazine. I don't know if I can post it here. My understanding is that it took a lot of work to get this approved because Fast Retailing runs a tight ship and doesn't want people speaking on the record for anything. I'll try to summarize some of the more interesting points here though.
 

javy

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Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. These are all really great and I'll try to ask as many as I can.

This story is for an alumni magazine. I don't know if I can post it here. My understanding is that it took a lot of work to get this approved because Fast Retailing runs a tight ship and doesn't want people speaking on the record for anything. I'll try to summarize some of the more interesting points here though.
don't worry, i contacted the ppl at the magazine and they said it was ok for you to post it here ?
 

EUtroll

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"Uniqlo is not a fashion company, it's a technology company." Tadashi Yanai, founder and chief executive of Fast Retailing.

That always stuck out to me. Has that sentiment changed since 2012?

We've seen hints of that with the Magic Mirror, but what lies in store in the future?

Wow, with THAT website in 2019?
 

crazn

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I am actually interested in their makeover. They were really horrible before and that was an initial exposure in London, and suddenly they went to Super hip status with a revamp.
 

dieworkwear

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Far Fetch might buy Barneys. If it does, they will only keep two physical stores.

 

LA Guy

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Far Fetch might buy Barneys. If it does, they will only keep two physical stores.

I'm guessing NYC and LA? Those would make the most sense to me, though the SF one is a fixture as well.
 

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