More bad news for retail in downtown Seattle. The North Face shut down its flagship store at 520 Pike Street on Sunday, May 12, 2024, after taking over the space from H&M in 2019.

On my way back from NYC last week, I stopped by Din Tai Fung at Pacific Place to pick up some dinner. While crossing the street from the light rail station, I made a mental note of all the shuttered retail spaces: Forever 21, Old Navy, and GAP across the street; Nike & H&M down the block, Columbia further down on Pine Street, and Lululemon on the street level of Pacific Place.

Puget Sound Business Journal notes “lagging office worker foot traffic in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic”, so is it a matter of fixing the whole downtown retail ecosystem or just attracting retailers that match the needs of the current downtown residents?

In related retail closure news, @Matches founders Tom and Ruth Chapman chat with WWD about the brand’s demise and what the future of e-commerce looks like. Matches initially launched in 1987 with one retail space in Wimbledon and soon became an early adopter in the luxury e-commerce space.

At its height, “it had revenues of nearly 300 million pounds and profit after tax of 19 million pounds”. The company was sold to Apax in 2017 in hopes that the brand’s financial success would continue. However, the company stumbled during the pandemic.

Ruth Chapman believes that the company took a turn for the worse due to the lack of female board members at Apax stating, “First of all, you need a woman leading and you need women on the board. You need to really understand the sensitivities of the brands, clients, and customers and you need to stay in touch with them”.

Tom Chapman thinks the luxury e-commerce space is recalibrating and says, “People will run successful e-commerce businesses by looking at how to manage brands properly, and how to build relationships. It’s our job to inspire, consider, and connect our customers, our people, and our brands - and that has been lost”.

Welcome to Weekly Staples! A brief overview of my favorite fashion industry articles from the week related to marketing, retail trends, and events.

Masterful Marketing

With TikTok’s Fate in Limbo, Could YouTube Shorts be Beauty’s Next Big Growth Opportunity via WWD

WWD lists the top beauty brands with the most views in Q1 2024 on YouTube Shorts as TikTok’s future remains in limbo. Brands include Laneige with 42.1M views, Glow Recipe with 15.8M views, and Fenty Beauty with 6.4M views.

A Gucci Garden Blooms in London Concrete via WWD

With creative director Sabato de Sarno, Gucci aims to highlight craftsmanship to “make the brand more exclusive, and appeal to a customer who sees luxury in detail, color and texture, rather than in beacon-like logos or excessive embellishment”. The intention is clear in the brand’s 2025 cruise collection shown at the Tate Modern Tanks in London.

How Shein’s content is keeping up with its fast-paced supply chain via Modern Retail

SHEIN’s head of content creation, Marisa Runyon, explains that the popular e-commerce company hired in-house content creators to “help the company respond quickly to fashion trends” and incorporated seven-minute live stream shows featuring up to 30 pieces where hosts “go through the details of the pieces as well as give advice on how to style these pieces”.

Brands are leaning into the racing aesthetic via Modern Retail

Motorsports brands are taking advantage of fashion partnerships, including Palm Angels and the Haas F1 Team, PacSun at this year’s Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, and ‘47 with NASCAR. The trend most likely comes from the popularity of Netflix documentaries highlighting the behind-the-scenes looks into the productions of these racing series. While tickets to attend and clothing pieces supporting these events may be more expensive, fans are more than willing to spend their money since many of these items are exclusively sold at races.

Ulta has been quietly testing a gamified loyalty program called GlamXplorer via Glossy

Eight months ago, Ulta Beauty launched its supplemental gamified loyalty program, GlamXplorer, to “one thousand top-spending” loyalty customers in partnership with Hang, a gamified loyalty program company. Shoppers got exclusive access to over forty mini-games through “an Ulta-provided web link” that rewarded personalized prizes “using AI, based on their preferences and behaviors”. The program has proven so far to be successful.

Retail Rundown

Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing is betting big on US stores and targeting Gen Z via Glossy

Does America Need Another Fast-Fashion Brand? Uniqlo Thinks So via Business of Fashion

Fast Retailing, parent company of Uniqlo, is introducing one of its other brands, GU to the US with a 10,000 SF shop in Soho, NYC (replacing its pop-up shop that will close later this summer in the popular shopping neighborhood) and online shopping for US customers. The retailer will offer fewer product options at a slightly higher price than competitors like SHEIN or Temu.

When fashion archives fill the red carpet, who wins? via Vogue Business

As many archival fashion pulls hit the red carpet, @Vogue Business asks, who benefits more regarding sales and recognition, the original designers or the secondhand shops? According to panelists at a recent summit, “[secondhand shops] endured a significant drop in sales to design houses in recent years following the economic impacts of COVID, and the cost of living crisis”. Some luxury brands even attempt to repurchase their older items to protect their reputation.

The First Black Woman-Owned, Women-Focused Sneaker Boutique Will Soon Open Its Doors After Its Founder Turns Online Community Into an IRL Experience via Blavity

Eight years after launching Chicks n’ Kicks Daily, Channing Beumer sets her sights on the brand’s first retail location in Dallas. Blavity notes the digital platform “gives women who love fashion and sneakers a community and digital platform where they feel seen”. During a panel event, Channing’s partner Cassidy Edwards, realized her mission of “what a Black woman-owned and operated sneaker retail company could do for the culture”. Once open, “the retail location will offer sneakers, apparel, and accessories, along with a co-working space” becoming an “innovative space in the Dallas community that celebrates women”.

Conscious Content

Mary J. Blige's “The Mary Boot” Collaboration with Guiseppe Sells Out via Essence on Instagram

A quick case study in knowing your audience. Mary J. Blige launched her first boot collaboration with Giuseppe Zanotti on Sunday, May 12, 2024. While her younger fans gawked at the $1,295 price point, the day ones snagged their pairs selling out “The Mary Boot” in 24 hours.

Lululemon vets on launching Left on Friday: ‘We were able to go so far so fast’ via Glossy Podcast

Founders of the swimwear brand, Left on Friday, discuss strategizing and bootstrapping their brand after leaving Lululemon, building brand awareness by outfitting Team Canada’s Beach Volleyball team at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and navigating through COVID with cash flow and supply chain challenges.