Do you know that “Uniqlo” started as “Unique Clothing Warehouse” and they are supposed to be called “Uni-Clo” instead?
Origin of Uniqlo
Uniqlo is a clothing apparel company founded in Yamaguchi, Japan, in 1949 as a textiles manufacturer.
In 1984, a clothing company called ‘Ogori Shoji’ opened a shop called “Unique Clothing Warehouse” in Hiroshima, Japan.
The store focused on mass-producing affordable basics in various colours and made its way into major global cities.
In the 1990s, the Japanese economy faced a downturn called “The Great Recession”, which lasted for an entire decade.
However, the brand’s cheap clothes that aim to sell clothes at affordable prices for the consumer became popular fast as it caters to people trying to cut back on spending.
Most of its original growth was centred in Japanese suburbs with roadside stores.
A decade after opening the first store, Uniqlo managed to open another 100 stores.
Soon after, in 1998, they finally achieved their popularity after the launch of a fleece apparel campaign.
However, they faced a downturn with their profits and sales dropping but managed to overcome the issue by growing their women’s line, making them face recovery afterwards.
When they first expanded their stores overseas, they opened many stores quickly, making most of them had to shut down soon after.
After years of efforts, Uniqlo has more than 800 stores worldwide and has become the biggest apparel chain in Asia.
With their slogan “Made for all”, Uniqlo is known for its dozens of colours accessible for casual wear among men, women and kids.
A typo served right
Initially, the company was named “Unique Clothing Warehouse,” but after joining these words together, it became “Uniqlo”.
However, it was never planned to be so, as it should be shortened to “Uni-Clo”.
One of the employees from the company had misspelt it during the registration of the new joint business in a legal bureau in Hong Kong in 1988.
It was misspelt as “Uni-Qlo”.
Tadashi Yanai, the company’s boss, then saw the document with the wrong spelling of his company’s name and decided to set it as the name for the whole new offical brand as he liked the ‘typo’ very much.
Now, “Uniqlo” is an established brand name with high-quality of their clothes at affordable prices.
READ ALSO:
