From its Montreal punk rag roots to its current NYC-HQ’d constantly morphing media entity (publishing, film, records, TV, fashion, online), Vice has come a long way. And it’s the media brand’s many facets that has enabled its most recent marketing partnership, a form of flash retail with Japanese fashion retail brand UNIQLO. This month, Vice emptied its Soho store of its diverse range of designer lines, books, etc. and remade the shop into a UNIQLO store. The brand is set to expand into the U.S., and this marketing effort was a precursor to opening its 10,000 square-foot mega SKU stores in New Jersey.
The Vice team edited the hundreds of items in the line to a few well-chosen basics that would appeal to the Vice audience. And the edited collection is on pace to do the greatest gross retail figures since the store opened, according to Ben Dietz, director of business development. For UNIQLO, the effort was valuable as PR alone, to give Manhattanites – not to mention tourists – a taste of the brand, which has also launched in the U.K. The retail experiment lasts just for the month, and while the strategy called for consumers to discover the UNIQLO branded store for themselves, various PR events, including some for media, were held at the location, culminating in a closing party at the end of Ad Week. Dietz says it’s a strong possibility Vice would do this for other brands, and likes the fact that the regular store reinventing itself overnight keeps consumers on their toes.
