Todd Snyder is getting back into the retail business.
The
designer, who was senior vice president of men’s design for J. Crew
before launching his namesake label two years ago, has signed a retail
licensing deal with Anglobal Ltd. to open stores in Asia. A flagship is
expected to make its debut in early spring in the Aoyama district of
Tokyo, followed by another two to three units over the next three years.
The
publicly held Anglobal was founded in 1964 and counts Margaret Howell
Ltd. as a wholly owned subsidiary. The company currently operates 103
Margaret Howell stores in Japan and Europe.
“This has been
brewing for a while,” Snyder said. “Two years ago we did a pop-up store
in Japan, and we’ve always had a huge following there. The Japanese have
always embraced us — 50 percent of our business is over there. They
love America and Americana.”
He said Anglobal approached him with
the idea to open stores in Asia and they struck a deal. In addition to
the 1,200-square-foot space the partners are searching for in Aoyama,
Snyder said he hopes to open another unit in Tokyo, as well as two in
the surrounding area.
Snyder said he will design the store and it
will be “modeled after a tailor shop.” The designer’s co-branded
tailored clothing with Southwick will be the “major anchor” of the
store, he said, and it will be mixed with sportswear items and pieces
from Snyder’s other collaborations, including Champion and Bates Hats.
Snyder
was with J. Crew when the retailer opened its first men’s-specific
store, The Liquor Store, in New York’s TriBeCa, a space that is wildly
popular with the Japanese, he said. “They came to me because of the
Liquor Store,” Snyder said of Anglobal.
The licensing deal covers
all of Asia, and Snyder believes there is potential for opening Todd
Snyder stores in South Korea as well. “It’s such a modern country, and
it’s growing faster than Japan,” he said.
And would he ever open a
store in the U.S.? “That’s the dream,” he said, saying he would like to
ultimately have stores in New York, Tokyo and London. “But I’m looking
for the right partner. I just don’t have the capital to do it myself.”
日本の皆様、今後ともよろしくお願いいたします。
