Urban Outfitters: one-of-a-kind vintage
November 11, 2023
Urban Outfitters is a multinational chain of retail lifestyle stores that caters to young adults. It has 182 store locations in the United States and 19 in Canada.
In the 1970s, Dick Hayne opened a store in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and called it Free People. When he opened the second location, he changed the name from Free People to Urban Outfitters.
The Urban Outfitters Corporate Office Campus is located on the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. In 2007, the company received the National Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Urban Renewal
What is “Urban Renewal?” It’s “fashion” that is totally new one-of-a-kind vintage. It’s all about urban youth culture, a carefully constructed lifestyle brand that aims to sell a caricature of urban decline to young adults. In 2012, Richard Hayne, president and CEO of Urban Outfitters, described the company’s fashion style as “the upscale homeless person” with “a slight degree of angst.”
Urban Outfitters style, “vintage condition.”
Urban Outfitters is renowned for appealing to hipster chic. Most hipsters do their clothes shopping at thrift stores and flea markets, building their wardrobes from old, worn and vintage fashions. The good news is that the Urban Renewal line offers shoppers the vintage shopping experience without having to shop the flea markets. For example, Urban Renewal’s vintage mechanic’s shirts truly look like they come from a working-class closet.
In December 2022, Urban Outfitters announced the departure of its president, Francis Pierrel, from the company. Richard Hayne is now the president and CEO of Urban Outfitters.
Gloria Sauvé
Communications