<h3><span class="strongInContent">GU/g.u. is supposed to be a brand for &#8220;young people&#8221; but&#8230;</span></h3>
<p> GU/g.u.&#8221; is a low-priced brand for young people, but have you ever felt that you have been seeing more and more elderly customers in the stores since a little before 2008?　It is no longer unusual to see older customers in their 40s or older entering and purchasing items not only at tenant stores in suburban shopping centers such as AEON Malls, but also at tenants in terminal buildings in the city center.</p>
<p> Why is the number of older customers increasing for g.u., which was relaunched in 2010 as a trend-conscious youth brand with Ms. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu as a character? In this issue, we would like to consider the reasons.</p>
<figure id="attachment_418224" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-418224" style="width: 4928px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0b47e46a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/03/60ad9c258705bf8f2243ff53ccd60895.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-418224" class="wp-caption-text"> Why is the g.u. gaining an older customer base? &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> The &#8220;990 yen jeans&#8221; hit → Kyary Pamyu Pamyu</span></h3>
<p> g.u. was originally a low-priced brand established by Fast Retailing in 2006 to collaborate with Daiei, and the first store was opened as a tenant within Daiei.</p>
<p> The first store was also opened as a tenant in Daiei. The company continued to open stores at a rapid pace, opening as many as 50 stores in one year, but in the fiscal year ended August 2007, it recorded only &#8220;about one-third of the planned level of performance. In 2009, taking advantage of the recession caused by the Lehman Shock and the fast fashion boom, the company launched &#8220;990 yen jeans.</p>
<p> This was a big hit, and in 2010, the brand was transformed into a trend-setting, low-priced brand for young people, with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu as the star of the line. This policy shift was once again successful, and the company continued to grow rapidly, surpassing 300 billion yen in sales to date.</p>
<p> The reasons for the lack of consumer support for g.u. at the beginning were quite clear.</p>
<p> It was positioned as a low-priced version of UNIQLO, selling products with the same design as UNIQLO (although the material composition was changed) at a fixed price that was 500-1,000 yen lower than the UNIQLO fixed price.</p>
<p> This plan was probably based on the fact that GAP&#8217;s low-priced &#8220;Old Navy&#8221; brand was doing well at the time. However, most of UNIQLO&#8217;s products were sold at least at half price during the period, or at least at a seven-discount discount if the price was higher.</p>
<p> The &#8220;990 yen jeans were our last bet,&#8221; as one interviewer put it at the time.</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Revival of &#8220;big size&#8221; and &#8220;loose silhouettes</span></h3>
<p> Since 2010, g.u. has continued to gain support from young people as a low-priced trend brand for young people, but in the latter half of the decade, the number of middle-aged and older customers gradually began to increase. However, the number of middle-aged and older customers has been gradually increasing since the latter half of the decade. Why is this?</p>
<p> There are many possible reasons. I would like to list some of the most significant factors.</p>
<p> First and foremost is the resurgence of the &#8220;big size&#8221; and &#8220;loose silhouette&#8221; mass trend. Around 2000, the clothing trend became a mass trend of &#8220;tight silhouettes,&#8221; in which the upper and lower garments stick to the body.</p>
<p> It is said that the trigger was Hedi Slimane&#8217;s collection of tight silhouettes proposed at Paris Fashion Week. Young people and middle-aged people have different physiques. Generally speaking, young people are thinner, while middle-aged and older people are stockier, even if they are smart. Naturally, g.u.&#8217;s clothing was thin enough to fit the physiques of young people, but difficult for middle-aged and older people to wear.</p>
<p> Around 2003, however, &#8220;big size&#8221; and &#8220;loose silhouettes&#8221; made a comeback. This is said to have been triggered by Demna Vasaria&#8217;s proposal at Paris Fashion Week. From there, the &#8220;big size&#8221; trend began to expand rapidly into the mass market.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;agelessness&quot; of clothing is ......"></div>
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<p>Naturally, g.u. clothes also became bigger in size. Because g.u. was claiming to be a trend-setting brand for young people, it became even larger in size than other middle-aged and older brands. In fact, I bought my first g.u. clothes in 2004. It was because they were a little bigger in size than they had been before.&#8217; After &#8217;17, g.u. clothes became bigger and bigger in size.</p>
<p> This means that g.u. clothes will be &#8220;easy to wear&#8221; for middle-aged and older men and women who are larger or have a stouter frame. The previous g.u. sizes were too small for them to wear. This is where the g.u. customer base has really started to grow.</p>
<p> Next would be &#8220;cheapness. As of 2013, both UNIQLO and g.u. have gone up in price due to the high cost of living, but both brands were cheaper back then than they are now. And g.u. was much cheaper.</p>
<p> No matter how many &#8220;trendy brands&#8221; you call them, they always sell basic products such as plain black long-sleeved T-shirts and plain black round-neck sweaters, so even ordinary people can easily buy such basic products. These basic items are easy for ordinary people to buy. This brand fits perfectly with the demand of middle-aged and older customers who are looking for inexpensive basic items.</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Agelessness&#8221; of clothing</span></h3>
<p> The most important factor is the &#8220;agelessness&#8221; of clothing.</p>
<p> As of 2013, daily casual wear has become almost ageless. In the past, middle-aged and older people used to dress like Nampei from &#8220;Sazae-san,&#8221; but now there are very few people dressed like that.</p>
<p> Both middle-aged men and women wear famous sports brand sneakers such as Nike, Adidas, and New Balance, pants such as jeans and chinos, and hoodies or sports brand sweatshirts with down jackets. This attire hardly changes between people in their 20s and 70s.</p>
<p> In the past, the middle-aged and older generation had a strong feeling that dressing like such young people was strange and embarrassing, but today&#8217;s middle-aged and older generation has no such feeling except for the most eccentric clothing. If anything, it is not unusual to find people who willingly and excessively want to look young. Personally, I think that is a bad idea. &#8230;&#8230;</p>
<p> The increase in the number of middle-aged and older people with such a mentality makes it easier for them to wear g.u. clothes designed as &#8220;youth-oriented trends&#8221;. On top of that, they are big sizes, easy to wear, and inexpensive.</p>
<p> In addition, compared to overseas fast fashion brands, g.u. products are often of higher quality in terms of materials used and sewing specifications for the price, which means that even middle-aged and older people can easily afford them.</p>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> More of a hobby than a clothing item&#8230;</span></h3>
<p> And last but not least, in a time when disposable income is not increasing, and personal tastes have become more diversified and multi-polarized, more and more people do not want to spend so much on clothing.</p>
<p> Fewer people want to wear expensive brand-name clothes than in the past, and more people want to focus their spending on personal hobbies other than clothing (camping, biking, motorcycling, guessing games, fishing, etc.). More people are also likely to have joined various subscription services.</p>
<p> This means that only the &#8220;clothing enthusiasts&#8221; are willing to spend more than a certain amount of money on clothing.</p>
<p> For such people, g.u. is a brand where they can get good clothes at an affordable price. And many middle-aged and older people in my age group are also spending on non-clothing hobbies, and there are quite a few who are satisfied with ZARA, Duclasse, and UNIQLO, not to mention g.u.</p>
<p> In the past, there were various fashion booms from the &#8217;60s to the &#8217;00s, and expensive brand-name products sold like hotcakes during the boom, but I personally believe that such fashion booms are unlikely to occur in the future.</p>
<p> Although g.u. will eventually rise in price again due to inflation, it is better to think that the demand for low-priced brands that are better suited to the prices at that time will remain strong and constant.</p>
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 Mitsuhiro Minami

 afro

 Why is the g.u. brand, which was relaunched in 2010 as a trend-setting youth brand with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu as its character, attracting an increasing number of elderly customers? In this issue, we would like to consider the reasons.

Suburban stores are full of elderly customers!　GU” is a big hit with the middle-aged and elderly, and the reasons are too surprising.

Access Ranking

Suburban stores are full of elderly customers! GU” is a big hit with the middle-aged and elderly, and the reasons are too surprising.

Access Ranking

Suburban stores are full of elderly customers!　GU” is a big hit with the middle-aged and elderly, and the reasons are too surprising.