Urban Still Rolling In Dough

Sometime in the last few years, American Apparel took the title of “hip clothing store everyone rags on” away from Urban Outfitters. How’d they do it? Unclear. Now that Rick Santorum’s gone, people don’t care the place is owned by a right-winger anymore; by contrast, American Apparel’s owner is creepy as hell¹. Nobody even really makes a peep when Urban brings out its annual “offensive” product in order to get attention.

Well, maybe this will swing the tide back in Urban’s favor: Despite the recession/depression/complete destruction of the American economy, Urban turned nearly a $60 million profit in the third quarter.

The company cited higher profit margins and a tight control of sales-and-administrative expenses. Going into the key holiday-shopping season, the company said it has maintained “rigorous management of inventory and expenses.” In the recent quarter, tighter control of inventory meant fewer items marked down for discount sale.

But the company apparently also attracted shoppers. For the quarter ended Oct. 31, Urban Outfitters had sales of $478 million, up 26 percent from the previous year’s sales of $379.3 million. On a comparable basis, measuring the same stores as a year ago, sales rose by 10 percent overall at its three store brands.

So that explains the resent surge in one-liner t-shirts I’ve been seeing.

¹ My favorite part of that blog post is the line, “That’s a charitable assessment of the November issue; a less generous one is to call it the biggest blunder in the magazine’s 18-month history.” Ohh, no! How will Portfolio ever recover…

Santa’s Elves Need A Better Union

Every year, children write letters to Santa Claus. Santa’s too busy making presents (or, rather, making plans to outsource it to Chinese elf labor) to respond to all the letters, so post office workers do the deed for him.

Only, uh, now the post office is making everyone who answers letters for Santa provide photo ID and sign a liability waiver because it’s worried about sexual predators. While the waiver is also to absolve the post office of any liability in case of a lawsuit — maybe if little Johnny didn’t get that Nintendo Wii he wanted, he’ll sue Santa — apparently the whole thing is for, uh, protecting the children.

A corporation or nonprofit must promise not to hold the post office responsible for legal action that might result from “authorized or unauthorized handling, use and response to the subject Letters to Santa by any person.” [...] Worries about sexual predators, identity theft and frivolous lawsuits make it imperative that the names and addresses not fall into the wrong hands.

“Protecting our children is our No. 1 concern, so we want to know who is requesting the letters,” [Doylestown Postmaster Eileen Wilkinson] said.

More »

Rittenhouse Vibrant Despite Loss Of Chain Store HQ

Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron, the limerent object of many of Philadelphia blogger, has a piece in this month’s Metropolis about the shiny new-ish Urban Outfitters headquarters down at the Navy Yard.

It’s, as usual, a fine article about the buildings; in a contrast to what Robert A. M. Stern Architects did for a city planning commission, the Urban headquarters kept in remnants from the building’s past. (And, for example, wood was reclaimed from a convent’s school’s basketball court, and added into the project. Neat!) Judging from the photos, the whole look is so much more better than any one-liner t-shirt.

And while the loss of any Center City business besides Dollar-O-Rama or whatever is a disappointment, I don’t think we were ever in this much danger:

When I first heard that Philadelphia’s Urban Outfitters (UO) was relocating its headquarters from its cozy Rittenhouse Square offices to the city’s decommissioned navy yard, it sounded like bad news for every­­one concerned. The idea of yanking more than 600 of Philadelphia’s most creative—not to mention best-dressed —workers out of downtown was the equivalent of exiling Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue fashion houses to an industrial park near JFK. Losing so many trendsetters would surely diminish the Center City District’s hard-won cool quotient.

She’s right a bit, though. Now that Urban is positioned like 20 blocks south of the Wachovia Center, my personal cool quotient has dipped a bit.

A Stitch in Time [Metropolis]
Philly’s Best New Company HQ? Forget Comcast. Try Urban Outfitters [Skyline Online]

Founded By Penn Alums, Urban Was Founded By Penn Alums

It’s been a while since we all checked in with Penn wunderkind/investigative journalist Stephen Morse.

Let’s see what he’s up to now (copied verbatim):

Last week when my friend brought home a reusable ice luge ice luge from Urban Outfitters, I couldn’t stop singing the praises of the Penn-alum founded company founded by Penn alums that opened its doors for the first time in at 43rd and Locust 43rd and Locustin the 1970s.

Yes, but where did it open? And who founded it? And what reusable product did your friend buy? Answers, Stephen, we need answers!

Keffieh faux-pas [The Spin @ DP.com]

Urban’s 2006 Publicity Tour Heats Up

Last week the Inquirer began the annual Urban Outfitters Controversy™, where Urban Outfitters stocks some stupid item that offends some people and gets a lot of free publicity out of the whole deal.

This time, it was a Christmas ornament in the shape of a glittery plastic handgun. After the Inquirer called all the requisite people — anti-violence groups, the governor’s office, NAMBLA, etc. — the chain of events was set in motion. A call for a boycott and protests followed, as well as a few more articles in the paper.

And, yet, despite yesterday’s protest outside the company’s Center City store on Walnut Street, the ornament has sold out and the company is ordering more from China or Taiwan or whereever. (Well, replace “despite” in that previous sentence with “in part due to.”)

The Daily News wrote that “Urban Outfitters issued a statement saying the gun was one of a number of ‘dark humor items,’ including ‘devil monkeys’ and skulls, providing an ‘ironic twist’ to holiday tradition.” Well, no, that’s not true. The only thing being celebrated here is commercialism, and there’s nothing ironic about that in America.

Ornament is a sellout [Daily News]
Nov. 22: Newspapers Joining In On Half-Assed Thanksgiving Eve Fun

Newspapers Joining In On Half-Assed Thanksgiving Eve Fun

Oh no! A gun ornament! Let’s write a big article quoting people denouncing it! (With a clever headline, though.)

Hot — well, okay, months later — on the trail of the Daily News‘ war on t-shirts, the Inquirer today spotlights the Urban Outfitters Christmas ornament in the shape of a gun. (Really, it’s an article about how Urban Outfitters is selling another item to get people to say “Urban Outfitters” without them having to pay for it. This joke was gleefully stolen from the Craig Kilborn-era Daily Show. Remember him? Five questions? Yeah.)

And, hey, what else are you going to write about today! It’s the day before Thanksgiving, nobody’s shopping yet — the deals don’t start until Friday — and all the readers are traveling home for turkey and football.

So, hey, articles denouncing gun ornaments. That you had to call up and tell the people about. But, hey, free publicity for the guy selling an ornament that he likes better!

Gun ornament draws fire [Inquirer]

Could Urban Be Protested Next?

As covered earlier today, the protestors who were outside of 12th Street Gym yesterday because of soon-to-be-former owner Bob Guzzardi’s support of Rick Santorum are all happy and excited because Guzzardi’s going to be selling his stake in the gym.

And now that they’re excited, one of the bloggers at All Spin Zone noticed that the next store with a Santorum-supporting owner to be protested could be none other than Urban Outfitters.

As you may know, the store that became Urban was founded by Richard Hayne and Judy Wicks in West Philly back in the 1970s, and while Wicks now runs the White Dog Cafe and is into grassroots activism and all that jazz, Hayne is a supporter of Rick Santorum and sells $150 jeans and shirts that say things like “Erin Go Fuck Yourself.”

As noted at All Spin Zone, Hayne isn’t a major backer of Santorum, donating only a thou to Santorum this cycle and $5K to the Republican Federal Committee of PA, but Guzzardi wasn’t a huge Santorum backer, either.

And with Urban’s flagship store being right here on Walnut Street… well, let’s just say there could be a day coming where to get your ironic t-shirts, you might have to walk through a bunch of people chanting “Rick sucks!” or whatever it is they do at these things.

Urban Outfitters Next? Santorum’s Friends Should Be Careful [All Spin Zone]
Earlier today: No more Slick Rick on 12th?
Photo by Malingering

Quickies: Yo Adrian!

• The National Coalition for the Homeless releases a list of the 20 meanest cities to the homeless and Philadelphia is not on the list. Take that, Sarasota! (Oh, and Chicago and New York and Las Vegas and Dallas and Houston and San Francisco and Los Angeles and Phoenix and Pittsburgh.) [KYW 1060]

• The Case of the Hit and Run Nun heats up: Police found a truck that kinda sorta matches the description of the truck that struck and killed Sister Paul Mercedes Perreca. They questioned the driver, a Northeast Philly man, but say he’s just a “person of interest,” not a suspect. If Law & Order has taught me anything, there’s about 15 more minuntes left until Briscoe and Green catch the real killer! [Inky]

• New Jersey slogan: “New Jersey: Come See For Yourself.” Eh. I don’t see that making it onto an ironic Urban Outfitters tee anytime soon. [6 ABC]

• And, KYW 3 has a slideshow of Rocky Balboa sightings. [KYW 3]