With a new president at the helm, J. Press is ready to expand its footprint in the U.S.
The venerable men’s specialty store chain, which can trace its roots back to 1902 when Jacobi Press opened a store on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., has been owned by Japan’s Onward Kashiyama since 1986.
In December, the company named longtime executive Takashi Sudo to the post of president of the chain. Over the course of his career, he has operated the Japanese operations for American brands ranging from Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan to Calvin Klein. At J. Press, he is working closely with Yuki Okita, who had been chief executive officer and president of the retailer.
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During a preview for the York Street collection on Tuesday, Sudo said he is hoping to add to J. Press’ three units in the U.S. in New Haven, Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Mass. There is also a dedicated store on Bleecker Street in New York for the younger-skewed York Street brand. He envisions between five and 10 stores in key American cities over the next five years with New York City, San Francisco and Chicago tops on his list.
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Last January, J. Press shuttered its Madison Avenue store when the landlord renovated the building, forcing the unit to close its doors. “We’re still looking for the right location,” Okita said. She said J. Press had hoped to secure the corner spot at 49th and Madison, but Men’s Wearhouse beat her to it for its first Joseph Abboud store.
In Japan, Onward operates more than 100 J. Press stores and about the same number of in-store shops. But in its home country, the store’s expansion has been nearly nonexistent.
Sudo explained that one deterrent to opening more stores in the U.S. has been the different timing schedule of the design and production of the collection. The J. Press and York Street collections are designed in Japan.
In the U.S. market, men’s wear is shown in January, but in Japan, it’s April. “But we recently met with our Japanese production team and we’ll now be doing it at the same time,” he said, “so we can finally expand here.”
Okita said the company has been “visiting a lot of cities, so I think it’s going to happen.”