Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo will not follow the Western trend of shuttering its business in Russia, saying, “Clothing is a necessity of life.”
Uniqlo has 49 Russian stores that will stay open despite the war with Ukraine that has caused a massive humanitarian crisis as the Kremlin orders bombing of residential areas. Rival retailers such as Zara and H&M have stopped doing business in Russia.
“There should never be war. Every country should oppose it,” Uniqlo’s founder, Tadashi Yanai, told a media outlet. “Clothing is a necessity of life. The people of Russia have the same right to live as we do.”
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Uniqlo says it’s the fourth-largest retailer in the world with 1,500 stores. The announcement to stay in Russia was met with criticism on Twitter by consumers who vowed never to wear the clothing again and by others who ironically wore the items while escaping bloodshed.
“I am a Ukrainian refugee and one of the few things I have left is a Uniqlo sweater,” one user, @somewritten, tweeted. “I was wearing it in the bomb shelters while Russians tried to kill us all.”
Ukrainian Pat Hollmann tweeted about a similar experience, wearing a Uniqlo coat in a bomb shelter.
“It is warm, and I will keep it till the war’s end. I just wanted to let you know that the war Russia started should not deprive people in Ukraine of a basic human need to stay alive and healthy.”
Dear @UNIQLO_JP, I wear your coat to the bomb shelter here, in Ukraine. It is warm, and I will keep it till the war’s end. I just wanted to let you know that the war Russia started should not deprive people in Ukraine of a basic human need to stay alive and healthy.
— учілка учіла учат (@PatHollmann) March 7, 2022
Olga Rudenko, chief editor of the Kyiv Independent, tweeted, “Half the clothes I own are Uniqlo. It felt like the brand has the right values. Now Uniqlo decides to stay in Russia where its taxes pay for the murder of children in Ukraine. Needless to say, will never buy again.”
Others posted photos of the dead and bombed-out buildings, blaming Uniqlo in part.
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Yanai said he would monitor the situation, but it’s unclear what kind of buying power the Russian public has after the ruble collapsed last month following a series of financial sanctions meted out by the United States.
