J. Press eyes U.S. expansion

Under the leadership of their new president, Takashi Sudo, popular menswear brand J. Press is eyeing a U.S. expansion. Sudo, who was named president of J. Press last December, is known for overseeing the Japanese operations for prestigious American brands, including Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan. On Tuesday, during the preview of the York Street collection Sudo discussed his plans for adding three new units to J. Press in New Haven, Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Over the next five to ten years Sudo plans to expand J. Press with an additional five to ten stores with New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago as their primary targets for expansion. J. Press once had a comfortable home on Madison Avenue, but, last year, when the landlord decided to renovate the building they closed their doors. They were hoping to secure prime retail space at the corner of 49th and Madision, but, Men’s Wearhouse beat them to it.

“We’re still looking for the right location,” Yuki Okita, former CEO and president of J. Press who works closely with Sudo, told Women’s Wear Daily. With Manhattan having no shortage of retail space it shouldn’t take too much longer for them to find new home (Soho, or the new Brookfield Place perhaps?) The bread and butter of the brand’s business is in Japan, though.

In Japan there are more than 100 J. Press stores in operation. While J. Press’s home is the United States, expansion has been virtually non-existent, but, now they would like to finally change that. It’s not a matter of lagging American sales, or not wanting to open more stores in the U.S. until now, but, rather, a matter of logistics. The different timing and scheduling of the design and production of the collection has been the primary deterring factor in their U.S. expansion.

Both J. Press and their brother label York Street are produced and designed in Japan. The problem this presents is in the U.S. men’s wear is shown in January, but, in Japan it’s shown in April. Sudo told Women’s Wear Daily, “we recently met with our Japanese production team and we’ll now be doing it at the same time, so we can finally expand here.” Fashion obsessed gentleman surely hope so, especially those who are waiting for J. Press’s triumphant return to New York City.