UpWest to Open Three New Stores This Summer
UpWest, a contemporary men’s and women’s brand under the Expr umbrella along with Express and Bonobos, will open three stores this summer.
The apparel, accessories, wellness and home goods brand, whose mission is to “Provide Comfort for People & Planet,” operates 13 stores around the U.S. The new locations will be Pearl Street in downtown Boulder, Colorado, which will open on Saturday; Bellevue Square in Bellevue, Washington, on Aug. 26, and The Mall at Green Hills in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sept. 9. Each store will offer the full assortment of UpWest’s men’s and women’s apparel crafted from sustainable fabrics, along with outdoor accessories, candles and diffusers, throw pillows and blankets.
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In keeping with its mission, UpWest will partner with local organizations to donate 1 percent of sales in each of the new stores to the respective communities. During each location’s opening weekend, UpWest will donate 100 percent of sales and $1 for every customer e-mail collected.
“We’re thrilled to expand UpWest’s presence with the opening of three new stores in Bellevue, Boulder and Nashville,” said Jamie Schisler, president and chief comfort officer. “These locations will offer our customers a genuine brand experience while supporting local organizations. We can’t wait to share UpWest’s mission and inspire shoppers in these cities to be part of our vision for a better, more compassionate world through our Give Back programs.”
In addition to the store rollout, UpWest will partner this winter with the Aura app on a capsule collection of apparel that will include QR codes on the interior label offering curated meditations by Aura, as well as specific design elements such as soft touch snaps and functional fidgets. These special design details were created in partnership with Mental Health America to help promote grounding. During the winter season, each order on UpWest.com will go toward providing one free mental health screening in partnership with Mental Health America.
UpWest was founded in 2019 and while Expr does not provide sales volume for its individual divisions, the brand posted sales growth of 43 percent last year, according to the 2022 annual report, and expanded beyond its own direct-to-consumer operations to a wholesale relationship with Nordstrom. Its casual sportswear and loungewear is created from organic cotton and recycled polyester and nylon.
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