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Instagram will let you buy products without leaving the app
Instagram is moving a little deeper into commerce by allowing you to buy goods without leaving the app. The checkout feature will at first be a closed beta in the US with more than 20 brands involved, including Adidas, Nike, Zara, Kylie Cosmetics, Uniqlo, Burberry, H&M, Mac, Prada and Michael Kors. More brands will join in the coming months.
Skip the line and grab a Uniqlo jacket from a vending machine
You can get Best Buy products, Snapchat Spectacles and Instagram likes from a vending machine these days. You can even get a car. Now, Uniqlo wants to add its clothing to the myriad of items you can snag from a machine. The retailer is planning to install 10 apparel-spouting vending machines in markets across the US over the next two months. Locations will include airports and shopping malls in New York, Houston and Oakland, among other cities.
Smarter bots are coming to Facebook, Google and Amazon assistants
We keep hearing that robots are going to take our jobs, but a company called MindMeld is giving us an idea how with its "Deep-Domain Conversational AI Platform." It'll allow bots that can essentially replace customer service agents and even baristas by answering complicated voice or text queries over Google Assistant, Amazon Echo, Facebook Messenger and other popular platforms. Uniqlo, for one, will offer a Facebook bot that can answer questions about its products, services and retail locations with more detail than ever.
Nintendo t-shirt design contest will be judged by Shigeru Miyamoto
In case you didn't own enough gaming tees, Uniqlo has opening its annual tee design competition, this time centered around Nintendo. The UTGP'17 comes with a healthy $10,000 prize pot and the contest is open to global entries. (Yes, even from you.) Notably, the collaboration has ensured Nintendo's legendary Shigeru Miyamoto will be act as a "special judge" for the competition. The winning (and runner-up) designs typically go on to be sold in Uniqlo stores, which adds an incentive worth even more than that prize pot. (Or not. Real talk; it is 10,000 bucks.)
Square and Uniqlo partner to sell on-demand gifts, save your relationship
Valentine's Day often brings out the last-minute shopper in all of us. Why settle for gas station roses when you could get some finely-tailored Japanese clothing instead? From now through February 17, Uniqlo and Square Market are teaming up to offer Bay-Area lovers on-demand gifts. Shoppers can buy everything from scarves to jackets online, and pick up a wrapped and ready-to-go gift for the love of their life at the store in an hour or less. San Francisco residents already have options like eBay Now and Google Shopping to get items delivered quickly, but neither allow in-person pickups. The Uniqlo partnership is a first attempt at in-person pickups for Square Market, but it's an idea we could see working at a number of different types of retailers all year long. We gave the promotion a try, and were impressed with not only how fast the shopping experience was, but also how fast our purchase was ready. To shop you just need to pick a store location, and browse the available items. When you make a purchase you're given an estimated pickup time, and a text message a few minutes later confirms that time or adjusts it. In our case, our purchase was ready in just 20 minutes. Inside Uniqlo there's a special table for pickup, so you're able to bypass all the lines, and look like the thoughtful lover you want to be, rather than the busy, forgetful one you actually are.
Hideo Kojima autograph signings scheduled for Los Angeles and New York
Did you miss your chance to meet Hideo Kojima for the launch of Metal Gear Solid 4? You'll have yet another opportunity, this time to coincide with the launch of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Provided you're willing to travel to Los Angeles or New York, you'll be able to say "Hi!" to the man most famously known for his involvement in the Zone of the Enders franchise. Kojima will make his appearance in New York on June 11, at Uniqlo from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. and at Best Buy Union Square from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.. West Coasters will want to stop by the Universal Citywalk GameStop in Los Angeles on June 13 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Don't forget to mark your calendars. And, if you want to guarantee a visit with the game designer, you best start waiting in line ... now.
MGS: Peace Walker UNIQLO shirts available in the US in June
The quirky Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker t-shirt line being sold by retailer UNIQLO will be available in the US starting June 11. To celebrate the US launch, Hideo Kojima himself will appear at the Flagship UNIQLO store in New York City on that day to sign autographs. In addition, prizes including artbooks and PSP bundles will be given away. The best part: for the millions of us who don't live anywhere near a UNIQLO store, the shirts will also be available online. Each one will include a code for the same shirt in-game. You can put a picture of Snake on Snake so you can sneak while you sneak. See all the designs here.
Peace Walk into UNIQLO for new Metal Gear Solid shirts
You can wear an Axe deodorant logo shirt in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Now, thanks to retailer UNIQLO, you can wear a Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker shirt in real life. Whether or not you wear Axe is your call. On April 26, UNIQLO will roll out a line of Peace Walker shirts featuring various logos and imagery from the series, Militaires Sans Frontieres patches, Yoji Shinkawa artwork ... and two suit-wearing gentlemen with cardboard boxes on their heads. That last one is, appropriately, a multiplayer riff on one of the designs from UNIQLO's Metal Gear Solid 4 line. If you'd like to tell Hideo Kojima how clever that is, CVG reports that he and Shinkawa will be at the London "flagship" UNIQLO on June 19 signing autographs.
Uniqlo launches new line of gamer tees
Your wardrobe could use a bit more gamer chic. One of Japan's more popular clothing brands is introducing a new line of t-shirts in collaboration with a number of gaming companies. The store is offering tees based on Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega-Man, PaRappa the Rapper, LittleBigPlanet, Resident Evil and more. The shirts retail for 1500 yen (about $15) each.The designs are simple, often featuring very subtle references to these gaming franchises . This way, you can make a nerdy statement without actually having to look like one.[Via Offworld]%Gallery-50590%
Wakamaru robot to help / freak out UNIQLO SoHo shoppers
Shopping robots aren't totally unheard of from a global perspective, but we certainly haven't seen too many out and about in NY boutiques. Reportedly, that's about to change -- UNIQLO SoHo will soon be home to Mitsubishi's Wakamaru, a humanoid that can look you in the eye, communicate on a very basic level and somehow help you decide between this dress or that other one over there. Word on the street has it arriving sometime next week, so if any of you regulars happen to see it, let us know just how convincing it is / isn't.[Via TokyoMango]
Metal Gear Solid 4 t-shirts also available in UK
Want to get your hands on those limited edition Metal Gear Solid 4 T-Shirts, but don't live anywhere near Tokyo or New York? Lucky for you, they're also available in the UK via the magic of the interwebs. Five tees can be found on the UNIQLO website, so if your MGS collection doesn't quite feel complete yet, they're waiting for you to pick them up. Just how "limited" these limited edition t-shirts are is hard to quantify but, as usual, if you want one you should act as soon as possible. We've already put our order in.
Kojima Autographs Round 2: UNIQLO signings
If you missed your chance to get Hideo Kojima's autograph at the Virgin Megastore last night, then you had a second chance by going downtown to Soho earlier today. Kojima and Ms. Kikuchi were in the neighborhood this afternoon signing autographs inside the UNIQLO flagship store -- a fashion destination for the trendy and bold. They were there to help promote the debut of a new line of Metal Gear Solid 4 T's. (Mr. Kojima is wearing one in the featured picture above.) Now, what about those not able to make the trip down to UNIQLO today? You guys can experience part of the excitement by checking out our gallery below. See Kojima, the awesome new t-shirts, and the huge crowds of Metal Gear fans!%Gallery-25060%
UNIQLO producing limited edition MGS t-shirts
Popular Japanese clothing store UNIQLO has partnered up with LOGAN, Power Graphixx, and the Kusano Design Office for a new series of limited edition t-shirts based on Metal Gear Solid. The three designs you see here are only available at the NYC SoHo flagship store. Another three are available exclusively in Tokyo.Hideo Kojima will also be making an appearance at UNIQLO to promote this line of shirts. He will be offer signatures to the first 300 people that arrive to the NYC store on June 12th at 5PM. For those that can't make the Virgin Megastore launch party, this is a great opportunity to meet the famed game designer.Stay tuned. Who knows? A few lucky readers may be able to get some of these shirts.
Sega UNIQLO shirts available online to UK residents
The excellent, and affordable, line of Sega shirts from Japanese retailer UNIQLO are now available for purchase via the company's website. Sure, they only deliver within the United Kingdom, but that's a big step closer to, say, Texas, just to name a random location where someone might want to buy a shirt with the House of the Dead 4 logo on it.Besides, we're mature enough to let our UK friends know about things they may enjoy, even if it doesn't benefit us in the least. Or if, among us, it just benefits Chris, as is the case this time. The Japanese shirts, by the way, come in Sonic-emblazoned bottles -- no idea if UNIQLO is doing the same in the UK.
Put Sonic's face on your chest
There are many reasons to desire a shirt emblazoned with the countenance of Sega's spiky, azure mascot -- perhaps as a celebratory measure following the formal announcement of Sonic's upcoming 2D/3D adventure, Sonic Unleashed. Maybe you want to want to make your own personal Jaleelitude known to the world. Or just maybe, you want to warn could-be attackers that you've seen the Sonic PSAs, and that you know how to protect your bathing suit area from uncomfortable touches. Such a shirt exists, as do a number of other garments featuring characters from other Sega mainstays (such as Virtua Fighter and House of the Dead) from a Japanese clothier named UNIQLO -- unfortunately, said tees are only available in Japan. However, as our controller-waggling brethren at Wii Fanboy discovered, UNIQLO has stores in the UK and in New York -- so at least we can hope for a timely port. %Gallery-20312% [Via Wii Fanboy]
Japanese retailer UNIQLO celebrates Sega
As part of a "unique" t-shirt line, Japanese clothing retailer UNIQLO has unveiled a series of t-shirts celebrating three of Sega's iconic series: Sonic the Hedgehog, The House of the Dead and Virtua Fighter. The shirts feature simple, iconic designs (like Sonic's face, seen here, or individual VF characters), come in multiple colors, and cost only 1500 yen ($14.65) each. In short, they're just the kind of thing we'd like to see.We'd say that, as usual, these are only available in Japan, but UNIQLO actually has stores in the UK, as well as one in New York. It is, then, possible that these have made it outside Japan, or may soon! We're just glad to be reminded of a time when Sega fandom was possible.
