Inside Uniqlo's Massive Fifth Avenue Global Flagship

Uniqlo's new Fifth Avenue global flagship—which opens up on Friday, finally!—is a mammoth of a store. Consider these numbers: It has three floors, it's 89,000 square feet big, it has 100 fitting rooms, and 50 registers. And since we're throwing numbers around, here's another one: To celebrate the opening, the store is stocked with a special edition skinny fit jean that's priced at only $9.90. They're only available while supplies last, of course, and Uniqlo U.S. CEO Shin Odake says they know they're not going to make a profit off them—he considers them "a gift to our customers."

To further reiterate how big it is, the first floor is only cashmere. Yes, it's that gargantuan that they can fill an entire floor with cashmere and still have plenty of space left for the rest. The second floor is dedicated to the +J collection, and the third floor is a mix of everything, from womenswear to menswear to Heattech galore. Seriously, there's a Heattech tunnel (but we'll get to that in another post.)

The first thing you see upon entering is a seemingly endless escalator that will take you straight to the third floor. If you want to make a pit stop at the second, however, you can either take the stairs or hop in one of the elevators at the front of the store, which will soon be outfitted with LED screens that you'll be able to see from outside.

But before you do all that, don't forget about all that cashmere on the ground floor. To celebrate the opening, women's v-neck cashmere sweaters that are regularly priced at $89.90 will be priced at a promotional $49.90. Similarly, the men's cashmere v-necks that are normally $99.90 will be $59.90. Just like the Soho store, the shelves reach the tippy-top, each filled to the brim with the colorful sweaters.

The cashmere overflows to the second floor, but it soon gives way to the entire +J collection. Since this is the last one, though, we're curious to see what will fill all that space once it sells through—Odake said that at the moment, they hadn't figured that out yet. Giant lookbook images sit behind the +J modeled mannequins, so dressing like Arizona Muse in the fall becomes a little easier with all that visual inspiration.

But really, the third floor is where it's at. Men's and women's are split on opposite sides, so we're already imagining tons of couples getting entirely lost from each other. Then there's areas designated to merino wool, an entire room full of all the promo items, columns filled with those $9.90 jeans, a special area for T-shirts similar to the Soho store, and another cornered-off space for the Uniqlo Innovation Project. Speaking of which, one of the items in that collection is a jacket that zips up like normal but doesn't need to be unzipped to take it off—you just tear at it like the Hulk, which Odake personally demonstrated.

There's also not one but two Heattech areas: Like we said, we'll get to the first of them later, but the second is a gigantic area filled with Uniqlo's warmth-trapping tees and leggings. These, too, have their own opening promotion: While supplies last, men's and women's Heattech longsleeve T-shirts are only $12.90. If you're looking to stay extra cozy this winter, Uniqlo is also knocking off 20 bucks on the men's and women's premium down ultra light jackets—they'll be priced at $59.90, and come with a little bag you can fold them up into.

So in case we haven't driven the point home enough, the store is huge. So huge that we got lost when we walked around by ourselves. And there's a few vantage points where it actually looks like the clothes do go on forever. If that hasn't got you excited enough, don't forget that the 34th Street store is opening on October 21st.