Urban Outfitters’ 2025 marketing playbook includes a Nike activation, more creator content and posts on Reddit
Urban Outfitters is pulling “a number of different levers” when it comes to marketing this year, including joining forces with Nike, the brand’s head of brand marketing and communications, Cyntia Leo, told Modern Retail.
On Wednesday, Urban Outfitters tapped Nike as its first partner for its new On Rotation retail concept: a “lounge-style” space in select stores, complete with curated footwear and apparel from one brand partner at a time. To fuel the launch, Urban Outfitters is releasing a limited-edition capsule collection with Nike, including an exclusive colorway of the Vomero 18 sneaker. It’s also tapping 20-25 of its influencers to participate in Nike’s After Dark Race on June 6 and create content around the event.
Urban Outfitters will bring in new partners for On Rotation as the months go by, particularly across fashion, lifestyle and design. The experience will continue to evolve and showcase existing brands Urban Outfitters carries, as well as new ones. Importantly, it will also cater to Gen Z, a demographic Urban Outfitters is hoping to better woo in today’s crowded environment. As part of that effort, Urban Outfitters is ramping up its work with creators and testing out platforms like Reddit and Pinterest.
Unlike other seasonal collections at Urban Outfitters, On Rotation will be “based on the customers’ calendar, versus a product or retail calendar,” Leo said. For instance, upcoming iterations could be timed to key moments in the school year, she explained. And, while Urban Outfitters is hoping On Rotation will drive sales, its primary KPI will be user-generated content and other engagement metrics. “We want to make sure that customers are excited, posting about it, using the experience and giving us feedback,” Leo said.
Urban Outfitters has historically catered to millennials, but the brand recently acknowledged that it has more work to do when it comes to Gen Z. In August 2024, Shea Jensen, president of the Urban Outfitters brand in North America, reflected on the pandemic in an earnings call, saying, “As these shifts occurred and a new generation began coming of age, we lost focus on our customer, and we lost track of how to win with them in today’s dynamic retail environment.” Since then, Urban Outfitters has brainstormed new ways to court young shoppers, especially when it comes to experiential retail. It hopes that On Rotation can help with these efforts.
Nike was an ideal first brand partner for Urban Outfitters because “they’re a Gen-Z favorite,” Leo said. The stores in Nike’s leg of On Rotation are also in areas where Gen Z indexes high. Many are near college campuses; locations include New York City; Washington D.C.; Scottsdale, Arizona; San Diego, California; and Manhattan Beach, California. Future locations for On Rotation may change.
Activations like On Rotation are becoming a bigger part of brands’ marketing playbooks as brands look for more ways to capture and maintain shoppers’ loyalty. Athleisure brands Athleta and Vuori have held in-store yoga classes, while the boutique clothing chain Francesca’s threw a “Bag Bar” giveaway for loyalty members in Miami. Experiential retail is a popular tactic, “especially with the youth market,” Michelle Lee, chief brand officer of the e-commerce accelerator Front Row Group, told Modern Retail. “We’re starting to see a lot of that coming into play here [in the retail industry].”
Still, Urban Outfitters is testing out different marketing tactics at a challenging time for retail. Concerned with shifting customer preferences and the onslaught of new tariffs, many brands are pulling back their marketing spend or reallocating funds to other departments. But Urban Outfitters — which reported a 3.3% year-over-year drop in quarterly sales in February — is still charging ahead, Leo explained.
“We don’t run a copy-and-paste [marketing] offense, so we’re constantly evolving,” she said. “We’re constantly looking at the right types of methods, and we’re constantly testing them, learning and piloting. That mission doesn’t change, especially with any economic shifts. So, we’re staying close with our customer, and we’re going to follow their cues. That’s really where our marketing strategy begins and ends.”
As part of this, Urban Outfitters is looking to show up in multiple marketing fronts, including influencer-led content. In July 2024, it launched a college ambassador program called UO100, picking 100 influencers from campuses across the U.S. to promote the brand through TikTok and Instagram. Urban Outfitters has also made a habit of using Reddit. The company doesn’t advertise on the platform, but rather “pops into different communities” and subreddits to share information about new products or get a sense of upcoming trends, Leo said.
“We have been running a really fun offense across Reddit,” Leo said. “It allows us to build hype and a connection by tapping into highly-engaged niche audiences that love this product.”
Pinterest, too, is proving a popular avenue for Urban Outfitters. More than 40% of Pinterest’s users are Gen Z, and the platform has become a go-to for brands like American Eagle and Béis. Urban Outfitters’ official Pinterest account has 3.2 million followers. “We’ve seen a lot of great growth there and have built a lot of great performance,” Leo said.
Overall, Urban Outfitters is optimistic about the future of its marketing plans, whether that involves On Rotation or digital platforms. “We think about it as a holistic ecosystem and a way for us to connect with our audiences across multiple different touch points,” Leo said.