For the first time in years, Pacsun is opening more stores than closing stores

Pacsun’s expansion plan comes as the company enjoys more sales from its store locations. Stores now account for a majority of Pacsun’s revenue — about one-third comes from digital — and are outpacing projections, said Richard Cox, Pacsun’s chief merchandising officer. While Pacsun declined to share exact revenue, a spokesperson said business in stores has been strong quarter over quarter, for multiple quarters. “Now that we’ve got that consistency, there’s a high confidence that it’s time for us to continue to expand,” Cox said.

Even some of the brand’s digital traffic is having a halo effect on stores. Quill cited instances of shoppers coming into stores and asking salespeople about products they’d seen on Pacsun’s website, Pacsun’s TikTok channel or affiliates’ social media videos. The brand continues to invest in online and social, but its physical locations — especially those in malls — are performing well as people look to shop in person, executives said.

“We are seeing more strength in stores than on digital,” Cox said. Quill added that when shoppers want merchandise, they “want it now.” “That’s a big mentality,” he said.

‘Pacsun should be here’

Pacsun, which launched in 1980, is doing things differently in 2025 when it comes to scouting store locations. In the past, the brand typically avoided opening stores in malls that were too close together. Today, it’s not prioritizing that as a factor.

“Before, [the strategy] was, ‘Where are we profitable? What are the best malls, and how do we go into [them] and also make sure we don’t cannibalize [sales]?'” Quill said. Now, he said, the brand is “realizing that it doesn’t take sales away” to open a location 15 miles down the road from another Pacsun store. “People shop at one mall, and others shop at the other,” Quill said.

This doesn’t mean that Pacsun is setting up stores all over the place, though. The brand is still being strategic and picking spots that will resonate with its shoppers. For instance, before Pacsun opened its store at a mall in Victor, New York, customers in that area had to drive more than an hour to visit the closest store in Buffalo or Syracuse. Pacsun’s team is also revisiting shopping centers that the brand had been in years ago, but pulled out of, due to the mall going downhill. Now, some of those malls have “changed and upgraded,” Quill said, thereby making them more attractive.

The team also does its due diligence to see which shopping destinations are generating buzz and where its competitors are located. “Our field team goes out and checks out malls that we’re not in,” Quill said. “And I will travel, or Rich [Cox] and others will travel, and any time we’re in a different city, we look at a location and say, ‘Yeah, Pacsun should be here.’ Then, we go after it.”

Pacsun has seen “a quick ROI” on its new stores, Quill said. It evaluates locations on a variety of factors, including dollars per square foot and profitability. Pacsun reviews these metrics monthly. “We ask, ‘How are our new stores performing from the start? How are they performing six months later? Are there adjustments we need to make?'” Quill said. “We set our plan for a new location in advance before signing that [leasing] deal, and then we make sure we’re tracking to it.”

The mall equation

Not all of Pacsun’s new stores are in malls, but many are. Of the nine stores Pacsun opened this year, only one — in New York City, on Fifth Avenue, in the Flatiron neighborhood — is not in a mall. The brand is seeing that its coveted Gen-Z shopper is spending hours at the mall with friends. “Our customer is out in the mall, for sure, and it’s really important to them,” Quill said.

Pacsun isn’t alone in this. Many brands, from American Eagle to Vuori to Skims, are opening stores in malls as shoppers look to browse and buy items in person. In fact, a number of brands, including Calpak and Figs, opened their first permanent locations in malls in the last few years. And despite claims that “malls are dying,” malls are actually getting a revamp to fit a community’s needs. As Modern Retail has reported, many malls are becoming dedicated lifestyle and mixed-use centers with outdoors space, office space, and events like concerts and fashion shows.

Pacsun is eager to open more stores in malls in 2026, 2027 and 2028, executives said, including an upcoming location at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai in early 2026. But it’s also interested in street locations, like its Flatiron store. Having a mix like this is important, said Stephanie Cegielski, vp of research at ICSC. “At a time when consumers are seeking both convenience and experience, offering a variety of ways to shop with a brand is essential,” she told Modern Retail.

Whether it’s opening a store in a mall or elsewhere, Pacsun is leaning on its marketing team to get the word out to new and existing shoppers. Many of these efforts are grassroots ones, the brand said. For example, when opening its store in Flatiron, Pacsun executives walked around New York City, giving out flyers and giving away merchandise. They also went to New York University’s campus and dropped off information about the store with the fashion department.

Events have been a key driver of traffic and awareness for stores, too, according to the brand. In November, at its Soho store in New York City, Pacsun held an event in partnership with UFC. It hosted a podcast taping inside the store with fighter Alex Pereira and interviewer Nina Marie Daniele (known as Nina Drama). Lines to watch the interview being taped were “around the block,” Cox said. Pacsun also held a UFC meet-and-greet and gave away UFC x Pacsun merchandise. Meanwhile, in early December, Levi’s took over the Pacsun Soho store with a denim installation and photo booth.

“You’ll see us continue to ramp up events,” Cox said. “They’ve all been well-received. What I hear from the [retail] team in the field is, ‘Can we have one at my store?’ So that’s what we’re figuring out next: How to give some love to some of those locations that it’s harder for us to get to.”