Uniqlo and Musinsa go head-to-head in Myeong-dong

Musinsa Standard's second Myeong-dong store to open in September, near Uniqlo flagship

Uniqlo reclaims top spot as homegrown Musinsa closes the gap

The two brands also opened side by side in Paju's Starfield Village Unjeong earlier this year

Visitors design custom T-shirts at the "UTme!" zone inside Uniqlo's Myeong-dong store on Monday afternoon. [Kim Jin]

On Monday afternoon, the day before the June 3 local elections public holiday, lines stretched beyond the fitting-room waiting area on the first floor of Uniqlo's Myeong-dong store in Jung-gu, Seoul. The store was packed with shoppers taking advantage of the brand's biggest annual discount event, the "Uniqlo Thanksgiving Sale." The "UTme!" zone, where visitors can design their own T-shirts, was also full.

About 450 meters away, Musinsa Standard's Myeong-dong store was equally busy. More than 10 customers queued at the first-floor checkout, and every fitting room on the third floor was occupied. Most shoppers were foreign tourists. A Chinese tourist browsing the women's section pointed to a windbreaker jacket priced around 30,000 won (about $22) and said, "Good quality and cheap."

Competition between Uniqlo and Musinsa is intensifying at the heart of Myeong-dong, as the homegrown challenger closes in on the foreign brand that has reclaimed the top spot in South Korea's SPA market.

Musinsa plans to open "Musinsa Standard Myeong-dong Jungang," a roughly 500-pyeong (1,650-square-meter) store near Myeong-dong Station, in September, industry sources said Friday. It will be the second Musinsa Standard location in the Myeong-dong shopping district, near Uniqlo's Myeong-dong flagship — the brand's largest store in South Korea, which opened May 22. The flagship marked Uniqlo's return to the Myeong-dong Jungang area five years after it withdrew during the "No Japan" boycott movement in 2021 and the subsequent slump caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both Uniqlo and Musinsa are fashion giants with annual sales topping 1 trillion won. FRL Korea, which operates Uniqlo in South Korea, posted sales of about 1.3523 trillion won ($975 million) and operating profit of 270.4 billion won ($195 million) for the fiscal year ending August 2025 — up 27.6 percent and 81.6 percent, respectively, from the previous year, recovering to peak levels. Musinsa recorded sales of 1.3529 trillion won in 2025, up 22.9 percent year on year, with operating profit rising 29.7 percent to 145.8 billion won.

In terms of SPA product sales alone, Uniqlo holds a commanding lead. Its merchandise sales reached 1.3514 trillion won, up 17.6 percent from the prior year. Musinsa's product sales — driven largely by the Musinsa Standard label — came to 445.9 billion won last year, roughly a third of Uniqlo's figure. But the growth trajectory is striking: first-quarter product sales this year hit about 115.2 billion won, surpassing 100 billion won in a single quarter for the first time. Uniqlo operates 134 stores in South Korea; Musinsa Standard has 42.

The two brands' head-to-head competition is expected to spread to more locations. Both are pursuing a strategy of maximizing returns through stores in prime retail districts. Earlier this year, the two opened locations side by side at Starfield Village Unjeong in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

"We are seeing more cases where Uniqlo and Musinsa Standard end up next to each other or directly across from each other in major retail corridors," one industry official said. "The ability to reflect fast-changing trends and draw in consumers — on top of product quality — will only become more important going forward."

Shoppers browse inside the Musinsa Standard Myeong-dong store. [Musinsa]

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