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UNIQLO and Toray Celebrate 15 Years Harmonizing Style and Techology: Co-Hosting First-Ever Apparel Expo in New York

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Oct. 24, 2017

UNIQLO CO., LTD.
Toray Industries, Inc.

October 24 2017, New York – Japanese casual apparel brand, UNIQLO, together with Japan’s Toray Industries, hosts a special event in New York City today. The Art and Science of LifeWear is a large-scale global exposition to mark the upcoming 15-year anniversary of UNIQLO’s pioneering relationship with its fabric technology partner, Toray, in the co-development of highly-innovative clothing that perfectly harmonizes style and technology, commencing with HEATTECH in 2003.

The Art and Science of LifeWear showcases how the two companies’ unconventional, but highly complementary partnership has underpinned the advancement of UNIQLO LifeWear to become the world’s most responsive, relevant apparel for the human experience today. Experimental and revelatory in nature, the event is the first time the companies have come together outside of Japan to publicly spotlight the inner workings of the fabric technologies they co-develop to make the world a better place for millions of people globally - cooler, warmer, more comfortable.

Commenting on the event, Tadashi Yanai, President & CEO of UNIQLO parent company, Fast Retailing, said, "Toray's revolutionary technologies have been vital in UNIQLO's quest to create LifeWear clothing, which makes everyday life better and more comfortable for people everywhere. I encourage people to attend this exhibition to see the innovations stemming from this partnership that have enabled us to deliver new value by combining unparalleled functionality and comfort with contemporary styling."

Also commenting, Akihiro Nikkaku, President of Toray Industries, said "Our corporate philosophy is about contributing to society through the creation of new value with innovative ideas, technologies, and products. As an integrated chemical company, we engage in research and development from long-term perspectives in the conviction that materials can change our lives. I hope the exhibition of HEATTECH and other technological fruits of joint development with UNIQLO will give attendees a solid understanding of why this partnership can keep delivering new value in the years ahead."

A series of large-scale installations and live experiential displays at the expo enrich attendee understanding of proprietary UNIQLO technologies, allowing visitors to become fully immersed in the fascinating science behind AIRism, Kando-pants and Dry-EX. Exhibits include a deconstruction of the HEATTECH technology to bring visitors down to a molecular-level perspective of the fabric and its special heat-retention properties, and a special experiment to discover the absolute minimum volume to which UNIQLO’s Ultra Light Down can be compressed.

Visitors to the Art and Science of LifeWear can also preview other advanced Toray technologies from the world’s most innovative fields - aircraft, racecars, rockets – with opportunities for a sneak peak into the future of clothing and how these might be expressed through HEATTECH.

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About UNIQLO LifeWear
Apparel that comes from the Japanese values of simplicity, quality and longevity. Designed to be of the time and for the time, LifeWear is made with such modern elegance that it becomes the building blocks of each individual’s style. A perfect shirt that is always being made more perfect. The simplest design hiding the most thoughtful and modern details. The best in fit and fabric made to be affordable and accessible to all. LifeWear is clothing that is constantly being innovated, bringing more warmth, more lightness, better design, and better comfort to people’s lives.
About UNIQLO and Fast Retailing
UNIQLO is a brand of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., a leading global Japanese retail holding company that designs, manufactures and sells clothing under seven main brands: Comptoir des Cotonniers, GU, Helmut Lang, J Brand, Princesse tam.tam, Theory, and UNIQLO. With global sales of approximately 1.8619 trillion yen for the 2017 fiscal year ending August 31, 2017 (US $16.87 billion, calculated in yen using the end of August 2017 rate of $1 = 110.4 yen), Fast Retailing is one of the world’s largest apparel retail companies, and UNIQLO is Japan’s leading specialty retailer.

UNIQLO continues to open large-scale stores in some of the world's most important cities and locations, as part of its ongoing efforts to solidify its status as a truly global brand. Today the company has more than 1,900 stores in 19 markets worldwide including Japan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, U.K. and the U.S. In addition, Grameen UNIQLO, a social business established in Bangladesh in September 2010, currently operates several Grameen UNIQLO stores in Dhaka. UNIQLO manages an integrated business model under which it designs, manufactures, markets and sells high-quality, casual apparel. The company believes that truly great clothes should be supremely comfortable, feature universal designs, are of high quality and offer a superb fit to everyone who wears them.

With a corporate statement committed to changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change the world, Fast Retailing is dedicated to creating great clothing with new and unique value to enrich the lives of people everywhere. For more information about UNIQLO and Fast Retailing, please visit www.uniqlo.com and www.fastretailing.com.
About Toray
Toray Industries, Inc., founded in 1926, is an integrated chemical industry group developing its businesses in 26 countries and regions worldwide. Its consolidated revenues for fiscal 2016 (ended March 31, 2017) totaled 2,026.5 billion yen ($18.1 billion). In addition to the fibers & textiles created at the time of its establishment, Toray has gone on to create cutting-edge, high value-added products including films, fine chemicals, plastic resins, electronics & information-related products, as well as carbon fiber composite materials, pharmaceutical and medical products, and products for the water treatment and environmental fields. For more information on Toray, please visit the company's website at http://www.toray.com