UNIQLO invented a new way to buy T-shirts: Choose not the designs, but the person who picks for you.

The retail model features a subscription system where each of the 30 influential Pickstars curates on the users' behalf five T-shirts from a selection of 1,200 designs. This way, shoppers are freed from the tedious and time-consuming task of having to browse through the designs and decide what to buy.

This approach was possible with UT being a brand that boasted quality and quantity.

The lineup of Pickstars consisted of a wide range of professions, from models, stylists, bloggers, to novelists and dancers. Along with gaining publicity through the announcement of this new service, we generated more buzz through the power of influencers by making available on YouTube documentary videos showing the 30 Pickstars' process of selecting T-shirts. This helped users understand the variety and high quality of the T-shirts. Even if they end up not picking a Pickstar, they could still experience the UT brand story --- That UT offers T-shirts adored by people of varying tastes and aesthetics.

Each month, a curated T-shirt would arrive along with a message card with fashion tips from the Pickstar. Users of the UT Picks service would not know the T-shirt design until upon receiving it. The surprise element encouraged users to post about UT on social media each time their T-shirt arrived.

The announcement of the service launch immediately caught the attention of the media and the public, and generated publicity with an advertising value equivalency of 500 million JPY (4.45 million USD).

During the first week after the service launched, over 15,000 UT T-shirts were sold, including several Pickstars' selections being sold out.

UT Picks not only cleared the public misconception of the brand, but led to an increase of UNIQLO's e-commerce sales --- 10.5 billion JPY (89 million USD), a 40.6% increase from the previous year.