Urban Outfitters expected to attract students downtown
A three-story Urban Outfitters opened to the public Aug. 19 on Walton Street near Armory Square in downtown Syracuse.
The trendy clothing store, geared toward young adults, is the first in Onondaga County. The closest Urban before this month’s opening was in Ithaca, about an hour’s drive from Syracuse University. The store is expected to attract students off the Hill into the downtown area, possibly boosting business at nearby establishments.
Although the grand opening — which included a disc jockey and sales — was Aug. 21, there was a steady flow of customers for the public opening. Many of them were from the area because most SU undergraduates did not move in for another week.
Kelly McDonald and Abby Sobolevsky, both recent graduates from high school in Skaneateles, said Urban is their favorite clothing store, and they made the trip downtown to browse and shop.
‘I go to New York City a lot. And my friends would come with me,’ McDonald said. ‘That’s where I first found it. I feel it represents our style.’
Although the prices are a little high for a student with a small income, McDonald said, browsing the store gives her an idea of the styles she can look for elsewhere. Non-sale items range from $25 to $80 for a shirt or sweater. Jeans are priced around $100.
‘It’s bad for my credit card, but sometimes it’s good to splurge,’ McDonald said.
The building’s warehouse-brick façade is fitting for the store’s unfinished feel on the inside.
Women’s clothing — a mixture of fall plaids, floral prints and handfuls of different silk dresses — is laid out on the first floor. Men’s clothing is on the second floor, and home furnishings, fitting rooms and sale items are on the top floor.
The line for the fitting room was about 20-people deep an hour after the public opening.
The Urban is smaller than ones in major metropolitan areas, like Boston or New York City, and the sale section is cramped. But that did not deter McKayla Crump, a freshman magazine journalism major, from buying a few back-to-school items.
She and her friend, Liz Heater, both from the Syracuse area, bought several shirts, a romper and earrings.
‘It’s trendy and a little bit indie,’ Heater said.
The girls agreed Urban is likely to bring business to the stores nearby. They anticipated eating lunch nearby, at a place they would have never gone on a Thursday morning had Urban not existed, Sobolevsky said.
‘Restaurants will thrive. We never come down here,’ she said.
The expected flow of young people into the downtown area for the store’s public opening attracted political organizers trying to gather support for Democrats running in November’s mid-term elections.
‘Most of the young people seem to be very supportive of (President Barack) Obama,’ said Angela DeSantis, one of the community organizers, as she tried to get signatures outside Urban. But that morning she had gotten a few rejections, she said.
Although McDonald and Sobolevsky are going away for college, they said they expect to make the trip to downtown Syracuse whenever they return home.
‘I’m so excited,’ McDonald said. ‘This was a great idea.’
A previous version of this article appeared on dailyorange.com Aug. 19, 2010.
Published on August 29, 2010 at 12:00 pm
