Whether they need a set of frosted shot glasses that spell "S-E-X" or an "Everybody loves a Catholic girl" T-shirt, many Penn students know that the place to go is 110 S. 36th St., University City's Urban Outfitters store.
"They have stuff that's a little more out there, which I like," College sophomore Alexandra Kougentakis said. "Sometimes I come to browse just to see what's new."
But what many Penn students don't realize is that their campus was the cradle of the Urban Outfitters empire. The company now has 68 stores in North America and Europe, but the very first Urban Outfitters store called University City home.
Founder and President Richard Hayne opened the first store with his first wife, Judy Wicks, in 1970 under the name of the Free People Store. The store's merchandise was aimed at the college-aged group and included used clothes, jeans, ethnic apparel and apartment items. Six years later, Hayne changed the name to Urban Outfitters.
"We had recently graduated from college ... and neither of us wanted to work for anybody because we're both very individualistic," Wick said. "I thought, 'It's easy to do a store -- all you have to do is buy something and turn around and sell it for more,' and that's about all we knew."
Hayne and Wicks were given the idea to open the store on Penn's campus and market their merchandise to the college crowd by an old college roommate of Hayne's named Scott Belair, who was studying at the Wharton School at the time.
Hayne and Wicks had only a combined $3,000 to their names, which they had received as stipends from service in Alaska. The couple couldn't afford both an apartment and a storefront and ended up living in the back of their store for about a year, decorating the store by painting wooden crates they took from Chinatown trash bins.
From there, Hayne opened a second store in Cambridge, Mass., in 1980, which was followed by seven more stores opening on other college campuses in the 1980s.
Since then, the company has exploded, opening 15 new stores in 2000, 12 new stores in 2001, 15 new stores in 2002 and 20 new stores in 2003. Urban Outfitters, Inc. reported annual sales of $548.4 million in 2004, practically twice its annual sales only three years earlier.
Though they succeeded in opening the first store together, Hayne and Wicks split in 1971 and have in many ways diverged dramatically. While Hayne has gone on to build a lucrative empire of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People stores around North America and Europe, Wicks has largely stayed local here in University City. She is the owner and operator of the White Dog Cafe on Sansom Street and the adjacent Black Cat gift store.
"I've enjoyed doing business in University City for 35 years," Wicks said.
Wicks gives 20 percent of her profits to a foundation she started that supports local small businesses and farms in the region. She believes that multinational corporations are responsible for the downfall of local businesses.
"I didn't purposely go in an opposite direction than Urban Outfitters -- it's just the way our lives unfolded," Wicks said. Hayne "is an excellent businessperson and he has a good heart."
Urban Outfitters came under fire recently for selling T-shirts saying "Voting is for old people." Jehmu Green, president of Rock the Vote, accused Urban Outfitters of perpetuating a negative stereotype among young voters. The company also faced a public outcry when it sold a spinoff of the board game Monopoly called "Ghettopoly," and T-shirts that said "Everyone loves a Jewish girl," surrounded by dollar signs. Both products were pulled from the market.
Despite the controversies, one thing is certain: From its humble beginning in University City to a billion-dollar multinational corporation, Urban Outfitters has found its niche on Penn's campus as well as at other universities around the world.
Urban Outfitters, Inc. plans on extending its presence in Europe, adding wholesale customers and growing its e-commerce sales.
Hayne was unavailable for comment.
