ustomisation service has long been a canvas for anime, art and pop‑cultural icons. In Melbourne, the brand wanted something different. “From the beginning, we knew our first Australian UTme! collaboration needed to feel deeply local and genuinely loved,” Uniqlo told Inside Retail. That ruled out generic skyline prints or broad Melbourne clichés. Instead, the team looked for a name people line up for, talk about and claim as their own. Hector’s Deli – with its fine‑dining approach to the humble sandwich and perpetual queues – fit the brief. “Everyone in Melbourne has a Hector’s memory, or at least a favourite go-to order.” From merch to “wearable ritual” If the collaboration works, it’s because it sidesteps the trap of feeling like tourist merch. “For us, it was about avoiding anything that felt overly branded or fleeting,” Uniqlo said. Designs had to read as UTme! pieces first – clean, graphic, timeless – with Hector’s and Uniqlo’s spirits woven in rather than screaming from every inch. Concrete Playground describes the pieces as “wearable love letters to Melbourne”, featuring Hector’s red‑and‑white branding across two T‑shirts and tote bags.​ It’s a formula Uniqlo has been testing in other markets. In Singapore, UTme! drops with Ya Kun Kaya Toast and Old Chang Kee turned beloved food brands into design stamps, supported by in‑store activations and snack redemptions. The through line is clear: food as a highly legible, emotionally loaded entry point into local culture, framed through LifeWear’s everyday minimalism. Making a flagship feel like a local The Hector’s Deli collaboration also serves a strategic purpose for the reimagined Emporium flagship, now billed as Uniqlo’s biggest Australian statement. UTme! is the centrepiece of the new store concept, an interactive customisation experience where shoppers design one‑of‑a‑kind tees and totes in‑store using stamps from Melbourne collaborators Beci Orpin, Hector’s Deli and street artist DOCG. “When a shopper walks into our Emporium store, we want them to feel a sense of belonging and recognition,” Uniqlo said. Seeing a global Japanese retailer spotlight a local sandwich shop creates what they describe as a bridge between our Japanese heritage and their local reality. It signals that Uniqlo is not simply dropping into Melbourne with a copy‑paste global format, but is tuning in to the city’s own reference points. “It signals that Uniqlo isn’t just a visitor in the city; we are a part of the fabric of Melbourne.” For a brand whose proposition is “global basics with local flavour”, UTme! is becoming the mechanism that delivers on that promise at street level. It enables Emporium to function as a creative lab: global silhouettes and price points, overprinted with micro‑stories from a three‑kitchen sandwich chain. A blueprint for neighbourhood-scale collabs Behind the playful sandwiches‑on‑tees premise lies a serious test‑and‑learn agenda. “This collaboration has been a masterclass in the power of hyper-locality,” Uniqlo said. The lesson? Customers don’t just want global trends; they want to see their own lives reflected in what they wear. For Uniqlo, that turns UTme! into a repeatable framework: plug in different neighbourhood institutions – food, sport, culture – that share a commitment to quality and community, and let each city write its own micro‑canon. Looking ahead, the brand sees Hector’s as a blueprint rather than an exception. The company has already paired UTme! with local cult names, from kopitiam chains to curry‑puff kiosks, across Southeast Asia. Melbourne’s sandwich royalty is simply the latest proof point that, in the age of global sameness, the most powerful collaborations may be the ones that feel almost too small – a deli, a street artist, a breakfast brand – until you see the queues. Further reading: Uniqlo set to open revamped Melbourne flagship