Merchandising

E -commerce site oBaz was originally conceived as an online bazaar, a site designed to help consumers get unique deals on products and services personalized for them. Like-minded buyers would come together, and oBaz would negotiate with merchants, manufacturers, distributors and other suppliers to get the best possible deal without “the haggling and shopping around that most people either dislike or simply don’t have time for,” founder and CEO Brian Ficho said at the time of launch.

If you want to be No. 1, you must continually and consistently raise your game to the next level. Athletes know it. Retailers know it. And Mitch Modell, CEO of Modell’s Sporting Goods, lives it.

With nearly 150 stores in the Northeast, Modell oversees the nation’s oldest family-owned and -operated retailer of sporting goods, sports apparel and athletic footwear. In the fall of 2010, he proudly unveiled the chain’s newly renovated 20,000-sq.-ft. Times Square flagship.

As part of its quest to become the “world’s No. 1 apparel retailer” and generate $50 billion in global sales — including $10 billion in U.S. sales — by 2020, Japan-based Uniqlo opened two unique “flagship” stores in the heart of Manhattan’s busiest shopping districts this fall.

At 89,000 sq. ft., the store at Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street is the company’s largest, boasting 49,800 sq. ft. of selling space. Its 64,000-sq.-ft. store in Herald Square is the second-largest Uniqlo store worldwide.

Peter Huston
Brand president
Fusion Specialties
Broomfield, Colo.

Peter Huston heads custom form manufacturer Fusion Specialties, where he is accountable for all brand strategy, planning, budgets, product development, marketing and sales. He’s spent more than eight years with the suburban Denver-based manufacturer, whose major customers include Nike, Gap, Chico’s, Macy’s, Guess and Bebe.