What Urban Outfitters is known for
Philadelphia retailer founded 1970 by Richard Hayne and Scott Belair as the 400-square-foot Free People Store near Penn's campus; this branch trades inside BHV Marais on Rue de Rivoli.
Urban Outfitters traces to 1970, when Richard Hayne — an anthropology graduate freshly back from two years as a VISTA volunteer in Alaska — and Scott Belair, a Wharton student needing a project for an entrepreneurship class, pooled $5,000 to open a 400-square-foot shop called the Free People Store near the University of Pennsylvania campus. The original store sold inexpensive secondhand clothing, Indian fabrics, scented candles and ethnic jewelry from a space furnished with packing crates. It was renamed Urban Outfitters and formally incorporated in 1976, with Hayne serving as chairman and, since 2012, CEO.
This particular listing occupies space inside BHV Marais, the historic Paris department store at 52 rue de Rivoli — itself dating to 1856 — placing a youth-culture American retailer inside a 19th-century French grand magasin rather than a standalone storefront, which is the specific, checkable fact distinguishing this location from any other Urban Outfitters branch.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Vinyl, Y2K revival fashion, and dorm-room everything
More in Paris
- Balenciaga — Paris
- Bourrienne Paris X — Paris
- Cartier — Paris
- Céline — Paris
- Chanel — Paris
- Charvet — Paris
- Creed — Paris
- Dior — Paris
Where next
- Lange — France
- Nordic Outdoor — Edinburgh
- La Fromagerie (Leysin) — Switzerland
Hand-curated for ORBIS · no paid placement