A School Teacher Named Sue

Urban Outfitters is known for being a student of it’s customers (they employ 400 of them), for refusing to advertise, and for creating distinctive environments that make every store feel like a unique boutique experience.

But they wouldn’t be known for these things if it wasn’t for founder Richard Haynes and his timely friendship with a school teacher named Sue Otto.

In 1983,  when Hayne was opening his second Urban Outfitters store on Walnut Street in Philadelphia, Sue Otto–a school teacher–started working as a part-time sales associate in their Cambridge store.

While clothing wasn’t Sue’s background, she was clearly talented on the sales floor and had massive ability for generating new ideas. Plus, she knew the heartbeat of the customer like nobody’s business.

You can imagine what would happen next in most companies, right? Sue would become a valued member of the company’s growing sales force, maybe eventually be promoted to sales team manager or even store manager.

But Hayne’s instincts lead him a different route.

He started having Sue experiment with developing creative concepts, even though it meant letting the school teacher introduce her sometimes eclectic tastes into the brand.

It was a risk that paid off.

Sue turned out to be exactly what Hayne needed. With her background in education, she knew how to systemize ideas. Sue became the one, for example who invented UO’s trademark system for allowing visual merchandisers and display artists to create a distinctive look for each store. She developed the program for peers to teach each other, wrote out idea sheets and layouts and even designed display contests to execute the creative vision.

In a short period of time, Sue and Hayne developed such great chemistry that he made Sue the School Teacher the head of his Creative Department. They began collaborating on the evolution of Urban Outfitters–a collaboration that started with the two stores they had at the time and grew to encompass the more than 100 stores they have today.

Today, Sue Otto is still the head of the Creative Department for Urban Outfitter and she is still that same eclectic, heartbeat-of-the-people kind of person who doesn’t think twice about leaving personal comments on Philadelphia blogs offering to show locals around Urban Outfitters.

Trying to figure out who this blog post is a tribute to? Is it Sue, who we applaud for being the kind of pure creative who can employ her skills in a variety of fields? Or is it Hayne, who had such strong instincts he could recognize and embolden creativity in even unexpected people?

It’s neither.

Or, what I really mean is…it’s both.

This blog is a tribute to what happens when talented people come alongside each other and do great things together.