FIGS CMO Bené Eaton on opening Upper East Side flagship and doubling down on science-led storytelling for healthcare workers

Summary

FIGS has opened a new flagship store on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, with CMO Bené Eaton broadcasting live from inside the location on Black Friday. The store was drawing foot traffic from healthcare workers on the holiday, with Eaton describing it as packed and hosting nurses for hot cocoa.

The brand's Black Friday positioning is deliberately dual-tracked. FIGS markets the holiday both as a restocking moment for healthcare professionals and as a gifting occasion for consumers wanting to thank clinicians in their lives. Given that most of FIGS' core customer base works through holidays, Thanksgiving, and into the New Year, the company frames the BFCM window as a gesture of gratitude rather than a conventional promotional push.

The standout campaign of 2025 for FIGS has been a year-long initiative called Where Do You Wear Figs? The campaign tracks healthcare professionals across every context in which they wear scrubs, before shifts, after shifts, and throughout daily life, structured as a series of chapters timed to cultural moments including Women's Month, Nurses' Week, and the holiday season. Eaton positions the campaign as a brand equity play, arguing that sustained community storytelling throughout the year is what converts in high-volume retail moments.

FIGS' retail expansion into physical locations like the Upper East Side flagship signals a broader omnichannel push for a brand that built its name as a direct-to-consumer scrubwear company. The science-led, community-first identity, centered on what Eaton calls "awesome humans," remains the connective tissue across all marketing activity.