Since AKIRA has outposts all over Chicago, the company has tailored the merchandise, music, & visuals in each store to reflect the signature style of its geographical location. Each store's stylists are well-versed in the latest, largest national and international trends. Sexy dresses, denim, jewelry, & handbags from over 200 designer brands and smaller fashion houses line the walls at AKIRA, ensuring that even the most discerning customer won't leave the store empty-handed. Standout labels such as Jeffrey Campbell shoes, For Love and Lemons, Mink Pink, Senso shoes, OCC Lip Tar, One Teaspoon, Jessica Simpson shoes, Melissa footwear, and BCBG are guaranteed crowd-pleasers. By way of its blog, its text club, and third-party platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Foursquare, AKIRA stays in constant contact with its clientele. The business' management team uses customer feedback from these initiatives to gain insight on upcoming trends and improve its quality of in-store service. The company also connects with fashion-conscious citizens of other cities and countries on its website. Style influencers all around the globe-such as Dulce Candy and Nitrolicious-have sported or buzzed about ShopAKIRA.com's offerings on their highly-trafficked blogs. Thus, even though AKIRA has become synonymous with Chicago fashion, its influence reaches far outside the city's confines. Although AKIRA's eclectic offerings and knowledgeable stylists have earned AKIRA its renown, its co-founders-Erikka Wang and Eric Hsueh, -attribute the company's success to their loyal customers. As a way of giving back to the communities who have supported it so loyally over the years, AKIRA has benefited over 30 charities with fashion shows, in-store parties, and website promotions. These charities include Make a Wish, Unicef, the American Red Cross, and the Special Olympics. Year after year, AKIRA partners up with Imerman Angels, a non-profit cancer support organization, to put on a huge Garden of Eden fashion show. This show never fails to make the news with its trendy clothes & look-good, do-good ethos. AKIRA has also gotten involved in the academic community by sponsoring Generation Y, a photography, music, art, and design program run by the Chicago Public School system. The company does its part to educate young women & men about the inner workings of the fashion industry by conducting workshops at nine local high schools and 17 national universities. AKIRA intends to continue its pattern of rapid growth by staying ahead of the curve. As a company with zero outside investors, it must make daily alterations to its strategic plan and capitalize on every business opportunity that arises. AKIRA's co-founders live by the theory that the more one puts into a business, the more one gets out of it; they expect their employees (and themselves) to embody a can-do spirit and a strong work ethic. The owners' high standards have paid off for the company: AKIRA has beaten the odds during the recent economic depression, opening six stores in the last year alone.Founded in 2002, AKIRA is an established company that loves to hire graduates from Columbia College Chicago, with 30.9% of its employees having attended Columbia College Chicago. Want to compare AKIRA to some other great places to work in Chicago, IL? We suggest taking a look at Zippia's list of Best Companies to Work For in Chicago, IL.The average employee at AKIRA makes $30,490 per year. Pay at AKIRA is significantly lower than some of its highest paying competitors, like Keaton Row, Nasty Gal, and Stitch Fix, which pay $58,999, $49,495, and $48,627, respectively.Based in Chicago, IL, AKIRA is a small retail company with only 217 employees and an annual revenue of $24.0M.
AKIRA's Mission Statement
AKIRA is fanatical about ensuring that customers are styled by experts who eat, sleep, and breathe fashion. We live to make AKIRA customers look good and feel good. Let us do the heavy lifting while you reap the rewards.
No PTO, Sick, or Holiday pay. They do not tell you this at your round of interviews. Unprofessional. Plays by their own rules they’re privately owned. Predatory hiring/firing process. Filthy stores. Cleaning and recovering is not a priority. Unsafe working conditions. Hostile Work Environment. Retaliatory.
AKIRA Benefits
Never experienced any perks or benefits while working there.
What do you like best about AKIRA's CEO and the leadership team?
The came to visit once every three months.
How would you improve AKIRA's culture?
By hiring managers that want to improve the overall success of the company, including the employees.
How did you prepare for the AKIRA interview?
I didn’t. I have decades of experience in retail so I went in as myself and used the knowledge and experience that I earned from past retailers.
How does your compensation at AKIRA compare to the industry average?
For the amount of work and hectic schedule, I was well under paid.
What's the diversity at AKIRA like?
1-2 brown and black managers in each store is not diverse and treating them poorly just adds salt to the wound.
What brings you the most joy at AKIRA?
The customers and clothes.
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The team at AKIRA
The founders of AKIRA is Lokesh Thati.
The key people at AKIRA is Lokesh Thati.
Key People
Lokesh Thati
AKIRA Rankings
AKIRA is ranked #52 on the Best Retail Companies to Work For in Illinois list. Zippia's Best Places to Work lists provide unbiased, data-based evaluations of companies. Rankings are based on government and proprietary data on salaries, company financial health, and employee diversity.
The average an AKIRA salary in the United States is $30,490 per year.
AKIRA employees in the top 10 percent can make over $55,000 per year,
while AKIRA employees at the bottom 10 percent earn less than $16,000 per year.
Average AKIRA Salary
$14.66
hourly
$30,490 yearly
Updated March 14, 2024
Rate the AKIRA's inclusivity.
AKIRA diversity
9.1
Diversity Score
We calculated AKIRA’s diversity score by measuring multiple factors, including the ethnic background, gender identity, and language skills of AKIRA’s workforce.
AKIRA diversity summary. Zippia estimates AKIRA's demographics and statistics using a database of 30 million profiles. Zippia verifies estimates with BLS, Census, and current job openings data for accuracy. We calculated AKIRA's diversity score by measuring multiple factors, including the ethnic background, gender identity, and language skills of AKIRA's workforce.
AKIRA has 217 employees.
65% of AKIRA employees are women, while 35% are men.
The most common ethnicity at AKIRA is White (59%).
19% of AKIRA employees are Hispanic or Latino.
10% of AKIRA employees are Black or African American.
The average employee at AKIRA makes $30,490 per year.
Employees at AKIRA stay with the company for 2.4 years on average.
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Did AKIRA's compensation package meet your expectations?
AKIRA Financial Performance
9.6
Performance Score
Highest paying AKIRA competitors
Compare AKIRA salaries to competitors, including Keaton Row, Nasty Gal, and Stitch Fix. Employees at Keaton Row earn the highest average yearly salary of $58,999. The salaries at Nasty Gal average $49,495 per year, and the salaries at Stitch Fix come in at $48,627 per year.
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of AKIRA, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about AKIRA. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at AKIRA. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by AKIRA. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of AKIRA and its employees or that of Zippia.
AKIRA may also be known as or be related to AKIRA, AKIRA Chicago and Akira Chicago.
