FIGS Opened a 'Community Hub' Near a Chicago Hospital. Here's What That Says About Scrubs in 2026.
Key takeaways
- FIGS opened its fifth "Community Hub" in Chicago's West Loop near the Illinois Medical District, a store with wellness workshops and a coffee bar.
- The strategy answers e-commerce's weak spot: many shoppers want to feel scrubs before buying, and hub visitors skew newer to the brand.
- FIGS reported $631M in 2025 revenue (up ~14%) and a $160M first quarter of 2026 (up ~28%), and outfits Team USA's medical team at the 2026 Winter Games.
- The takeaway: scrubs are now a brand-and-lifestyle purchase, but the experience layer does not make the garment last longer.
FIGS, the company that turned scrubs into a status symbol, just opened a store in Chicago that it refuses to call a store.
In January, the brand opened what it calls a Community Hub in Chicago's West Loop, a few blocks from the Illinois Medical District. It is the fifth of these, after Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, and Houston. They sell scrubs, sure. They also run wellness workshops, recycling drop-offs, embroidery stations, and a coffee bar. "We call them Community Hubs because they're not just about shopping," CEO Trina Spear told Modern Retail.
It is easy to roll your eyes at the language. It is harder to argue with the strategy. For a small brand like ours, it is worth being honest about both.
Why a digital brand is opening physical space
FIGS built its business by skipping the store. It launched in 2013 selling directly online, went public in 2021, and became the default answer when a nurse asked what scrubs to buy. So physical retail is a reversal, and the company is open about why.
The reason is the part of e-commerce nobody likes to admit: a lot of people want to touch the clothes. FIGS told Modern Retail that more than 60 percent of people who have not bought from it want to feel the product first, and that shoppers who come through the Hubs tend to be newer to the brand and worth more over time. So the Hubs go where the customers already are, near hospitals and medical schools, not in malls. As a way to convert skeptics, it is smart. Scrubs are work clothes you live in for twelve hours. Of course people want to try them on first.
The business behind the branding
This is not a brand throwing money at vanity storefronts. FIGS reported $631 million in revenue for 2025, up about 14 percent, and opened 2026 with a first quarter of $160 million, up 28 percent. Whatever you make of the wellness-workshop framing, the company is growing, and the physical spaces are part of a plan.
The Olympics push fits the same pattern. FIGS is the official outfitter of Team USA's medical team at the 2026 Winter Games in Milano Cortina, dressing more than 150 health care workers, a role it first took at Paris 2024 and has extended through Los Angeles 2028. It partnered with skier Lindsey Vonn, an investor and brand ambassador, around a campaign honoring the medical team behind her comeback. It is good marketing: put the people who care for elite athletes in your scrubs, on a global stage.
What it says about scrubs in 2026
Step back and the move tells you where this category is going. Scrubs stopped being a commodity uniform sometime in the last decade and became a brand purchase, with a lifestyle wrapped around it. A coffee bar in a scrubs shop is not really about coffee. It is about making a work uniform feel like an identity worth paying a premium for.
Some of that is good for nurses. Competition on fit, fabric, and pockets beats the old world of one stiff polyester option from the hospital supply closet. Some of it is just margin. A yoga class at the scrub store does not make the scrubs last longer.
Frequently asked questions
What is a FIGS Community Hub?
It is FIGS's term for its physical stores, located near hospitals and medical schools rather than malls. Besides selling scrubs, the Chicago West Loop hub, the brand's fifth, hosts wellness workshops, recycling drop-offs, embroidery stations, and a coffee bar.
Why is FIGS opening physical stores?
FIGS built its business selling directly online, but says many prospective customers want to feel the product before buying. The hubs aim to convert newer shoppers, who tend to be worth more over time.
How is FIGS performing financially?
FIGS reported $631 million in revenue for 2025, up about 14 percent, and opened 2026 with a first quarter of $160 million, up about 28 percent.
What does the FIGS retail push say about scrubs?
Scrubs have shifted from a commodity uniform to a brand purchase with a lifestyle around it. Competition on fit, fabric, and pockets benefits nurses, but the experience layer does not make a garment last longer.
Where we sit, honestly
We should be upfront: FIGS is a competitor. We are a much smaller brand, and we are not going to pretend we are neutral about the company that defines the category we work in. But pretending we are not paying attention would be worse, so here is the honest read.
- The retail instinct is right. People should be able to feel scrubs before they commit to a closet full of them. We respect that FIGS is spending real money to fix the try-before-you-buy problem the whole category created.
- The experience layer is not the product. A community space is a nice thing to have and does nothing for a nurse whose scrub top pills after a month of hot-water washing. The brand experience and the garment are two different promises, and only one of them shows up on a night shift.
- Our bet is the boring one. We would rather put the money into fabric and fit than into a coffee bar, and let nurses decide whether that trade is worth it. Some will want the flagship and the campaign. Some just want a set that holds up and does not cost a fortune. We build for the second group.
FIGS is very good at making scrubs feel aspirational. We are more interested in making them dependable. Both can be true, and nurses get to pick which one they are buying. That is a better market than the one that existed ten years ago.
Sources: Modern Retail on the FIGS Community Hubs strategy (January 2026); FIGS investor relations for 2025 and Q1 2026 financial results; the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and NBC Olympics on the FIGS Team USA medical team partnership.
Edited by Hedy Nie, COO of Eipnare. Connect on LinkedIn.