A common misconception of industry holds that the emergence of a new business sector affects only the jobs and wealth creation of its surrounding community.
But the rise of an industry also changes the culture of the place it inhabits, ushering in a paradigm shift of creative thinking, enterprise and innovation. Take a look at Silicon Valley today. IT and web giants like Facebook and Google do not operate in a vacuum. They nurture important relationships with Stanford, Santa Clara, CalTech and other universities that benefit from their proximity. And while Silicon Valley thrives on capital provided by IT's stupendous wealth, the IT sector benefits equally from Silicon Valley.
A little farther up the coast, in Beaverton, Oregon, the growth of Nike has spawned a huge consumer goods sector that has pumped millions of dollars into the Portland area. Nike chairman Phil Knight does more than sign paycheques for the company's Oregon employees. He bankrolls area sports programs and charities. His financial backing of the University of Oregon football program has helped turn the Ducks into a team of national prominence and is transforming the university into a national brand.
Since its inception, in 1978, Nike has made eight major brand acquisitions and created 33 independent companies. Collectively, these firms employ more than 1,000 people and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Nike has become the epicentre of a consumer goods revolution, sparking an explosion of business growth. With the addition of Adidas America and Columbia Sportswear, the Portland area has become a hub for the outdoor consumer goods industry, a relationship that has cushioned the blow of the recession, boosted employment figures and pumped millions of tax dollars into schools and fire departments, while also creating a generation of white-collar workers trained in design, nutrition, materials and other subsets of the industry.
The effect is profound.
Since 2000, more than 250 companies tied to the outdoor and athletic consumer goods sector have been formed in the state of Oregon. In both Silicon Valley and Portland, industry and community exist in a symbiotic state, and both thrive when they work together.
A similar phenomenon is about to transform British Columbia. Well known for its strong IT performance, B.C. is on the verge of becoming one of North America's most important centres for consumer goods development.
For a decade, B.C. has enjoyed explosive growth in its consumer goods sector. Foremost among the brands to call the region home are Lululemon Athletica, the most influential casual women's lifestyle brand in North America, and Arc'teryx, an internationally renowned performance apparel company. Lululemon and Arc'teryx have blazed the trail for the emergence of a whole sector of consumer goods companies, and the real growth hasn't even started. Of the 33 companies that grew out of Nike's success, only five had been founded by Nike's 21st birthday. Founded in 1991, Arc'teryx turns 21 this year. Lululemon, created in 1998, turns 21 in seven years. Between then and now, we expect to see exponential growth in B.C.'s consumer goods sector.
Growth is already happening. The contribution of human capital, talent, excitement, reputation, energy and plain old dollars and cents that Lululemon and Arc'teryx have made to British Columbia has sowed the seeds of the region's emergent consumer sector.
Already, B.C. is home to more than 20 consumer goods companies. They make footwear (Native Shoes, Alife, Ken Diamond), handbags and accessories (Erin Templeton, Herschel), couture (Catherine Regehr, Clara Couture, Eva Chen, Malene Grotrian, Obakki, Yumi Eto) and sports apparel (Beth Richards, Canada Goose, Red Dragon, Sitka Surf, Zoey Couture). Those are just a handful of the companies already up and running.
As in Silicon Valley or Portland, each emerging B.C.-based company contributes to a growing positive feedback loop that makes the community stronger, the pool of human capital richer and the society more verdant.
The region is already attracting outside investors eager to play a part in the rise of an important new industry and to help shape B.C.'s coming golden years. We expect the consumer goods sector in B.C. to be an exceptional target of institutional funding over the next five to 10 years as the region's legion of companies, led by Lululemon and Arc'teryx, takes flower. •
