It’s no surprise that Vancouver, with its healthy outdoors lifestyle, inspires designers to start up innovative companies focusing on premium and performance apparel. What’s new and noteworthy — and perhaps contrary to expectation — is the decision by these companies, having achieved major success, to maintain their headquarters here rather than relocate to bigger cluster cities.
The option of a stodgy, by-the-books move to a Cleveland or a Chicago just wouldn’t make sense for British Columbia’s apparel sector. In designing, manufacturing and retailing clothing and footwear, these high-quality technical performance and premium brands — Arc’teryx, Aritzia, lululemon athletica, MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op), Herschel Supply and Kit and Ace — reach markets worldwide.
The sector also includes the boutique and mid-tier brands Obakki, Native Shoes, John Fluevog, Minimoc and Tatum & Olivia; specialized brands Dayton Boots, Mustang Survival and Watson Gloves; and manufacturers Garmatex, GE Garments, Tamoda and Winner Sportswear.
Contributing $14.6 billion to B.C’s GDP, these companies draw on Vancouver’s vibrant setting and culture to create, in the words of lululemon’s mission statement, “our products create transformational experiences for people to live happy, healthy, fun lives.”
In 1998 lululemon started out sharing space with a yoga studio. That local sense of energy still fuels the company — Kitsilano is its birthplace and B.C. will always be home.
It’s not just overall business strategy that lululemon develops in Vancouver. The company imparts wellness initiatives, like vision/goal-setting workshops and complimentary yoga classes, to its stores around the world.
For Arc’teryx, which makes high-performance outerwear and equipment, the rationale for staying is both emotional and economical. Jon Hoerauf, VP/Senior Director of Global Commercial Sales, explains, “Arc’teryx is born from the Coastal Mountains. Our heart and soul — as well as our design muse — are rooted in B.C. We have our Design and Development Centre based here, as well as our own factory. All of these things are crucial to our design ethos: to control the process from idea to production to ensure strict quality control.”
B.C. now has North America’s fourth-largest apparel sector, with 600 businesses generating 7,000 jobs in the province and 14,000 jobs globally. The sector ships $3 billion in goods to over 50 countries.
Business Council of B.C. President/ CEO Greg D’Avignon says, “With our gateway to Asia and proximity to U.S. retail markets, B.C. is a destination for these innovative companies to locate and grow this cluster in technical apparel and design. Our province’s economy is diverse in part because of companies such as lululemon and Arc’teryx, who are choosing to start and grow their business as an integrated part of B.C.’s brand, which exemplifies a healthy, environmentally conscious and globally connected lifestyle. These companies are innovative, technology-driven and offer well-paying, highly specialized employment opportunities.”
Another reason for staying: thermal-gloved hands down, this is the most practical site for production.
Clothes and gear that can handle B.C. weather can handle weather anywhere.
Hoerauf affirms, “We’re the global leader in performance rainwear — from the fact that we’re based on Vancouver’s North Shore! Our environment and weather constantly inform our product development, but what really underpins it is our desire to be outside and playing in wild places.”
Recognizing the apparel sector’s “incredible growth,” as Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters’ (CME) B.C. representative Marcus Ewert-Johns describes it, the B.C. Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training recently launched the Apparel Manufacturers Sector Engagement Project. The project brings together more than 90 apparel employers and associations, including CME, Canada’s largest trade and industry association — all committed to addressing common workforce challenges in the manufacturing sector.
Says Ewert-Johns, “Greater Vancouver is emerging as a significant value-creation centre for world-class apparel design and manufacturing. Industry and government are collaborating closely to ensure the sector continues to grow.”
