Todd Daniels says Gallery Streetwear was years in the making before it opened its doors in downtown Kelowna in 2024, bringing a curated selection of exclusive streetwear brands to a market he believed was missing something different.
Daniels, founder and owner of the boutique at 588 Bernard Ave., said the concept had been developing for about two decades. After working in the board sports industry and seeing once-exclusive brands become widely available, he decided to build a store focused on limited releases, independent labels and customer experience rather than volume. The shop carries apparel, footwear and accessories with influences from skateboarding, golf and contemporary streetwear culture.
Despite opening during a challenging period for retail, Daniels said the business has continued to grow by emphasizing exclusivity, community and a strong online presence. He said Gallery Streetwear has attracted customers from across Canada and visiting tourists alike, while future expansion into larger markets such as Toronto and Vancouver remains a long-term goal.
The store is located on the main strip in downtown Kelowna and consists of about 1,550 square feet.
“It’s right on the main thoroughfare. It would be like your Robson Street of Vancouver. It’s right in the main section,” said Daniels.
“We have a mix of stuff. It’s mainly what we call streetwear, which is kind of an urban term for cool menswear and womenswear now. We do some stuff mixed with skateboard culture. We’re not necessarily a skateboard shop. We carry some decks just because it’s fun, but we’re not a skateboard shop. A lot of streetwear culture has its roots in skateboarding.
“We also carry golf apparel, but streetwear golf, so it’s kind of a young, more urban golf vibe . . . We do brands that you won’t find anywhere else. We don’t do mall brands. In fact, I have this kind of set policy: if certain shops carry it, we don’t. Our shop is based on more of an exclusivity or scarcity model, so we don’t carry huge amounts of most brands. We kind of prefer to sell out. I don’t love having tons of inventory.
“We also sell shoes.”
Daniels grew up in Kelowna. As a professional snowboarder when he was younger, he travelled the world.
“I’ve always been into this kind of culture. I was really into board sports like skateboarding as well. I worked quite a few other jobs too. I lived in the woods being a fire watcher,” he said.
Over the years, he helped start up other retail stores.
The current store concept came along later.
“We kind of hit the right note at the right time. We got away from generic and the same. I don’t even want to say young people because we have a pretty good age range. With the golf category, we just kind of hit the right crowd as far as what I would call social affluence,” said Daniels.
“We’re not super cheap. We’re at a little bit higher price point.
“I believe people should come into our store and have an experience. Otherwise, they’ll just walk and go somewhere else. We have to treat every single person well. I treat selling a T-shirt like selling a snowboard or a car. You teach them about the materials and why it costs what it does because we tend to be higher priced. We explain it, and we have stories behind every brand. I think that’s helped too because people come in, and they just like hanging out. We have a very big community vibe.
When the stores gets people from the bigger cities, especially from Japan and from New York, they’re amazed. “This is a shop from a big city.”
“We do really well when people drop by. They say, “We wish we had this in our bigger city.”
“I would like to expand. I just have to make this one pay for itself. It’s paying for itself, but I want to make sure of that before we expand. I’ve seen other board shops expand, and they just blew up because they didn’t really contain each of the locations. A lot of them do well for six months, and because they’re not there and they have management, they end up imploding.
“It has to be timed. If I had one in Toronto, I’d have to be there for a year or two, which I’m fine with. I’m very hands-on.”
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