Upscale German fashion brand Hugo Boss is continuing with its Canadian expansion plans. We spoke with the retailer’s Canadian Managing Director Lanita Layton for details. 

The Hugo Boss brand was founded by a man of the same name in 1924 near Stuttgart, Germany. The company has grown substantially to include various product categories, including men’s and women’s fashion, accessories, footwear and fragrances. The company sells in excess of 2.5 billion Euros annually, and employs over 12,500 people worldwide. It operates corporately-owned stores,concessions, and outlets, and also sells through franchises and wholesale channels. Hugo Boss recently made Interbrand’s top 100 brands for 2015 for the first time, reflecting Hugo Boss’ increasing popularity and respect in the industry. 

Although franchised Hugo Boss stores operated in Canada in the past, it wasn’t until recently that the brand opened corporately owned locations outside of Vancouver. In 2007, the company opened its first Toronto location, featuring only womenswear, at Yorkdale Shopping Centre. That store was subsequently replaced by a dual-gender location in an expansion wing in November of 2012. In 2008, the company opened a location at West Edmonton Mall and in late 2009, Boss opened its massive three-level freestanding Canadian flagship at 83 Bloor Street West in Toronto. A location at Calgary’s CF Chinook Centre followed in the summer of 2013 and in the spring of 2014, a CF Richmond Centre unit opened in suburban Vancouver. Last spring, Hugo Boss opened at CF Toronto Eaton Centre and soon after, at Vancouver’s CF Pacific Centre below Nordstrom. The company also operates a concession at Montreal’s Ogilvy department store. The company’s oldest Canadian location is at Vancouver’s Oakridge Centre, which opened in September of 2005. Two previous Yorkville shops, and one downtown Vancouver location, have since closed. 

The company also operates 15 shops-in-stores in retailers such as Harry Rosen, as well as six Boss outlets. The Bloor Street Harry Rosen Boss location is particularly remarkable, measuring an impressive 2,940 square feet. 

Hugo Boss Canada Managing Director Lanita Layton explained that the company is looking to renovate and expand some of its more successful Canadian locations, particularly smaller stores that lack some of the brand’s new store design features. Boss’ updated store design is reflected in its recently opened CF Pacific Centre Vancouver location, which features Bauhaus-inspired interiors that are high-quality, bright, and feature an openness ideally enhanced by overheight ceilings.

Hugo Boss is also entertaining the possibility of opening new Canadian stores. Ms. Layton explained that the company would seek retail space in the 6,000 square foot range, ideally in top enclosed malls, with exceptional traffic and co-tenancies. Larger stores allow the brand to feature full men’s and women’s fashion/accessory/footwear collections, as opposed to smaller locations such as CF Richmond Centre and West Edmonton Mall which only feature men’s categories. 

Ms. Layton explained that sales of Boss’ womenswear has grown considerably since Taiwanese Canadian designer Jason Wu took over as creative director. The young Mr. Wu, who also designs his own popular fashion line, is a favourite of Michelle Obama and many affluent women worldwide. Mr. Wu’s handbags and footwear lines for Hugo Boss have proven so popular that the retailer recently expanded the third floor of its Bloor Street flagship for more shoes and leathergoods. 

Several years ago, Hugo Boss’ Canadian sales were approximately 40% retail and 60% wholesale. Those numbers have since reversed as Hugo Boss opens more corporately-owned stores, though Ms. Layton stressed that Boss’ wholesale accounts are extremely important and highly valued by the brand. 

Although Ms. Layton wouldn’t provide an estimate as to the number of Canadian locations that Hugo Boss is ultimately looking to operate, she did explain that the brand is looking to grow some current locations and open in selected markets, while continuing to foster strong relationships with its wholesale vendors. Hugo Boss has had a relationship with some of Canada’s top retailers for a number of years, including top names such as Holt Renfrew, Harry Rosen, Henry Singer and Hudson’s Bay. 

Edmonton-based footwear and fashion retailer gravitypope (spelled lowercase) has opened a new Calgary flagship. Under the same roof is an apothecary, music retailer Blackbyrd Myoozik (the second location for the popular Edmonton record store) and Edmonton-based chocolatier Sweet Lollapalooza Confections — also opening its second location. We spoke with gravitypope founder and owner Louise Dirks for details.  

Located at 1126 17 Avenue S.W., The new 9,000 square foot Calgary gravitypope occupies an impressive building designed by noted Calgary Architect, Harold Hanen, who was most known for his development of the city’s Plus 15 walkway system. The store’s design reflects his love for Frank Lloyd Wright architecture and features staircases surrounded with glass in an all open concept.

The store’s brutalist-inspired interior was designed and built by Peter and Wendy Turner (The Artworks-Edmonton), combining 1970’s furniture and design elements including brass, smoked mirror, glass and colour with contemporary fixtures and furnishings. The store’s central atrium is filled with Bocci blue glass bubble lights, massive Jason Miller Modo chandeliers adorning the footwear gallery, silver veneer space age display cases imported from Paris, a 1970’s brass and green glass mirror from Southern France, recycled stained glass from the Trippen headquarters (previous Bulgarian Embassy) in Berlin, and a custom art installation by Russian Canadian visual artist Kristi Malakoff.

Blackbyrd Myoozik’s 600 square foot space is located on the lower-level of the new gravitypope. Sweet Lollapalooza’s roughly 500 square foot shop-in-store will soon sell wine and champaign by the glass, according to gravitypope owner Louise Dirks. Sweet Lollapalooza will also serve coffee and is already internationally known for its chocolates, having won multiple awards.

Ms. Dirks said that she has no immediate plans for any more locations, though down the road she may look at new markets and replacement locations. 

Founded in 1990 as a single shoe store on Edmonton’s trendy Whyte Avenue, gravitypope soon expanded its offerings to include designer ready-to-wear. Its first Calgary store opened in the year 2000 and in 2004, a Vancouver location opened on West 4th Avenue in the Kitsilano area. In 2007, two ready-to-wear clothing boutiques, called gravitypope Tailored Goods, opened in Edmonton and Vancouver. In late 2012, gravitypope opened a large location on Toronto’s hip West Queen West, featuring footwear, fashion, and an apothecary. 

The Calgary store features more than 100 brands, including:
 
Footwear: Acne Studios, Adidas, Aigle, Alexander Wang, Alice & Whittles, Ami, Arche, Asics Onitsuka Tiger, Audley, Birkenstock, Bosabo, Camper, Chausser, Chie Mihara, Church’s, Clae, Clarks, Coclico, Comme des Garçons, Common Projects, Converse, Cydwoq, Diemme, Dr. Martens, Fiorentini & Baker, Jil Sander Navy, John Fluevog, Kodiak, Fly London, Frye, Gidigio, gravitypope, Grenson, H by Hudson, Keen,  Manitobah Mukluks, Marcel, Marni, Megumi Ochi, Melissa, Merrell, Michael Kors, Moma, Native, New Balance, Objects in Mirror, Officine Creative, Paul Smith, Rachel Comey, Rag & Bone, Rosa Mosa, Red Wing, Repetto, Saucony, See by Chloe, Sorel, Superga, Swims, T & F Slack, TN-29, Toms, Trippen, Ugg, Veronique Branqhino, Vic Matie, Vans, Wolverine 1000 Mile, Zinda and more. 

Clothing: A.B. Punto, Acne Studios, Alex Mill, Alexander Wang, Ami Paris, APC, Antipast, Barena, Canada Goose Black, Carhartt WIP, Comme des Garçons, Engineered Garments, Filippa K, Forte Forte, Fortnight Lingerie, Isabel Marant, Ivan Grundahl, Jil Sander Navy, Maison Kitsune, Margaret Howell, Marni, Naked and Famous, Pomandere, Rag & Bone, Sophie D’Hoore, Stephan Schneider, Yoshi Kondo and more. 
 
Accessories: Arielle De Pinto, Pearls Before Swine, Ming Yu Wang, Rada, Marni and Milena Zu, and Jill Platner jewelry; Antipast, Falke, Happy Socks, Marcoliani, Paul Smith, Hansel From Basel socks and hosiery; and APC, Alexander Wang, Comme des Garçons, Il Busetto, Marni, Officine Creative, Repetto, Want Essentiels, Paul Smith handbags and wallets.

All photos courtesy of gravitypope, with more below. Some are saying that photos don’t do the store justice, and that it should be seen in person. 

Quebec-based SAIL Plein Air inc. is launching the province’s largest sports superstores, called Sportium. Each location is over 70,000 square feet in size over two levels. 

Both locations open today — one in Saint-Hubert, just south of Montreal, and the other in suburban Quebec City. Both stores are two levels, with their main floors being dedicated to clothing and training accessories geared to running, yoga, and tennis, as well as casual wear collections, including a wall of shoes with over 700 models. Second levels in each store feature gear for team sports such as hockey, soccer, football, basketball, and volleyball. Sportium says that its athletic shoe selection is the widest in the province of Quebec.

Stores have a ‘modern and urban feel’ according to Sportium, featuring concrete walls and white lacquer displays. The store entrance faces a wall of 16 screens depicting promotional videos, interviews with athletes, and various sporting events.

Parent company SAIL Plein Air Inc. was founded more than 40 years ago in Quebec, and it currently operates 10 stores in Ontario and Quebec. It is considered to be Eastern Canada’s largest network of outdoor, camping, hunting and fishing stores, featuring 20-50 fully assembled models of tents (depending on the season), 40 models of boats (kayaks, canoes), 3500 pairs of snowshoes, 1550 models of fishing rods, 500 models of boots and footwear — over 500,000 items in each of its stores. 

Iconic Canadian sports retailer Sport Chek is also opening similarly large stores, with a heavier focus on in-store digital technology. Sport Chek parent company FGL Sports is expanding its Sports Experts flagship concept in Quebec as well.