Balenciaga Boutique in Saks Fifth Avenue at CF Toronto Eaton Centre - Photo by Craig Patterson
Saks Fifth Avenue has opened a bag and accessory boutique space for Kering-owned French luxury brand Balenciaga on the main floor of its CF Toronto Eaton Centre store in Toronto. The Balenciaga boutique replaces Celine which vacated the space last month prior to Celine’s standalone flagship opening at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre.
The main floor Balenciaga boutique is located next to a Dior bag and accessory concession on one side and a Givenchy shop on the other. The main floor of Saks also houses concession spaces for Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Prada and Piaget as well as wholesale shop spaces for brands Bottega Veneta, Chloé, Chopard and Birks.
Balenciaga bags were already carried at Saks in downtown Toronto and the new boutique space allows the brand to expand its assortment while presenting the collection more prominently. A dedicated Balenciaga women’s ready-to-wear boutique space has been present on the third floor of Saks in downtown Toronto since the store opened in February of 2016. Balenciaga menswear is also carried on the second floor of the store.
In Canada, Balenciaga operates a flagship store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre which opened in late 2019 as well as concession boutique spaces at Holt Renfrew stores in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. The brand can be found at Nordstrom including a women’s shop-in-store in Vancouver.
Balenciaga at Yorkdale – Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Spanish fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga opened his first storefront in San Sebastián, Spain, in 1917, prior to expanding into Madrid and Barcelona. The Spanish Civil War forced Mr. Balenciaga to move his operations to Paris where he opened a couture house on Avenue George V in 1937. Balenciaga has morphed over the years from a brand known for elegant evening gowns to one featuring a wide range of fashions, including streetwear.
Craig and industry recruiter Suzanne Sears of Best Retail Careers Int’l. discuss why many retailers in Canada are demanding staff are vaccinated while also supporting vaccine passports.
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Interviewed this episode:
Suzanne Sears, President of Best Retail Careers International Inc.
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Background Music Credit: Hard Boiled Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
The past year-and-a-half has no doubt proven to be an incredibly difficult time for most retailers in just about every vertical throughout the industry. The pandemic and its impacts have challenged merchants and other businesses to pivot, at times redefining their service and offering, in order to remain relevant and successful. It’s forced many across the country to reimagine their place in an unstable market amid the instability and uncertainty of a changed and still unsettled landscape. And, it’s put an enormous amount of pressure on departments and teams within organizations to explore and discover new ways of doing things as we collectively await our new ‘normal’. In short, the past 18 months have been a far stretch from fun and games. However, for Mastermind Toys CEO, Sarah Jordan, this period in retail history has served as an opportunity to further strengthen the beloved Canadian brand, elevating it through her passionate and purpose-driven approach to leadership.
“When it comes to successfully leading a team, an individual needs to, among other things, be passionate, bold and authentic,” she says. “And, to be truly effective, they’ve got to be purpose-driven. I’m also a strong advocate for brand storytelling and deeply believe in sharing that story with both employees and customers and showcasing it as a real strength for differentiation. A leader also requires inspiring communications skills, ensuring that the organization’s priorities and focus are clear. And, they’ve got to be able to understand their own strengths in order to build the best team, putting the right people around them. The ability to nurture and develop talent and to truly believe in the team around them is also critical and sets everyone up for success, resulting in an incredible employee experience which, in turn, drives a phenomenal customer experience. And there’s no better place than retail to surprise and delight a customer and create connections with a brand and purpose.”
Strategic transformation
Jordan, whose rise to retail success has been somewhat unconventional, holds an engineering degree and MBA from Queen’s University and started her professional career in management consulting. She spent a decade at Boston Consulting Group where she worked with Fortune 500 companies on retail and banking customer transformations before joining Scotiabank as its Senior Vice President of Customer Experience and Omnichannel Strategy. She was named CEO of Mastermind Toys – Canada’s biggest specialty toy and children’s book retailer – in January 2020, just months before the onset of pandemic-induced restrictions and lockdowns. Despite the incredibly challenging backdrop to her new role, however, she saw prospects for the brand and a chance to apply her energy and enthusiasm toward realizing them.
“When I took over as CEO of Mastermind Toys, I saw a big opportunity to take this leader in its category to the next level,” she asserts. “To achieve this, I instituted a strategic plan. I set out to declare us as the ‘Authority on Play’ in Canada. We are a purpose-driven brand and deeply believe that ‘Play is Kids’ Work’ and knew that we needed to introduce our brand to more Canadian kids and kids-at-heart. I also wanted to strengthen our channels. We were delivering amazing wonder in our stores, but we were lagging the industry with respect to our web and curbside presence. And so, I really wanted to lead the organization on a digital reinvention and to create wonder for our customers both in-store and online. I also wanted to amplify our differentiators, one of them being our ‘Why Kids Play’ curation model by which we curate our toys, books, puzzles and games based on a child’s development, for each age and stage, with respect to their body, mind and expression. There were opportunities for us to bring this curation to life in more ways by leading in specialty and trends. And, what I’m most proud of is the fact that we’ve been able to drive a cultural transformation around being more purpose- and performance-driven.”
Leadership reinvented
Sarah Jordan (Image: Mastermind Toys)
She goes on to explain that, although there hasn’t been a playbook available to her concerning the ways to lead through a global pandemic, it’s been a privilege to be part of a team that’s pulled together to such great effect, navigating through these challenging times to come out stronger. It’s a testament to the resilience and determination of the revered Canadian brand, and an example of the kind of character that’s exuded by a special category of merchants within the industry that continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Despite the positivity with which she approaches just about every aspect of her job, however, she suggests that circumstances over the course of the past 18 months have not only influenced the retail environment, but those who lead through it as well.
“I remember, if I reflect on the past year-and-a-half, a real heaviness and weight to the decisions that I made through the pandemic,” she admits. “I knew that I needed to make decisions that ultimately kept our employees and customers safe and realized that this was going to be a period of time that not only reinvented retail, but was one that would also reinvent leadership, serving as a defining moment for many within the industry. In response to the turmoil that was happening, I saw tremendous value in bringing our employees into the conversation about the ways we should respond and best support our customers. I believe in co-creation and seeking input from all levels of the organization to better understand everyone’s concerns, suggestions and feedback. It’s the best way to properly gain a holistic view of the brand and the areas that can be strengthened and improved.”
Cultural development
Leading this type of transformation at such a critical juncture for the brand and industry is ambitious, to say the least. But when considering the fact that Jordan’s appointment as CEO represents the first leadership change in Mastermind Toys’ 37-year history, the move suddenly becomes a very courageous one as well. And the results to this point couldn’t be more impressive. Through the pandemic, the retailer launched its leading curbside promise to deliver product into the trunk of the customer’s car or at curbside, presented in the brand’s signature wrapping paper, within one hour. It launched a brand-new website on a completely new platform, equipped with artificial intelligence-powered customer experiences that bolsters search and functionality for the end-user. And, it also introduced three cultural goals meant to enhance and support employee development and performance.
“We really wanted our employees to feel inspired through the pandemic,” Jordan explains. “Mastermind Toys has always had corporate goals. But I wanted to inject cultural goals as well. So, as the pandemic was unfolding, I asked all of the Mastermind Toys employees, communicating the message through virtual town halls, to be bold and scrappy. If we were going to make it through these challenging times stronger, we needed to innovate and to give our employees inspiration to go for it. We also set a goal to create momentum. Rather than focusing on the twists and turns of the pandemic, we wanted to remain focused on our long-term vision and strategy. Every town hall meeting, we’d celebrate wins big and small, and we’d celebrate failures as well. We introduced the weekly ‘Mastermind Moment’ that is handpicked from our employees’ performances across the nation. And lastly, we wanted to maintain the ingredients that make Mastermind Toys special and to allow our purpose to guide us and shine through during a moment when our customers’ and employees’ lives were being transformed.”
Culmination of goals
The goals that Jordan and her team set out last year were well-received by the entire organization, so well-received, in fact, that they’ve been reinvigorated for 2021. This year, she explains, Mastermind Toys employees have been charged with keeping kids and kids-at-heart central to everything the brand does. They’ve been inspired to win each moment and milestone throughout the year, beyond the brand’s traditional holiday shopping season success, with the addition of its Spring and Back-to-School Play Guides. And, due to the extreme pressures that everyone has been under over the course of the past year-and-a-half, they’ve been encouraged to work together and play together, focusing on being a team. Results of the goals and the overall transformation that Jordan has led for Mastermind Toys have been significant, seeming to culminate in many ways in the launch of its first sub-brand, Mastermind Toys Baby.
“I pride myself on being a deeply customer-obsessed leader,” Jordan affirms. “So, I wanted to understand exactly who the Mastermind Toys customer is today, who we’re serving and who we’re underserving. Mastermind Toy’s’ purpose is to inspire generations of lifelong learners through the power of play. And our sweet spot has always been parents, grandparents and kids aged three to six years old. What we realized was that we were missing an opportunity to support the new parents or grandparents and to speak authentically about our belief that ‘Play is Kids’ Work’. When we transitioned that statement to babies, we recognized that there are a lot of companies who are supporting the new parent with respect to gear, the nursery and bringing the baby home. But no one was addressing the importance of play in order to support their development. And so, we set a goal to become the number one choice for baby play for development.”
Expanding customer-base
Image: Mastermind Toys
To do so, the brand applied its curation model to the development of Mastermind Toys Baby, resulting in a selection of items for baby’s playtime that support five key development skills, including fine motor skills, gross motor skills, cognitive skills, speech and language and social and emotional. The sub-brand is rooted in the company’s origin, founded in 1984 as ‘Canada’s educational store’, and is being introduced during a time that Jordan believes new parents are in most need of support and educational resources. She adds that it’s helped Mastermind Toys broaden its customer-base and to explore in more detail where some of its future opportunities might be with respect to growth.
“Prior to the pandemic, we narrowly described our customer and who we wanted our customer to be,” she says. “Now, we want our customers to be parents, expecting parents, grandparents, educators, gift-givers and kids-at-heart, meaning adults, who are one of the fastest growing segments in toys. We want them to be passionate about celebrating milestone moments to make lasting memories. We want them to be adventurous, lifelong learners who are looking to inspire curiosity in others. And we want them, of course, to look to us as their trusted resource for all things play. To support our customers, we want to own our moments with them by helping to celebrate holidays, reward occasions like good behaviour and grades, celebrate milestones like potty-training and losing a soother. And, we’re also looking to support life transitions, like the introduction of new siblings or kindergarten graduation. The world is better at play. And we want to ensure this by curating world-class assortments and experiences that inspire wonder and foster development.”
Delighting the customer
Always looking forward, discovering new ways by which to serve its community of customers, Jordan is optimistic about the future of retail in Canada and is relishing the opportunity to reignite and intensify everything that’s great about the toy store experience, in particular the Mastermind Toys experience. Brought to life in-store through toy demonstrations, its bold colours, whimsical signage and engaging displays, the Mastermind Toys experience sets the brand apart. And, although much of the brick-and-mortar offering that the brand provides was limited throughout the pandemic, all 68 locations from coast-to-coast are now operating at full capacity. It’s something that Jordan says is the most exciting moment of her journey with the brand thus far.
“The retail industry really sets the pace for innovation, in both big and small ways,” she asserts. “And I’m excited to navigate over the coming months and years toward enhancing the interaction of retail and the creation of those real moments rather than the quick curbside pickup. I was thrilled when our stores started to reopen after the lockdowns to see the kids enter and experience that wonder around every corner. And because we understand that we continue to set the trends, customers are greeted when they come into our stores by a ‘Play Expert’ and guided toward the perfect gift. I’m looking forward to 2022 and beyond to be about understanding and creating new experiences that will delight our customers.”
Amplifying the retail experience
Image: Mastermind Toys
Jordan also expresses anticipation and enthusiasm for the upcoming holiday shopping season and the opportunities to provide customers with the experiences she describes. Her energy and natural acumen for the role she’s currently serving have already reaped dividends for Mastermind Toys. Despite her early achievements, however, the retail leader remains fixed on continuous improvements and enhancements, describing the transformation of the brand as a multi-year journey, and work with a purpose that she’s more than willing to see through to fruition.
“We’re excited and inspired by the impact of our strategic transformation to date. We want to truly be Canada’s ‘Authority on Play’ from coast-to-coast, leading the way in toy trends, retail innovations and experiences in our category. We still want to introduce the Mastermind Toys brand purpose to more Canadians and we see many opportunities to continue to improve our channel offering and customer journeys. We’re just getting started in terms of our digital experiences and how we can provide as much wonder online as we deliver in our stores. From an assortment and curation standpoint, we’ve been known for certain categories with deep roots in educational toys. Many opportunities exist to deepen our offering in those categories and create new ways to surprise and delight customers. We want to ensure that we’re Canada’s year-long destination for all things play. And we want to put the special back into specialty. With a focus on our customer and this amazing Mastermind Toys team, I’m confident that we’ll continue to lead within the industry, amplifying the retail experience.”
UK-based rain-focused brand Hunter has revealed its new seasonal campaign, For The World Outside. The campaign celebrates the role Hunter has played in everyday exploration for over 160 years and the people who are redefining it for future generations.
For The World Outside is the first campaign to be unveiled under the leadership of CEO Paolo Porta who was appointed in June 2020. Since joining Hunter, Paolo has set an ambitious strategy to reposition Hunter as the leading British outdoor lifestyle brand with a meaningful connection to nature, focusing on product elevation and diversification into all-season, all-weather with sustainable practices at its core.
Porta has bolstered the leadership team including the Brand and Creative team by appointing Claudia Plant as Chief Marketing Officer and Sandra Romboli as Global Design Director last year. The introduction of a sharpened new brand identity and launch of Hunter Protect, the brand’s sustainability and accountability roadmap, comes as the first phase the brand’s evolution, followed by the launch of Romboli’s first collection arriving for AW22 in July next year.
Porta has also further strengthened the team in key areas of the North America region and Supply Chain. Announcing Lara Meiland-Shaw as Executive Vice-President of the Americas to deliver growth through strong wholesale partnerships aligning with direct-to-consumer physical and digital activities and Dave Powell as Chief Supply Chain Officer, responsible for Supply Chain strategies, development, product quality and logistics both short- and long-term impact, who joined in June and July this year.
Porta said, “I’m very pleased to announce the first phase of our brand evolution, establishing our new brand vision and sharing the Hunter pillars: nature, joy, creativity, heritage and protection with existing and new customers. We welcome Dave and Lara, with their knowledge and expertise, to help deliver significant further growth in the Americas as well as globally.”
Canadian independent beauty brand Graydon Skincare has announced a partnership with Hudson’s Bay. As of this month, consumers can buy Graydon’s line of natural plant-based skincare at 17 Hudson’s Bay stores in Canada as well as at thebay.com online.
Earlier in 2021, the brand also launched a retail partnership with ShoppersDrugMart.ca and is included as part of the retailers Thoughtful Choices program — the program aims to make it easier for customers to shop consciously by offering a range of quality, cruelty-free products that are mindful of our planet.
Toronto-based Graydon Moffat founded her brand in 2012, and it has grown significantly since. She used her skills as a vegan chef as well as her background in holistic wellness to build the brand. Interestingly, she got started by formulating topical products with superfood ingredients which resulted in the development a powerful and natural namesake line of face, body, and hair products. Ingredients such as broccoli, berries, chia, and avocados are used for example.
Image: TheBay.com
Graydon also aims to be sustainable with its products and packaging, being one of the first brands to partner with non-profit beauty recycling program Pact.
PenguinPickUp, a growing network of convenient “one-stop pick-up” for all ecommerce purchases including groceries as well as outbound courier services from its courier company partners, is partnering with URB-E for a new electric bike delivery project offering 95 per cent less carbon emissions and a six times lower traffic footprint for Downtown Toronto.
Patrick Jobidon
PenguinPickUp2You is a last-mile delivery solution using electric bikes with trailers.
“As online deliveries continue to increase, we need to seriously consider our social responsibility to our customers and communities,” said Patrick Jobidon, president of PenguinPickUp. “We hope to provide a safer and cleaner alternative for everyone involved in our business.
“We offer a different solution and we want to be more green for a number of reasons. First, nobody likes to see a lot of traffic in our neighbourhoods where our kids are growing. We’re trying to keep those neighbourhoods as safe as possible. Also, a lot of our customers are looking for a green solution.
Image: PenguinPickUp
“The ebike is allowing us to service the square that is Don Valley, 401 and 427 and the Gardiner. That’s pretty much the neighbourhood we are servicing with the ebikes.”
Charles Jolley
Customers can arrange for delivery service during a two-hour window of their choosing. The service will be available during peak hours from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily, with plans to expand hours of operation to include an 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. window. For a flat rate of $5, customers can have parcels from multiple retailers delivered at one time.
“Canada is leading the way in adopting sustainable, city-friendly delivery solutions to replace gas powered vans and trucks, and PenguinPickUp embraces this responsible mindset,” said Charles Jolley, CEO of URB-E. “PenguinPickUp is already one of the most innovative delivery providers with their store locations close to where people live. We think they’re the perfect partner to introduce low-emission, safe, and friendly URB-E delivery vehicles to the Canadian market.”
The ebike is designed by a former Porsche and Fisker engineer and can haul about 800 pounds or 400 kilograms of cargo and can easily roll on and off.
Image: PenguinPickUp
Initially, the PenguinPickUp locations at 171 East Liberty Street, 68 Abell St, 609 Church St, 415 Church St, 629 Eastern Ave and 53 Yonge St will offer the PenguinPickUp2U service to customers within a three-kilometre radius of the stores. These locations were chosen because of the advanced network of dedicated bike lanes, allowing for safe and fast delivery. URB-E’s folding electric vehicles and collapsible trailers are the best performing light delivery vehicles in the U.S. market, having major partnerships deployed in New York City, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
“We want to expand on this service and hopefully across all of our stores that we have whether it’s in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver,” said Jobidon.
“He thought about having stores that could service customers to pick up their online orders. It started with a few containers we had set up on some of the commercial properties that Mitch owns in the suburbs in Toronto. We now have almost 30 stores in GTA and we have a few in Montreal and we’ll be opening very shortly in Vancouver. We keep on growing our network,” said Jobidon.
Image: PenguinPickUp
“It’s a service that combines very much a network of physical, dedicated pickup location and transport and sortation capabilities that provides that unique solution to tackle the last mile efficiencies. Ecommerce is growing and it’s growing rapidly. All the courier companies are loaded. They’re running at capacity and it’s just the beginning of it.”
Since its inception, PenguinPickUp has touched more than 275,000 customers with its unique idea.
Penguin works with all the main courier companies who use their locations for their own deliverables. Consumers can also pick up items at those locations.
This year Penguin has been home for more than 1.5 million packages.
Jobidon said most of the customers are within about a kilometre radius from the Penguin locations. Often, customers walk or cycle to get to the stores.
A number of large retailers are using Penguin to get their packages delivered to the end consumer. He said Penguin is working with more than 100 retailers now.
Iconic Canadian retailer The Bay has entered into the baby gear resale industry through a partnership with Canadian startup Rebelstork.
Rebelstork is North America’s first managed marketplace for the resale of overstock, open box and quality used baby gear, providing parents with a hassle-free way to buy and resell their baby gear.
As of September 26, consumers will be able to access Rebelstork’s marketplace directly via thebay.com.
“It’s no surprise that babies are expensive: parents can spend upwards of $10,000 – $14,000 on their baby every year and many parents are only beginning to realize the significance that buying second hand or reselling gently used gear can have on the environment and on their finances,” said Emily Hosie, Founder and CEO of Rebelstork. “Our mission is to help families declutter, save and make money, and ultimately contribute to the circular economy.
“I think environmental concerns are probably the top reason (for the circular economy). In the baby gear space particularly, the life span of product is so short and it’s extraordinarily expensive. There’s a shift in parents wanting to provide the best for their babies and then there’s a lot of assortment out there now. There’s a lot of luxury gear. I also think there’s a big awareness with parents today especially Millennials and Gen Z where not only do they want to know how the products that are made – are they sustainably sourced, are they impact driven companies that they’re buying from – but they also want to know where their product is going afterward. So when they’re done with using it they want to know that it’s not just going into a landfill.
Rebelstork x The Bay
“Shoppers of The Bay will have access to our Rebelstork platform through their website. So The Bay is basically just opening up resale baby gear as an option for their customers. It’s very customer centric. That is how parents today are shopping. They’re buying something new, some things used. They want to sell their stuff and recoup as much money as they can back after using it and so The Bay is giving Rebelstork to their HBC clients.”
Hosie said what The Bay is doing is ‘disruption’ in the baby gear space, adding that the giant retailer is really paying attention to how customers are shopping these days.
“It is impactful and the circular economy is a partner to regular price and I think it’s great to see,” she said.
The partnership kicks off The Bay’s annual Baby Week Event on September 25 with trade-in events at two Hudson’s Bay locations: Guildford in Surrey, BC, and Square One in Mississauga, Ontario. Parents can bring gently used baby and kids gear and trade it in for a gift card from The Bay.
Image: Rebelstork
“Last year, we began to reimagine our kids strategy at The Bay to elevate the entire shopping experience for families. From baby showrooms to our Rookie shops, we have evolved to be more relevant, more innovative and easier than ever to shop for all stages of childhood,” said Laura Janney, Chief Merchant of The Bay. “Our partnership with Rebelstork brings a whole new option to parents looking to make more sustainable choices for short-term product purchases, as well as options for those ready to part with gently-used items that kids have grown out of. We are very pleased to partner with Rebelstork in delivering this experience to our customers.
“We know that parents are looking for more sustainable options for quality baby gear. This is a very relevant and innovative way to contribute to a circular economy, with two trusted brands delivering the experience for shoppers. Rebelstork’s marketplace of gently-used baby and kids gear was a natural fit to enter the baby resale space.
“Resale provides the ability to realize value on original investments, which is appealing when making purchases for products that are relatively short use. It is a more sustainable way to buy and sell, extending the lifespan of products. It is also an opportunity for parents to realize some cost savings on the buying side. The key for many parents when purchasing gently-used is having trust in their purchase choices.”
Janney said the retailer has really invested in its ‘family strategy’ over the past two years and has actually doubled its business in that time.
Image: Rebelstork
“We know that parents – and grandparents, aunts, uncles and others – want an expansive and quality assortment, and an easy shopping experience. The Bay has evolved to be more relevant, more innovative and a trusted destination for quality – making it easier than ever for parents to shop for all stages of childhood,” she said, adding the company sees more partnerships in this resale area in the future.
“We launched The Bay Marketplace in March 2021, and have already launched five pre-loved sellers on that platform on thebay.com, with more expected. There is a great opportunity for resale through our marketplace and we continue to explore trusted vendors to partner with.”
Rebelstork was founded in 2019 by Hosie who is a former retail executive working over the years with brands such as Winners, Marshalls and Saks Fifth Avenue.
“When I had my son I had a not so great experience selling a baby swing on a do-it-yourself marketplace and I just realized it wasn’t safe, I didn’t feel like I was getting the money I deserved for my item. So I figured there had to be a better way,” said Hosie. “So I created Rebelstork just out of my own personal experience as a way for parents to hassle-free buy and sell baby gear.
“We also do overstock and open box. So quick returns that are coming back to retailers and end-of-the-line products. There’s nothing wrong with the product. It’s just that it can be offered at a bit of a deal. We have our proprietary pricing technology that prices everything based on fair market value. It’s the first pricing technology in the baby gear space. Every product that is sold on our website is quality tested and rated by our staff and physically in our possession and then it goes through the pricing algorithm so that parents know that they’re paying and buying what the gear is actually worth.”
Image: Rebelstork
The upcoming trade-in events at The Bay’s two stores will accept products dated no earlier than 2017 and must be clean, operate well and be
free of stains and fabric tears. Strollers must have working brakes, functioning safety straps and opens and closes correctly. Additional terms, including accepted items for trade-in and their estimated value can be found here: https://rebelstork.com/pages/hbc-x-rebelstork
Items that are older than four years will be donated to charity. Trade-in value will be calculated at the events on-site using Rebelstork’s resale calculator, which takes into consideration programmed qualifiers like age, condition, and operational state.
California-based high-intensity workout concept Barry’s has opened its first Vancouver location and more could open in the city. Vancouver marks Barry’s fourth Canadian location after the fitness company entered the Canadian market in 2017.
Joey Gonzalez
The 5,107 square foot fitness concept is located in the city’s Central Business District at 1035 West Pender Street at the base of an office tower. CEO Joey Gonzalez says that the company had been looking for several years for a Vancouver location, even before entering the Toronto market four years ago.
The Vancouver real estate market is tight, Gonzalez explained, and the right space finally was found in an area adjacent to the affluent Coal Harbour neighbourhood that is home to thousands of residents in pricey condominium towers. Martin Moriarty and Mario Negris of Marcus & Millichap handled the lease transaction.
“We were drawn to the site at Coal Harbour as a result of its density, walkability, and mix of office and residential,” said Gonzalez who went on to say in an interview that more Barry’s locations could open in the Vancouver area. That includes on on the North Shore, either in North Vancouver or West Vancouver, as well as in the city’s trendy Kitsilano area.
Barry’s Vancouver (Image: Barry’s)
Barry’s Vancouver (Image: Barry’s)
Barry’s Vancouver (Image: Barry’s)
The Vancouver studio hosts Barry’s iconic Red Room with up to 51 spots for the high-intensity interval training workout that alternates between cardio on the treadmill and strength training on the floor. Locker rooms are stocked with Oribe and Dyson amenities. A retail space featuring Vancouver’s own Lululemon athletic apparel. A Fuel Bar offers a variety of snacks and signature smoothies. Barry’s is open seven days a week and targets a different muscle group each day.
Barry’s opened its first Canadian location in Toronto’s Entertainment District at 310 Richmond Street West in late 2017. in May of 2019, it opened its second location in Toronto’s affluent Bloor-Yorkville area at the back of the 100 Bloor Street West commercial podium.
In the fall of 2019, Barry’s opened its third location in Canada in Calgary, marking its first ‘hybrid’ storefront in partnership with Lululemon. Both brands share a building in Calgary’s Mission/Cliff Bungalow area at 2308 4 Street SW in the historic Bannerman Block that was built in 1911.
Further expansion for Barry’s is expected according to Gonzalez, and the company is taking a cautious approach while analyzing area demographics following a shift caused by the pandemic. Barry’s seeks out locations that include nearby workers and given the work-from-home situation across the country, some locations may not be as desirable as they were prior to the pandemic given the reduction in daytime foot traffic.
Barry’s Vancouver (Image: Barry’s)
Barry’s Vancouver (Image: Barry’s)
He said that the Toronto market could see more locations open, and other markets in Canada could also see Barry’s locations as well depending on future location and demographic analysis.
Given changes to the world due to the pandemic including a digital transformation, Barry’s recently launched its digital platform Barry’s X in Canada. The on-demand and live digital classes are popular in the United States and the expansion was requested by Canadian clients.
Gonzalez said that Barry’s X helps differentiate Barry’s as a global fitness brand that can offer clients an omni-cannel experience including a user experience where users can join by camera and instructions can watch for form and give feedback.
A timeline of Barry’s history from its website:
1998: LA based celebrity trainer Barry Jay has the idea for a one-stop cardio and strength training workout that actually works. Barry Jay partners with John and Rachel Mumford to open the first Barry’s Bootcamp in West Hollywood and together they launch the boutique fitness studio revolution;
2003: Barry’s CEO Joey Gonzalez joins the company and becomes a star trainer at Barry’s;
2009: Barry’s expands outside of Los Angeles for the first time, opening in San Diego;
2011: Barry’s takes Manhattan! The first NYC studio opens in Chelsea, which sees the first Fuel Bar launch and first use of its signature Woodway treadmills;
2011: Barry’s opens its first international location in Bergen, Norway.
2015: Barry’s goes global and expands further into the US: Studios open in London, Boston, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco. Expansion continues across New York City and the Hamptons. Barry’s retail hits new levels of success with expansion of the collection to Bloomingdale’s;
