Although Gary Lenett has a varied background in teaching and law, he is now known as a “jeaner” as designing and making jeanswear and casual apparel has been his singular focus for most of the last 30 years.
Lenett, Co-Founder of DUER, was born and raised in Vancouver. He’s fourth generation Vancouver.
He has a Bachelor of Arts from Simon Fraser University and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Windsor and the University of British Columbia.
“I have a teaching certificate and a law degree – none of which relates to what I currently do,” he said.
“I just missed the late 60s but I was always interested in ‘saving the world’ when I was a young man. I was really interested in the concept of teaching and what teachers can do to just make the world a better place. But I figured out quite quickly that it was difficult fighting the system to make much change. Then I thought I’ll make the change through law and I went back to law school. I thought I would be a civil rights lawyer at the time.
“By the time I got out of law school, I realized as I started working as a lawyer that I really had this entrepreneurial gene. So it took over.”
Leading up to the inception of DUER, Lenett said he was privileged to make jeans for many of the best known names in the industry including Levi Strauss, Guess Jeans, The Gap, Lee, Wrangler, Eddie Bauer, The Limited/Express, Ralph Lauren (Polo), Nordstroms, Banana Republic, Nike (Michael Jordan), Lululemon (Ococco), Harley Davidson, and more.
He has also held major North American denim licences and built a number of his own denim brands, including International Denim (ID Wear), Dish Denim, DRT Jeans, and DUER.
Lenett said DUER is reinventing the jeans category with fabric that has five times more stretch and is 30 per cent lighter and stronger than traditional denim.
The transition from being a lawyer to entrepreneurship was a combination of different factors.
“As a practicing lawyer I was quite fortunate as I developed my own practice quite quickly because I’m sort of half creative. I’m probably naturally more of a creative than a lawyer so having that I found it really lent itself well to working with young entrepreneurs. So built up a nice practice of people and helping them build their businesses,” said Lenett.
“Then at a certain point my brother phoned me. When I went to law school my father had a small, very cottage, clothing business. He was a manufacturer at the time of leather goods and I begged my younger brother to go into the business because I didn’t want to. I wanted to go to law school. So he did. I went to law school, I came out, I practiced. Ten years later he phoned me and said ‘hey you got me into this business, I need some help for a year’.
“So I took a one-year sabbatical to go help him. I already started to recognize that I have this entrepreneurial gene because I was working with entrepreneurs and really enjoying it . . . One year became two and I never went back.”
Lenett has created five different brands during his career. That is his love and passion.
“This business gets in your blood . . . This is really high intensity. You get immediate feedback and once it gets in your blood it’s hard to do anything else,” he said.
DUER has been his singular focus for the last 10 years. The retail brand will be opening its newest location in Ottawa at the end of June.
“In terms of the brand values and just the stage in my career, it’s such a privilege to be doing this at the end of my career. I was 56 when I started this. I’m 66 now and to be able to do this and be able to use my experience, having fun and learning at this age is so much fun,” said Lenett.
So will this be his last brand?
“This is it,” he said.
“I’ve always been fascinated. I call them love marks. Even when I was a young man, as a teenager, I was always fascinated on why do I gravitate, why am I buying (something) . . . To me it’s a combination of literally the design aspects because I am attuned to design, I like well-designed product but also the brand values.
“I talk a fair amount to industry people about the difference in our industry between a label and a brand. You run a label and it’s usually trend driven and it comes and goes. There’s sort of a typical cycle in developing a label . . . Enduring brands as opposed to labels are built on a foundation of values. The design can change over time but the values don’t change.”
Brands are powerful. People will pay more for the same product if a well-known and well-respected brand is attached to that product.
“I’m not a pure creative. I consider myself a merchant. I understand my customer and the psychographics of my customer. I’m not interested in putting out cheap trend driven stuff that’s going to be thrown into landfills. I want customers to really appreciate what we do. I’ve always been on the mid to high end of the market but to get people to put out $130, $140 or $150 for a pair of jeans where they can go to Costco and buy them for $12, it’s got to represent something more than just the fabric. It has to mean something more. And figuring out that puzzle is just fascinating to me.”
As a leader, Lenett aspires to be a transformational leader which means he likes to think he can make people the best versions of themselves. He’s collaborative and his motto with every single enterprise he’s ever run is personal growth drives to organizational growth.
“I’m the entrepreneur. I have the concept . . . I believe in developing people and just trying to be a transformational leader.”
Outside of work, he’s always been someone who values experiences more than things. Health and fitness is very important to him and he’s very dedicated to getting outside every day.
“My father got seriously ill very young in life and so it’s always been a big driver of mine to stay healthy and healthy in all the realms. Not just physical but emotional. Work, family and exercise. I have a very fulfilling life in that way,” said Lenett.
Hello Mario,
This may be a long shot but I wonder if you would know who I would speak to about a Duer scenario that I just experienced. Maybe you would know who would give me an answer to my Duer query.
Just to set the scene, my younger son turned me on to Duer clothing. At 66, currently owning 2 pairs of pants and a jumpsuit and living in Edmonton I was pleased to see they recently opened a store here. Love their pants; now I could try on before buying!
I thought I would introduce my older son to Duer by sending him a Duer gift card for his birthday. I was very pleased to find Duer shipped internationally. All good, ready to purchase and send off an e-gift card. Not!
I was told if I want the Duer products shipped internationally I can only order a gift card and purchase through Duer.com.
Being Canadian I cannot order in Canadian dollars and have my Canadian son (currently in Germany) purchase on the Duer.ca website. I was told by Duer customer support “Sorry there is really nothing we can do here other than you make the purchase and ship to him if you wish or make the purchase for a gift card on the international site.” Anyone doing a quick CAD to USD conversions can figure out a pair of pants for $129 Canadian would cost $184 to purchase with a Duer.com e-gift card.
Sorry if this isn’t your bailiwick but I thought you may have some inroads as to who in the company I could discuss this with. Maybe it’s just supply and demand; no longer a Canadian owned and run company?
If you can offer me any insight or direct me to a company spokesperson I would be very grateful.
I’d just like to know ‘what gives?’
Cheers,
Jill MacKenzie
Edmonton, Alberta