| Industry | Retail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founder | Shannon Wilson J. J. Wilson |
| Headquarters | , Canada [1] |
Number of locations | 6 (2024) |
| Products | Technical apparel |
| Owner | Joe Mimran Frank Rocchetti David Lui |
| Website | www |
Kit and Ace is a Canadian clothing brand [2] founded in 2014 by Shannon Wilson, former lead designer of Lululemon Athletica, and her stepson J. J. Wilson, [3] to sell machine-washable cashmere wool clothing and accessories. [4] It is currently owned by Unity Brands Inc.
The first store opened in July 2014 in Vancouver's Gastown neighbourhood. [5]
In 2015, the brand opened retail stores in the US, the UK and Australia. [6]
In September 2015, the company installed shop-in-shop cafes from Toronto-based Sorry Coffee Co. in its London and Toronto stores. [7] [8]
In April 2017, Kit and Ace closed all its international stores, focusing on e-commerce and its eight Canadian shops. [9] Hold It All Inc., a Vancouver-based company, owned the brand until the end of August 2018. [10]
In 2018, CEO George Tsogas acquired it from the company's founders and changed the brand direction creating apparel that is Smart, Easy to Love, and Made to Last on a mission to Amplify Optimism in the world. [11]
In 2018, the Navigator pant was selected as part of the "Ultimate Travel Gear" of 2018 by Air Canada's enRoute Magazine. [12]
In November 2019, Kit and Ace opens its first West Vancouver location in The Village, Park Royal. [13]
In December 2020, Kit and Ace returns to Edmonton opening a new location on Whyte Ave. [14]
In June 2022, Kit and Ace opened a new location on Queen Street in Toronto. [15]
In July 2023, Kit and Ace was acquired by Unity Brands Inc. under the ownership of veteran retail executives Joe Mimran, David Lui and Frank Rocchetti. [16]
Nordstrom, Inc. is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and a second Nordstrom's shoe store opened in 1923. The growing Nordstrom Best chain began selling clothing in 1963, and became the Nordstrom full-line retailer that presently exists by 1971. The company founded its off-price Nordstrom Rack division in 1973, and grew both full-line and off-price divisions throughout the United States in the following years. The full-line division competes with department stores including Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue, while the off-price division competes with retailers including the TJX Companies and Ross Stores. Previous expansions beyond the contiguous United States include Puerto Rico (2015–2020) and Canada (2014–2023).
Aéropostale Inc., is an American shopping mall–based retailer of casual apparel and accessories, principally aimed at young adults and teenagers. Aéropostale maintains control over its proprietary brands by designing, sourcing, marketing, and selling all of its own merchandise. The company sells via Aéropostale stores in the United States and through its e-commerce site.
J.Crew Group, Inc., is an American multi-brand, multi-channel, specialty retailer. The company offers an assortment of women's, men's, and children's apparel and accessories, including swimwear, outerwear, lounge-wear, bags, sweaters, denim, dresses, suiting, jewelry, and shoes.
Alfred Sung is a Canadian fashion designer and businessman. He is well known for producing apparel, fragrance, accessories and home fashions for women and men. He was born in Shanghai and raised in Hong Kong. Sung is the brother of late Hong Kong actress Lydia Shum. He is also a founder of Club Monaco, a mid-priced, high-end casual clothing retailer.
Lululemon athletica inc., commonly known as lululemon, is a Canadian multinational athletic apparel retailer headquartered in British Columbia and incorporated in Delaware, United States. It was founded in 1998 as a retailer of yoga pants and other yoga wear, and has expanded to also sell athletic wear, lifestyle apparel, accessories, and personal care products. The company has 711 stores and sells online.
Club Monaco is a Canadian-founded luxury casual clothing retailer owned by Regent, L.P. With more than 140 locations worldwide, the retailer has locations in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, South Korea, Mainland China, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Turkey, and United Kingdom.
Calvin Klein Inc. is an American luxury fashion designer markets its eponymously branded products worldwide. The company, which became famous for its designer underwear and denim lines in the 1980s, specializes in mass-market ready-to-wear clothing for all genders and age groups as well as leather products, lifestyle accessories and shoes, home furnishings, perfume/cosmetics, eyewear, jewelry and watches in the mid-price segment. Its high-end runway fashion division, which represented the top level of the various Calvin Klein sub-brands, was discontinued in 2019.
Chico's FAS, Inc. is an American women's clothing and accessories retailer founded in 1983 on Sanibel Island, Florida. Founded by Marvin and Helene Gralnick, it is headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida and operates four brands: its namesake Chico's store, White House Black Market, Soma and TellTale.
Aritzia LP is a Canadian clothing retailer targeted towards young North American women. The company was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, by businessman Brian Hill in 1984. Aritzia sells a variety of lifestyle apparel through various upscale retail stores across Canada and the United States and online. Aritzia describes itself as "everyday luxury" brand at attainable prices.
Kotn is a Canadian clothing retailer that sells both online and in their own retail stores in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. During her time working at the luxury department store Holt Renfrew, Mackenzie Yeates noticed the lack of ethical options available to the wider market. The business is based on the idea of providing middle market sustainable clothing. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
Joe Fresh is a Canadian fashion brand and retail chain created by designer Joe Mimran for Canadian food distributor Loblaw Companies Limited. It was formed in 2006. The label includes adult and children's wear, shoes, handbags, jewelry, beauty products, and bath items.
Joseph Mimran is a Canadian fashion designer and entrepreneur, best known for founding the Club Monaco and Joe Fresh brands. He was also an investor on the Dragons' Den television series.
Dennis J. "Chip" Wilson is an American-born Canadian businessman, investor, and philanthropist who has founded several retail apparel companies, most notably the yoga-inspired athletic apparel company Lululemon Athletica Inc. Wilson is widely regarded as the progenitor and a pioneering figure of the athleisure phenomenon, in which the trend has permeated mainstream North American society since its emergence in 2014.
Yoga pants are high-denier hosiery reaching from ankle to waist, originally designed for yoga as exercise and first sold in 1998 by Lululemon, a company founded for that purpose. They were initially made of a mix of nylon and Lycra; more specialised fabrics have been introduced to provide moisture-wicking, compression, and odour reduction.
Shannon Wilson is a Canadian fashion designer, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is best known for her former role as lead designer at the yoga apparel company Lululemon Athletica. In 2014, she founded Kit and Ace, a technical luxury apparel company.
Ivivva Athletica, styled as ivivva, was a youth brand founded by lululemon athletica in 2009. ivivva was created in order to cater to a younger demographic and focused on creating athletic sportswear for girls ages 6–14. The company launched with its first store in Vancouver, Canada in December 2009, and had over 70 stores and pop-up shop locations across Canada and the United States. In 2012, ivivva opened its first American stores in New York, Chicago, Boston, Bellevue and Orange County. ivivva’s clothes were designed for athletic pursuits such as dance, running, yoga, ice skating, gymnastics, and on-the-court sports.
Christine M. Day is a Canadian retail executive. She has been the CEO of the Vancouver-based food company Luvo Inc. since January 2014. From 2008 through December 2013, she was the CEO of the Canadian clothing company Lululemon Athletica. Prior to taking her post at Lululemon she worked for Starbucks' Asia-Pacific division.
Off-price is a trading format based on discount pricing. Off-price retailers are independent of manufacturers and buy large volumes of branded goods directly from them. The off-price retail model relies on the purchase of over-produced, or excess, branded goods at a lower price, thus being able to sell to consumers at a discount compared to other stores which purchased an initial run. Among the largest retailers of this type are TJX Companies and Ross Stores. The model is more common in countries that import fashion-oriented or household goods, as the discount role in producer countries is usually filled by factory outlets or small-scale open-air marketplaces.
 | This fashion-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |