Labour of love City-centric apparel enterprise truly takes Winnipeg to heart By: David Sanderson Posted: 4:00 PM CST Friday, Feb. 9, 2024

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This article was published 09/02/2024 (950 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ryan Bowman wears his heart on his sleeve. Literally and figuratively.

For starters, Bowman is a perpetual walking advertisement for We Heart Winnipeg, the eye-catching, sometimes cheeky, line of apparel he and his wife Jessica founded five years ago to promote all that is great about Manitoba’s capital.

Secondly, their company name isn’t an empty boast. Maybe it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, Bowman remarks, but operating a business spawned by their mutual affection for Winnipeg has caused him to appreciate his hometown even more.

It tends to be human nature to dwell on the negative, but to his way of thinking, it’s easier to adopt a positive perspective, he continues, standing in front of a Valentine’s Day display at House of Local, the two-storey operation they opened last summer at 680 Watt St. to house their goods, along with those of close to 30 other regional makers.

“Hardly a day goes by when I don’t come across something that floors me — whether it’s a new restaurant or brew pub — and a big part of our mission is to remind people there’s tons of great stuff happening here in our own backyard.”

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Bowman, 40, laughs, saying no, he would never have been mistaken for a future fashion mogul by his high school chums.

The father of two daughters, five and two, sported jeans and blank T-shirts for the most part, maybe the odd hockey top, but that was about it for his sense of style, he reports, rolling up the sleeves of a white-on-grey hoodie reading “We Heart Wpg. Lifestyle Co.” across the chest.

With an arts degree from the University of Winnipeg in his back pocket, Bowman moved to Kitchener, Ont., in 2010, to study journalism at Conestoga College. That was where he was introduced to Jessica. Following graduation, the pair spent a few months travelling across Central and South America.

They discussed settling down during their time away. Ryan convinced Jessica, who grew up in Tillonsburg, Ont., southwest of Hamilton, that Winnipeg was probably their best choice, affordability-wise. An interesting thing happened while they were house hunting: he began to see the city through Jessica’s eyes, and together they started patronizing spots that hadn’t existed before his move east.

“The craft-beer scene was the first thing I really noticed, how it had grown so much during the five years I was away,” he says, adding that even trips to iconic spots he’d frequented in the past, such as Sargent Sundae, were suddenly more enjoyable, now that he was sharing them with Jessica.

In 2017, the same year they got married, the Bowmans started a blog titled We Heart Winnipeg, to share their fondness for the city and province with others. It proved to be a hit and their followers began commenting that they should monetize it in some manner. Only how?

By the summer of 2019, the Bowmans had come up with a set of T-shirts and hoodies carrying the image of a compass pointing “True North,” with the letters “WPG” boldly displayed above two undulating lines, for the Red and Assiniboine rivers.

They successfully applied to be a vendor at that year’s Many Fest, and because the initial night of the downtown get-together was on the frosty side, ill-dressed attendees flocked to their booth, hunting for warmer duds.

Not surprisingly, those same people proceeded to wear their new purchases when they were out and about, which led to complete strangers stopping them in their tracks, to ask where they’d bought the swag.

In turn, the Bowmans were suddenly inundated with requests, which caused them to establish an e-commerce site, followed by a bricks-and-mortar location on Osborne Street that opened in January 2021, directly next door to the Oakwood Café. (By then, they were up to six different collections, including ones advertising Winnipeggers’ predilection for hockey, cottage country and, in the case of one bearing the phrase “Colder Than Mars,” frigid temps.)

Things were going along swimmingly on Osborne, sales were strong, only the rented space was on the small side, barely 500-square-feet. Plus, all of their screen-printing had to be done off-site on Dufferin Avenue, which resulted in hours of driving back and forth every week, to fetch inventory.

Bowman guesses they checked out 30 different sites all over the city before purchasing the Watt Street property, in March 2023. They spent three months renovating the space, formerly the home of a tech-services firm, and held their grand opening in July 2023.

The reason they decided to change the name above the door from We Heart Winnipeg to House of Local was simple; their intention was to showcase other makers as well, and they didn’t want to pigeonhole themselves as running a clothing store, only.

Raya Peters started Rings by Raya in the spring of 2021. Specializing in jewelry and accessories such as hats and bags, she initially sold her wares through an Etsy store, and at public markets, but found those two approaches didn’t always suit consumers’ needs.

“House of Local is for sure beneficial for my customers, because any markets or pop-ups would be temporary, whereas House of Local is a permanent place where people can shop any time it’s open,” says Peters, who began displaying her goods there last fall.

“House of Local is also a quieter and calmer environment for shopping, as markets or pop-ups can be crowded and overwhelming.”

Peters says scores of people who aren’t comfortable with online venues such as Etsy have discovered her business through House of Local.

“On top of that, anyone who walks into the shop to buy from a different business might see my products, which they wouldn’t have come across otherwise,” she adds. (One of the other makers at House of Local happens to be Bowman’s mother Arlene, who offers hand-knit sweaters, booties, bibs and mitts under the banner Baba Baby.)

Going forward, the Bowmans, who now do all of their screen-printing on the second floor, hope to introduce at least two new collections, per year.

Their latest, called Prairie Roots and featuring a stylized, orange, yellow and green bison as its emblem, was designed by Indigenous graphic artist Leticia Spence, who has also worked with the Winnipeg Jets, the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada and the Royal Canadian Mint.

Another plan is to add a coffee shop at the south end of their space, which will serve the same Colisimo blends that are currently for sale, near the front counter.

“It’s interesting, because this has truly gone from being a side hustle to my full-time thing,” Bowman says, folding a toddler’s cotton-polyester T-shirt fittingly marked “Made in Winnipeg.”

“For the first couple of years, I wondered if this was what I was going to do forever, but now I’m 100 per cent committed.”

Oh, if you’re wondering what a person whose business card has the word “heart” front and centre gets his better half for Cupid’s big day, Bowman isn’t tipping his hand — the one holding a ball cap with “WPG” over the brim — just yet.

“We always tell each other we don’t need presents, that we get each other everything we need throughout the year, but you still want to mark the day in some manner, right?” he says. “In the past I’ve tended to lean more towards experiences than products — a night out, dinner and a spa — so maybe I’ll go that route, again.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca