Moose Knuckles to open Polo Park pop-up

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This article was published 13/10/2020 (2006 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Noah Stern, the co-CEO of Moose Knuckles who grew up in Winnipeg, couldn’t be happier to be bringing his luxury outerwear brand to his hometown this week.

“It’s a little bit of a proud moment for me,” said Stern, who now lives in Montreal. “I think that a lot of Winnipeggers that live in Winnipeg, don’t realize how cool the city is… it’s multicultural, it’s open, it’s inviting, the people are warm, it’s not pretentious and that really goes in line with Moose Knuckles because although we are a luxury brand of outerwear… we call ourselves the anti-luxury luxury brand.”

Moose Knuckles is expanding its hoof-print in Canada and is opening two new stores in October: one in Vancouver and one in Calgary. They’re also opening two pop-up stores, one in West Edmonton Mall and the other at CF Polo Park on Thursday.

Stern grew up around the Freed & Freed factory, a company started by his great-grandfather in 1921. Stern spent a lot of time with his grandfather when he was a kid and worked almost every job you could think of in the factory.

“We’ve taken a lot of that craftsmanship and put it into Moose Knuckles today,” he said. “There’s a big piece of Winnipeg that’s in our products and we now are the third largest luxury outerwear player in the world. So, I feel like we’re bringing a slice of Winnipeg to the highest levels of fashion at the best luxury stores pretty much in every corner of the globe. It’s a really proud moment to bring the brand to Winnipeg.”

Moose Knuckles’ Canadian manufacturing is done in Quebec, with select sportswear and additional items made in Ontario and B.C.

Growing up in Winnipeg, Stern knows how cold the winters here can get and he said that’s something that’s always on his mind.

“We do have the highest performing outerwear in the world as far as thermal insulation,” said Stern. “Coming from Winnipeg, I know Winnipeg cold and I know how rough it can be some nights… I kind of keep Winnipeg in the back of my mind as we build and engineer these cold weather products that we have.”

Retail Insider magazine did a study between Moose Knuckles, and their competitors Mackage, Woolrich and Canada Goose to see which jacket was the warmest. The study found Moose Knuckles’ parkas ranked first for thermal insulation.

Winnipeg happens to be the home of several Canada Goose factories, a direct competitor for Moose Knuckles, which also specializes in luxury winter outerwear.

Stern took over the company in 2010 and has seen the brand expand rapidly across the globe.

“We’ve gone from being in one store in Toronto when we bought it, to a thousand doors or more around the world in all the best luxury department stores and boutiques in Europe, in Canada, in America, in Japan, in China, in Korea, Russia, really all over the world,” said Stern.

Stern said opening a pop-up store in CF Polo Park during the pandemic is a contrarian move, which fits the Moose Knuckles ethos. It also allows them to show all of their products the way they want to.

“It’s also an opportunity because you’re seeing a lot of retail spaces become free as an unfortunate result of COVID. Landlords are looking to fill space,” said Stern. “For us, this was an opportunity to test many great spaces and many great cities around the world to see how we do and give our customers the full brand experience.”

Moose Knuckles is opening 21 temporary and pop-up shops around the world and has future plans for permanent expansion.

“What we’re doing is kind of gauging how each of these stores does and those that do really well we will endeavor to open a permanent store next year,” said Stern.

“We have plans to open between 12 and 18 permanent stores. I would love to open a permanent store in Winnipeg.”

The Winnipeg pop-up store will stay open until the end of February.

 

kellen.taniguchi@freepress.mb.ca