Three scions of Canadian retail make their own fashion statements

JJ Wilson, 27, used to skateboard in the unfinished office upstairs from his father’s store.

It wasn’t a Lululemon Athletica shop. That would come later. Chip Wilson’s first retail venture was called Westbeach. It catered to the surf, skateboard and snowboard crowd in Vancouver.

The space above the store and the company warehouse were perfect for two boys — JJ and his younger brother, Brett — to skateboard in and build elaborate cardboard kingdoms from the boxes that were cast off as merchandise arrived.

"It would be Chip’s job to come and rip up the cardboard boxes and try and find us," says JJ, co-founder of the upmarket fashion retailer Kit and Ace. "He would run from one end through the tunnels of cardboard that we had made to the other end."

One night, they pitched a tent and slept in a store because valuable merchandise had been delivered and the place lacked an alarm system. They made popcorn. It was a blast.

"I have really great memories of growing up," says JJ.

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So perhaps it’s not surprising that he is now running his own stores, together with his stepmother, Shannon Wilson.

In less than two years the brand has built out quickly, with 61 locations worldwide, including 33 stores and five pop-ups in the U.S. and 10 stores and two pop-ups in Canada, including locations on Queen St. W. and Bloor St. W., and in Oakville. A store in Muskoka and one in north Toronto are planned for 2016.

With Kit and Ace, the duo is seeking to tap into an emerging market in much the same way that Chip Wilson did. Lululemon made athletic clothing comfortable and chic enough to double as flattering casualwear. Shannon and JJ are making casualwear chic enough for any context.

In October, they opened their biggest store in Toronto to date, the one on Bloor, with a striking copper door and a café that backs onto Yorkville. The interior is decorated with art sourced locally and racks of sleek, lightweight apparel. The trademark fabric is Technical Cashmere, a blend of about 10-per-cent cashmere with other fabrics including viscose and elastane.

A young JJ Wilson in an office space turned playroom above his father’s first store in Vancouver. "I would go in and skateboard," he recalls. But it wasn't all fun and games: the broom was for cleaning the office, he says. "(My father) always came from a point of view that we were running a family business. I would always want to help."

JJ and Shannon joke that he helped bring her into the family. She was the lead designer at Lululemon when Chip Wilson, by then a divorced father of two, asked her out on a date.

He was planning to take Shannon on a hike up a nearby mountain. He was going to bring sandwiches.

"I really liked Shannon," says JJ, who was 12 at the time. "I wanted to make sure that the date went absolutely perfectly.

"Chip’s a lovely, talented, amazing father. But I knew I was better off making the sandwiches for the date. There’s three or four things he’s amazing at cooking, but that’s it. Barbecue, anything breakfast, the guy kills at. When it comes down to anything outside of those circles … I made the sandwiches."

JJ wrapped them carefully and then put them in Tupperware containers. At the summit, Shannon opened them and said to Chip: "There is no way you made these."

As Shannon tells it, she and Chip decided to get married on that first date.

Now a mother of three and stepmother of two, she’s ready to apply her creative talents to a new enterprise, and she wants to do it with family, just as Lululemon was built with family, led by Chip.

His offhand comments have in the past stoked controversy. In December 2013, Chip announced he was stepping down as chairman of the Lululemon board of directors, after being criticized for saying Lululemon pants don’t work for all women.

JJ and Shannon say it was tough to see him reduced to a single comment when he’s done so much to draw people into the kind of active lifestyle he has always led.

"It’s not the truth of Chip — he’s a visionary, a leader and generous, and has never endeavoured to hurt people in any way," Shannon says during an interview at the launch of the Bloor St. store.

"He’s pretty darn smart," says JJ, adding that for him, getting into retail was a natural progression. For a time, JJ worked in the Vancouver Lululemon stores.

"I’m so fortunate that I get to have a retail visionary I can call," he says of his dad. "I think a lot of people in business would like to have him on speed-dial."

Lululemon is a business that helps people live longer, healthier, more fun lives, says JJ. He wants Kit and Ace to make it easier for people to get dressed and be comfortable and stylish, so that they are free to pursue the most important things in their lives.

"That I can get behind. That is fun."

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