Been living in Vancouver for a few years now and I shop at places like Lululemon, Brunello Cucinelli, Harry Rosen and Holt Renfrew (they will carry most of the brands I wear, Zegna, Brunello, Tom Ford, Boss, etc), the Nike store is ok for some active things that Lululemon won’t have for men, I also go bespoke for all of my suits and there’s a few good local downtown places with Harry Rosen and Holt Renfrew sometimes ok in that regard as well. I checked out this one place that had some ok things if you are looking for a more affordable casual wear - RW or something it was called? I bought a jumper from there that was fairly decent quality for the price. It really depends on what you feel comfortable with though mate and what drapes best on your frame and the cliche of confidence helps pull off the fit.
Otherwise, when we are staying at our place in Seattle, it’s a lot more options out that way and even more when I visit my brother in San Diego but most things you can order in if you know the fit and sizing, so that always helps.
So like every company then.
Quite literally actually for 99% of the brands out there. You like NHL jerseys? Made in a factory in Indonesia.
Or it’s in…
Vietnam
China
Places in India
Cambodia
Pakistan
Most of the companies that say they get it made locally lie, they buy all of the materials over seas, get the prototypes made there, brought over, adjustments made and sent back to a factory. Kind of how the world works mate. Your phone, laptop, things in your home…
I get this part of your gripe - My wife knows I despise branding and some things you can’t avoid but as long as it’s small and out of the way, I am fine. Like Nike, or Lululemon and their very small logo that 99.9% of the time you gotta know the brand to know where it is, etc. Most of the time, the men’s faashion brands I have always bought will rarely if ever at all, have any sort of branding visible and if it is, it’s more ghosted than anything where it’s sewn into the clothing in a way you can’t see.
Otherwise, I don’t like a graphic tee that has the brand all over it or a gaudy logo, I can relate, absolutely not a fan of that but tough with active wear, like my gym gear is unavoidable with a small logo at the end of the shorts or shoulder or sleeve with a small logo.
Jerseys have always had the logo on them the moment they became available to fans. CCM, Bauer, Nike, Adidas, Reebok…..fanatics. If your gripe of wearing a sports branded item is the logo of the company that makes it, that’s a weird take mate. You’re quite literally a billboard for your favourite team and company’s that make the gear always have their logo visible, you’d be hard pressed to find one without it. It seems like you really have an axe to grind with Lululemon for some odd reason?
Also you buy your phone because you like a brand, you put a case on sure, but the design itself for the Iphone or Samsung is the logo, when you have items like that, the design itself is the representation of the brand, so a generic case, Apple and Samsung know you’re going to throw it on there, but you put both phones on a table upside down with the generic case, unless you live under a rock, you know.
Ford, Dodge, Chevy, Ferrari, Porsche, all make branded t-shirts that fans wear. You would hate going to an F1 event then, lol. I mean hell, I have a couple of vintage inspired Ford t-shirts that I wear around the house and the fit is comfortable (Pull&Bear, for some reason I only pick up a few items when I visit family back in the UK).
Nothing wrong with not wanting to be a walking billboard for a brand, but you seemed more offended by the mere fact anyone would wear branded items for the brand or sports merchandise with the clothing brand’s name (which is again, all sports clothing). So really, you have items that make you a walking billboard by blokes that shop at the same place, some things are distinguishable and other things brands throw their names on aggressively and I get the dislike for those, but I mean, Lululemon and Nike for example, you have to FIND their clothes with their branding wordmark, otherwise it’s just the swoosh or the little omega logo.
You seem more hyper offended about a brand that has most wondering why you have such negative reaction to a brand that manufactures the same way as every other place?
Like I said earlier, I’m all for the NHL doing this because honestly the options for NHL items are insanely limited. You want more crap from Fanatics and ‘47 with poor fits? Because Adidas is scaling back and the options get limited. Having different types of NHL fan gear from now Lululemon in addition to 47 and Fanatics (fantastic like I said is attached because of licensing rights they have) is good, some day it might be as good as the stuff offered to NFL fans. This is good for the sport, it needs as much exposure as it can to keep pushing it to compete with the other 3.
Because I’d like better Penguins fan gear that can be as nice as my Steelers and Pirates stuff by Nike. Fanatics made stuff is just awful, I know they used to manufacture for other brands but to spec and not what they make their own stuff with where the sizing is ridiculous.