bCbusIness.CA APRIL 2016 BCBusiness 37
elephant in the room when we chat:
the retailer of technical "athleisure"
wear founded with Chip Wilson's
money. As of early February, the chain
counted 60-odd vertically integrated
stores in Canada, the U.S., Australia,
the U.K.—all the markets that Lululemon
fervently goes after. Kit and Ace also
promises a similar technical, design-
forward product and targets an active,
aµuent audience.
What does Potdevin think of this
competition from Lululemon's iconic
founder? He doesn't. "I think they are
building a lot of beautiful stores and
we'll see if the venture is viable or not."
But isn't it a similar customer base
that they're both going after? "I'd be
lying to you if I knew what their guest
base is," says Potdevin, staring out his
oƒce window toward the North Shore
mountains. "I know that the way we go
to market is very unique—and it's very
successful. We open a showroom four
or ve days a week. We build a lot of
vibrancy in the community—we con-
nect with the right studios, we connect
with the right ambassadors, we build
momentum, we build authentic rela-
tionships. And then we trigger a store
rollout. That's why, across our 350 or
so stores, we don't have one bad loca-
tion. So it's been a very nimble, power-
ful steady approach to store rollout. It's
never been 'open as many as you can.'
I'm actually very proud of the discipline
that we have: we go to market when the
community pulls us in. We never push
ourselves on a community—and I think
that's probably a very big di¨erence in
how we both do things right now."
As for the cheeky "Not for Yoga" dig
that Kit and Ace is using in its ubiqui-
tous ads—on billboards right now across
Toronto, Manhattan and London, and
in magazines around the world—
Potdevin is, at least outwardly, positively
zen about it.
"I look at our manifesto bag, and it
says, 'Comparison is the enemy of all
happiness.' I'll take the high road: we're
very focused and we're very good at
what we do. And we're obviously very
grateful for what Chip created back in
1998, but I don't spend any time looking
at what he's doing now. What we have is
very powerful, very unique—and we're
looking forward."
n
GET A WHOLE NEW
PERSPECTIVE
Access special enhanced features:
DOWNLOAD AWARD MAGAZINE
FOR FREE ANYTIME
Canada's leading architecture
and design publication,
beautifully rendered for the iPad
+
+
Tap to
reveal info
Swipe to
see more
Tap to
see more
Rotate for
360° view
Watch
video
s
Tap to
close
—
BCB Award Filler Ad.indd 1 16-02-25 10:16 AM
