PhOTOs COuRTEsy OF indOChinO 24 BCBusiness dECEMBER/JAnuARy 2018
D
ean Handspiker, VP design for
Indochino, is used to quick
moves. When the Vancouver-
based online custom menswear retailer
opens a retail showroom—18 to date, eight
in 2017 alone—the design team usually
takes possession of the space on a Monday
and the store opens on a Thursday. So
when the company relocated its head-
quarters from Railtown to the corner of
Robson and Granville streets over Labour
Day weekend, the customer service team
was at its new desks on Monday and the
rest of the sta‡ the next day.
Since Victoria natives Kyle Vucko
and Heikal Gani launched Indochino in
2007,Šits head o‹ce sta‡ has grown to 90,
and Drew Green has replaced Vucko as
CEO. The new 14,000-square-foot space
over two "oors is more than double the
size of the previous one. The challenge,
says Handspiker, was –nding the right
place. Indochino could have moved into
an o‹ce tower, "but it didn't quite –t our
team, our demographic, our brand,"
he observes. Then they came across an
o‹ce occupied by Stytch, a cloud-based
analytics company that was moving out.
"We love the new location and the
eneršy of this corner and being close
to the other retailers that we compare
ourselves to every day," Handspiker says.
"The space felt like us. It was relaxed
enough to be Indochino but projected a
better image than our last space did."
Indochino's showrooms have moved
away from heritage buildings with
exposed brick toward a more modern
look that Handspiker describes as "a tech-
meets-tailor feel," pointing out that "we
are a web company –rst and foremost."
Even the colour scheme of blues and
greys matches the hues Indochino uses.
"It all came together for us," Handspiker
notes. "We probably wouldn't have used
as much light wood, but we like it because
it is of the place. It is very Vancouver, and
we are a very Vancouver company."
■
location,
location, location
Magnets on a
wall map indicate
Indochino
showrooms
oFFICE SPACE
A Perfect Fit
Custom suitmaker indochino finds a
new office tailor-made for its needs
by Felicity Stone
