{"id":4842,"date":"2014-06-27T00:12:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T07:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=4842"},"modified":"2014-06-25T13:25:14","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T20:25:14","slug":"winnipegs-garment-industry-still-going-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/06\/27\/winnipegs-garment-industry-still-going-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg’s garment industry still going strong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marissa Freed (photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa)<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The garment industry has played a vital role in the development of the Jewish community, the city of Winnipeg, and even the province of Manitoba over several generations.<\/p>\n

On May 8 at Rady Jewish Community Centre\u2019s Berney Theatre, the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada hosted a panel discussion on Winnipeg\u2019s Garment Industry \u2013 Past, Present and Future. CBC Radio\u2019s Terry McCloud was the moderator, panelists were Bill Brownstone, Marissa Freed, Howard Raber, David Rich, Bob Silver and Gary Steiman. From the discussion, it seems as though most of the panelists did not plan to get into the industry, but stumbled into it by chance.<\/p>\n

Brownstone, for example, took over for his father after his father had a heart attack. \u201cI was home for the summer, in June, and was to make one trip to his territory\u2026. So, I made the one trip and, 55 years later, I made the last trip,\u201d said Brownstone. \u201cThat was how I got into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freed also grew up in the business. \u201cIt was around all the time, certainly because of my father and, more so, because of my grandfather and my great-grandfather,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved fashion, so that was the exciting part, but certainly not the business part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freed\u2019s great-grandfather started a sewing and pad factory, which was, over the years, transformed into more of an outerwear and ladies wear company, also offering tailored items, like uniforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething we\u2019ve been doing for a long time is government uniforms,\u201d said Freed, listing some of their clients, such as the RCMP and Parks Canada. \u201cFor the Canadian Olympic teams, we made the opening ceremony jacket for the athletes. And in the HBC stores, we did all the replicas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raber\u2019s grandfather started in gloves in 1924. \u201cMy zaida started being a glove cutter,\u201d he said. \u201cIn 1934, the partner came to the realization that no one was manufacturing dress gloves in Western Canada. So, they started a company, called Perfect Fit Glove [and he was involved there from] around 1934-1941, manufacturing the majority of the dress gloves for people like the Eaton\u2019s bale order, which at that time hosted 90 percent of the retail shares in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1941, when Raber\u2019s grandfather\u2019s partner\u2019s son and Raber\u2019s father finished school, his zaida suggested they buy him out, which spawned the company Raber Glove that same year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we make all domestic leather gloves and mitts for many uses, for many customers: the RCMP, the military, police departments across Canada,\u201d said Raber. \u201cWe also supply a lot of independent stores from coast to coast that stick to [us because of] the quality we make, and we\u2019ve existed that way \u2026 99.99 percent of all gloves coming into North America come from offshore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rich\u2019s father started his business, with four operators and himself, in 1939. It was called Winnipeg Pants and Sportswear, with one of the main buyers at the time and for many years following being Eaton\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we have a factory in Winnipeg,\u201d said Rich. \u201cWe still manufacture high-quality work outerwear. We also deal in Asia, Bangladesh, China and Cambodia. People ask us how we can make a living dealing with people [worldwide] like that. I tell them I come from the North End [of Winnipeg] \u2026 [so] if I can\u2019t deal with these guys, nobody can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silver recalled his closest neighbor driving up at eight o\u2019clock in the morning, informing him that his dad had died. \u201cI made my way back to Winnipeg and a lot of people were pointing fingers and wondering who would take care of the business,\u201d said Silver. \u201cI said, \u2018Not me. I\u2019m going back to B.C.,\u2019 but my great-uncle, who was around at the time, asked me to come in and help him sell the business. That was 37, 38 years ago and I have yet to be able to sell it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silver discovered that no one was willing to buy unless he was willing to stay and manage the company, spurring him to do just that. \u201cSo, I bought it with some partners and then the drive for success kept me going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Weston Glove Works was established around 1921 by Silver\u2019s grandfather and three great-uncles and, in the beginning, exclusively manufactured gloves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1921, gloves were one of the most important parts of work wear, because all work was outside with your hands,\u201d said Silver. \u201cThen, they branched off into coveralls, overalls and other types of work wear. Then, they got into casual wear, and then into polyester leisure suits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was interested in developing a brand that could sell a large volume of merchandise for Victoria Beckham, and the jeans were about $300. I thought we could do about 20 to 25 million dollars globally.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAt the same time that I was making garments for Victoria Beckham that sold for $300, I was making jeans for Walmart that sold for $15. People would ask what the difference was between the two, and I\u2019d say $285 \u2013 except the ones for Walmart would last longer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAt the same time that I was making garments for Victoria Beckham that sold for $300, I was making jeans for Walmart that sold for $15,\u201d he continued. \u201cPeople would ask what the difference was between the two, and I\u2019d say $285 \u2013 except the ones for Walmart would last longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last but not least, Steiman spoke about how he got into the industry. His grandfather started one of the first garment companies in Winnipeg, making, among other things, buffalo coats for the Winnipeg police force as early as 1900. Steiman came into the business in 1962.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember, as a young boy, I hated to go up to his shop to get a leather jacket, which I had to do every two years, because it stunk, was noisy, was sweaty, and people yelled at each other. It was the last place I could envision myself having a career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marissa Freed (photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa) The garment industry has played a vital role in the development of the Jewish community, the city of Winnipeg, and even the province of Manitoba over several generations. On May 8 at Rady Jewish Community Centre\u2019s Berney Theatre, the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada hosted a panel discussion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1410,1414,1413,1415,1412,1416,1411],"class_list":["post-4842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-bill-brownstone","tag-bob-silver","tag-david-rich","tag-gary-steiman","tag-howard-raber","tag-jewish-heritage-centre-of-western-canada","tag-marissa-freed"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}