Popular Canadian sportswear brand Moose Knuckles will open its first permanent standalone store this fall at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre. Prior to opening in October, Moose Knuckles will open a pop-up at Yorkdale that will also be used to test out a new customization app.

Moose Knuckles is a fairly new brand — it was founded in Montreal in 2007, by Mark Peros and Will Poho, and much of its manufacturing is done in Winnipeg. The company endeavours to make “the leanest, toughest and most luxurious sportswear in the world,” and its product lines include a range of weatherproof coats, lightweight jackets, knitwear, shirting, and accessories.

Quality is key, with special attention paid to tailoring, materials and hardware — luxury-grade fox fur from Finland is used as trim, and 725 to 800-fill powder gray duck and goose down is used as a thermal insulator. Moose Knuckles products are available in some of the world’s top retailers and in North America, the brand’s clothing is available at Holt Renfrew, Sporting Life, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, and other leading retailers, and it’s also available globally at prestigious retailers such as Globus in Switzerland, KaDeWe in Berlin, and at Harrod’s in London.

*(Click for Interactive Yorkdale mall Floor plan)*

*(Construction signage at Yorkdale. Photo: Craig Patterson)*

Prices are towards the high-end, with men’s fall/winter jackets ranging in price between $475 for a bomber jacket to $1,795 for a fur-lined canvas parka, with women’s jackets a similar price point. Moose Knuckles features a selection of men’s and women’s ready-to-wear — shirts are priced between $125 and $250. There is rain gear, hats and vests, and the website also features summer items such as men’s swim trunks (regularly priced at $148) and $38 flip-flops in a variety of designs. A selection of branded accessories is available, including a ‘Moose on the Go Duffle Bag’ priced at $288, and a flask priced at $88. Children’s jackets are also available, priced between $395 and $450 on Moose Knuckles’ ecommerce site.

Moose Knuckles’ first permanent freestanding store is scheduled to open in October of this year, spanning more than 2,750 square feet store in Yorkdale’s Nordstrom-anchored expansion wing (which opened in October of 2016). Moose Knuckles will be located in the retail space between technology brand Samsung and Canadian outdoor clothing and sporting goods brand Arc’teryx.

Stan Vyriotes and David Wedermire of DWSV Remax Ultimate Realty Inc. represented Moose Knuckles in its lease deal with landlord Oxford Properties.

On Thursday, August 24, Moose Knuckles will open a roughly 3,000 square foot pop-up location at Yorkdale, in Lululemon’s former retail space (Lululemon relocated to Yorkdale’s Nordstrom wing in October). Located across from Holt Renfrew and Anthropologie, and adjacent to Diesel and Wilfred, the pop-up will remain open until the unveiling of the permanent retail space. The pop-up will coincide with the launch of a Moose Knuckles customization app, which can be used to customize different coat styles.

Yorkdale’s Moose Knuckles location will be designed by award-winning firm Burdifilek, which has been involved in creating some of the world’s most attractive retail spaces. Burdifilek recently won the prestigious International Store of the Year Award from the Retail Design Institute for its Mackage store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre.

Renowned for designing modern and unexpected spaces that defy conventions, each Burdifilek retail concept embodies a unique brand identity and experience. The flagship for Moose Knuckles will be located in the expansion wing almost directly across the hall from Canada Goose, which opened its first freestanding store in the world at Yorkdale in October of 2016. The 4,500 square foot Canada Goose store is on track to be one of the top-selling stores at Yorkdale in terms of overall annual sales. Canada Goose recently opened its second location in the world in New York City, and it has announced locations to open in Chicago, and in London UK.

While Yorkdale will be Moose Knuckle's first freestanding corporate store, the company also has 16 concessions in South Korea.

Premium outerwear and accessory brand Nobis was one of the first Canadian competitors to open a freestanding store. In August of 2015, Nobis debuted a 3,000 square foot store at 360 Queen Street West in Toronto, and the brand continues to wholesale extensively in upscale retailers in Canada, as well as worldwide.

Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre launches more first-to-market retailers than anyplace in Canada, and the trend will continue into 2018 with a number of new, exciting retail concepts that will be announced periodically over the next several months. First-to-market tenants will include fashion, food, and even a unique technology concept that recently launched its own stores. Yorkdale is a special centre indeed — it ranked as the country’s most productive mall in terms of annual sales per square foot in Retail Council of Canada’s Shopping Centre Study, and it also boasts the highest concentration of luxury brands within a single Canadian shopping centre. In fact, Yorkdale now rivals Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville, as well as downtown Vancouver’s ‘Luxury Zone’, as the most comprehensive ‘luxury node’ in the country.

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: August 17, 2017