Cana

IT TAKES Alistair Cooke less time to describe the Indian
subcontinent than it takes Alex Tilley to list the intricacies

of his Voyageur Vest.

His hands fly all over the gar-
ment. He describes the origins of
the epaulets, buttons, zippers,
secret pouches, tic cords, metal
rings, and the huge pockets.
Something came from the Cuban
army, and soinething else came
from Switzerland,

“See this metal ring?,’’ he said,
tugging at a little loop stitched
onto the front. ‘{t cost 30 cents
in 198!.”’

““How much does it cost
now?,”’ I asked.

“About the sume,”’ he chuckl-
ed. :

And he continued his documen-
tary journey all over the vest. This
was Einstein describing the Theory
of Relativity, but with a great deal
more humor.

"Does all that detail really mat-
ter?,”’ Lasked,

Tilley looked dumbfounded by
the question. After a lengthy
pause, he became quite intense.

**I believe so — it matters ter-
ribly to me."’

We were just one stop on a
busy promotional trip to Van-
couver by the developer of what
has become a Canadian icon: The
Tilley Hat.

The bearded Alex was accom-
panied by his younger brother
John and John's wife Barbara,
longtime residents of North Van-
couver and the proprietors of two
Tilley Endurables stores.

Alex Tilley was an art dealer
who took up Sailing after reaching
the age of 40.

He became frustrated by hats
that blew off, wouldn’t Moat,
shrunk or otherwise collapsed.

For fun, he listed the require-
ments: full brim, shrink-proof, it

a

OPEN LINES

must float, it needed a tie cord
and it mustn’t fall apart.

The result, he describes as,
“sort of a Vietnam type hat.”

“Tt was pretty awful,"’ he ad-
mitted,

The hobby became a cottage
business. By 1984, production was
in full swing.

Other ‘tadventure products’’
followed: shorts, muiti-pocketed
trousers, bush jackets, vests, belts,
shoes, socks, and underwear.

But the Tilley Hat is still the
monarch of the realm. Like the
design of a Rolls-Royce, it has
been subtly transformed through
several editions.

“It still represents 30% of our
sales,’ Tilley said.

it has been worn by Prince
Charles, Sir Edmand Hillary, the
Everest pioncer, Paul Newman,
Jane Goodall and hundreds of
other celebrities. .

ves

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The latest Tilley catalogue in-
cludes as models, the MeDonald’s
ezar George Cohon and Lincola
Alexander, former Ontario
lieutenant-governor,

During the Persian Gulf war, an
inventive Canadian naval officer
put in an order for 1,000 Tilley
hats. It was officially approved as
‘*proper’’ headwear.

By the time the Canadian forces
stopped ordering, 6,000 hats had
been dispatched, and they became
not only the envy of the Allied
troops, they were Canada's
Signature in the war zone.

Alex Tilley is a traditionalist.

“We hate to be trendy,’’ he
said.

He designs clathes that are in-
tended to last a lifetime, under
devastatingly rough conditions.

“It’s fun. But it is the one thing
in life that I'm good at, and I
didn’t know that until 1 was in my
mid-40s.""

He is now 55 and a genuine
Canadian celebrity. Customers
line upto get his autograph.

The North Vancouver chapter
of the Tilley story was another
accident. When John and Barbara
— residents of Lynn Valley since
1973 -— heard about Alex’s cot-
tage business in Teronto, they
asked him to shij out some mer-
chandise.

“Soon we wer. selling a great
deal of product out of our base-
ment ,.. quite illegally and by ap-
pointment only,’* John recalls.

In 1986, they opened their first
store on Pemberton Avenue.

By 1988, the small outlet was
attracting 6,000 customers a

. Month,

“We had lincups for the change
rooms and at the counter,” Bar-
bara recalls. ‘‘We were too busy
to give good sezvice.””

They needed a larger store, and

Sunday, March 21, 1993 ~ North Shore News — 9

ian icon: hats off to t!

their market research indicated
that they would be closer to a
larger number of customers on
West Broadway. They moved to
the city. Until tast fall, it was the
only Tilley Endurables store.

In October, they reopened not
far from their old location, on the
north side of Marine Drive, just
across from Pemberton Avenue.

But the product is an extension
of Alex's personality. He bills
himself as an eccentric gadfly, a
layabout who hates to work. He
rattles off an endless stream of
obviously well-practised jokes,
anecdotes and one-liners.

It is difficult to wedge ina
serious question. He
misunderstood when { asked
about the rigors of business.

“it is unbelievably casy for us,”
he replied, with characteristic ef-
fervescence. Last year’s growth in
sales was 30%. The business press
two years ago Said that the reve-
nues had topped $8 million a year.

He is now talking about
challeaging companies that are
measured in the hundreds of mil-
lions.

He finally grasped my question.
| had read about the near disaster
his business had just escaped.

e

Tilley, a Harvard dropout,
claims to be a dreadfully poor
businessman. Serious mistakes in
hasty expansion imperilled the
company. He took in a partner to
run the firm, but matters
deteriorated.

He and the partner became
enmeshed ina highly publicized
court battle for control of the
company. Tilley won, but all of
the dust hasn’t yet settled.

He clinched his fists as he
related the story. There was no
more humor,

“*For nearly a year I faced the
possibility of losing my business
— I could have lost my child,’’ he
said,

Alex Tilley is finally following
professional advice. His accoun-
tants have told him not to put
numbers on his ambitions. He has
been told to respect the advan-
tages of a private company.

He says he will continue to
design products not duplicated
anywhere else in the world.

“*t might cater only to five or
10 or 15% of peopic ... the ones
who give a damn. Well | give a
damn intensely, and I make
clothes for people who do give a
damn,’ Alex Tilley said.

ELENA HALL

Realtor

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