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Perry Lam originally launched under a different name, in a different location. The men鈥檚 casual wear store used to be Private Stock in Vancouver鈥檚 Gastown, but just a few months into the opening, Lam鈥檚 landlord announced that he was going to triple the rent. 鈥淚 know, I know, never enter into a verbal agreement. I鈥檓 a bit old school鈥攕ometimes good vibes go a long way,鈥� says Lam. The hunt to find a new spot left the entrepreneur questioning everything at the time, but, looking back, he feels grateful for the fresh start because it gave him an opportunity to rebuild and rebrand from the ground up.

We opened up in October 2021, which we thought would be the end of COVID. We finally started to see businesses and things opening up, some normalcy happening. So I felt like it was a good time for a new clothing store in Vancouver鈥攅specially for men, there鈥檚 not a whole lot of options.

I have a retail background and I wanted to create a comfortable shopping experience for men. We had a verbal agreement with our landlord at that time, which was a great deal, but considering our location鈥攚e weren鈥檛 in the core of Gastown鈥攊t was always a little bit troublesome.

For six months, he was going to give me a good deal and we were going to renegotiate after that. But after that six months, he said he needed to raise the rent. He told me, 鈥淚 can raise it up by double-ish for the next couple of months and then I鈥檓 going to have to triple within the next six months.鈥�

With that being said鈥攁nd COVID wasn鈥檛 over: Omicron had hit so everybody was back in their bubble鈥攊t was definitely a challenge to be a new business struggling. Like, are we going to close down? Are we going to open up somewhere else? Is anything else going to be affordable? I just didn鈥檛 believe that there were good rates still out there.

We鈥檙e still fairly niche in our category, which is good, but at the same time our competitors have been around for 10 to 15 years. Being the new kid on the block, it was kind of hard to establish ourselves.

So we started looking at a new location and eventually found our place in Chinatown, just three blocks east from the old location. It was a bit more of a natural fit. Our landlord was a family friend of my godfather鈥檚, and the space had sat empty for seven years.

Now, on Pender and Columbia, we鈥檙e more or less smack dab in the middle of Chinatown. What鈥檚 great is that, if you go east, you have all the Chinese restaurants and stuff like that鈥攖here are a couple of Michelin-starred restaurants down the street from us. And then to the west, you have the Chinese Canadian Museum, you have the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden and Chinese Cultural Centre. So it鈥檚 nice to be between the old and the new, to have the inviting attractions of the museums. It鈥檚 nice to be in the touristy area.

We quickly made friends with our neighbours and started becoming part of the community. And it鈥檚 going both ways鈥攖he community has definitely helped us and we try to give back to it as well. It鈥檚 positive reinforcement that we鈥檙e on the right track and we鈥檙e doing what we want to do as well as helping with the bigger picture of trying to rebuild Chinatown.

Moving was a huge blessing in disguise. Even the clientele has been better. With Gastown, it was always harder to get traffic down there. That location was getting worse and worse post-COVID, and other neighbouring businesses were also starting to close up.

Now we鈥檙e getting more young families coming into the store, and people telling us stories about our location鈥攊t used to be a restaurant. People have gotten engaged in there, had parties and dinners… it鈥檚 nice to be in a place that has such a history. We want to be able to still tell the story of what was there before us, and still very much be part of the community now.

This interview has been edited and condensed.