Craft guide
ORBISCONCEPT STORES IN VANCOUVER4 stores · curated ORBIS register
1406 Old Bridge Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC V6H 3S6 / Vancouver / Canada
Sisters Mary and Sarah Schwieger make brooms on-site with antique tools and Shaker/sorghum technique learned from their parents' Kootenay shop; they opened the Granville Island shop more than 12 years before that report.
Best for Brooms made on site with antique tools and Shaker and sorghum techniques.
Gastown
Vancouver backpack and accessories brand founded in 2009 by brothers Jamie and Lyndon Cormack. Its Gastown store at 347-349 Water Street, opened June 2018 inside the historic Greenshields Building, was the company's first North American store and its largest in the world.
Best for Backpacks, travel bags and everyday carry
Herschel Supply Co. was founded in Vancouver in 2009 by brothers Jamie and Lyndon Cormack, who named the company after Herschel, Saskatchewan, the small prairie town where three generations of their family had lived. The brand built its early reputation on backpacks before expanding into luggage, bags and accessories, growing into a company sold internationally. In June 2018 it opened its Gastown store at 347-349 Water Street, on the ground floor of the historic Greenshields Building, in the neighbourhood where the company began. At roughly 5,000 square feet, the store was Herschel's first physical location in North America and, at opening, its largest store anywhere. The interior was designed by Omer Arbel, creative director of the Vancouver-and-Berlin design house Bocci, marking his first retail project; the space was one of the few retail units in Gastown that had not been subdivided over previous decades. Herschel later also opened a separate flagship on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver, positioned as a distinct location from the original Gastown store.
2170 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6K 1N6 / Vancouver / Canada
Grandfather Wong Chew Lip founded Ming Wo Hardware in Chinatown in 1917; it evolved into a cookware house serving restaurant kitchens; remaining Vancouver doors continue after the 23 East Pender flagship closed 28 Feb 2020.
Best for Cookware from a Vancouver house founded in Chinatown in 1917.
1972 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC / Vancouver / Canada
Grant McDonagh opened Zulu in 1981, after Quintessence closed, and it is still at 1972 West 4th Avenue. CBC Radio 3's Searchlight named it a finalist for Canada's best record store.
Best for A West 4th Avenue shop opened by Grant McDonagh in 1981.
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