Shane Meier knew he had a pretty decent plan for a shop catering to urban men with trendy coffee, clothing and haircuts in a high-traffic area of bustling Lower Lonsdale.
All he needed was a name.
“I was having the hardest time trying to name this thing,” says Meier, who in a former life was an actor who got his start playing the child version of inventive TV hero MacGyver before getting a role as the son of Clint Eastwood’s character in Unforgiven. Hollywood, however, wasn’t helping Meier name his new North Vancouver shop. It wasn’t until he looked into his own past that inspiration struck.
“I had just done 23 and Me, the DNA testing thing, and I was looking at my family tree,” he says. There he spotted a great, great grandfather with a great, great name: James Goodlad.
“I thought, that’s perfect. I texted a photo of it to both my business partners and they were like, call the lawyers. Get it. That’s it. That’s absolutely perfect.”
Thus was born Goodlad, a shop now open in Lower Lonsdale catering to the urban gentlemen who live, work and travel in the area. There are two classic barber chairs inside with talented barber Christopher Glenn ready to give you a cool haircut or straight-razor shave; a coffee shop headed by Michael Hong and stocked by West End Coffee Roasters; and clothing curated by Meier focusing on high-end men’s denim, T-shirts, sweaters, outerwear, boots, socks, underwear and men’s grooming products.
Watching over it all is a wall mural of James Goodlad himself, created from an old photograph by Lower Mainland artist Kevin Keeler using only a Sharpie.
“This is the earliest photo we have of our bloodline,” Meier says of the pic of the man that gave his name to the shop. “It’s funny how things just fall into place.”
Bloodlines seem to be a theme running through the Goodlad space. Beside his barber chair Glenn proudly displays a memento that formerly belonged to his grandfather.
“My grandfather Tom invented the process of refining brass,” he says. “He was a tool and die maker. Really quite the f***ing gentleman.”
Glenn was working at Gastown’s famed Victory Barber when he was enticed into the Goodlad world.
“I had to (join Shane). Clothing, and coffee, and to bring something different to the barbering experience. That’s a real gift,” he says. “People have been dying for something like this in this area.”
Haircuts and straight razor shaves will set you back $40, while beard trims, buzz cuts and blow dry styles start at $15. Quick clean ups can be had by donation. There’s a growler of beer tucked near the barber chair, and Glenn hints at a future addition of a little scotch and bourbon bar.
“You can’t sell it, but you can give it away. And who the hell doesn’t like bourbon and scotch, especially after a hot shave,” he says with a laugh, adding that they want Goodlad to be a place where people feel comfortable. “We want people to come in and say ‘Hey’ and hang out. I want to know about your dog, I want to know about your wife.”
Meier, who lives a few blocks off of Lonsdale, was adamant that this is the location they needed. The shop is located on the corner of Chesterfield and Esplanade, across from Cineplex Cinemas Esplanade in a space that used to house a yogurt shop. The target demographic for the shop is working men with disposable income who “like good stuff that you can’t find anywhere else, … stuff that you’re not going to see every other dude wearing.
“Guys on the North Shore want to come down for an experience,” he says. “They want to buy expensive clothing, get a cool cut, maybe have a drink on the weekend or a coffee and just be here for more than 20 minutes. Be here for an hour and a half, shoot the shit with us.”
Meier is the lead actor in this play, a role he says he’s been working on since he first stepped onto the set with Clint Eastwood.
“I’ve always been an entrepreneur, I’ve worked for myself since I was 12,” he says, adding that it was eye-opening to see how Clint handled his business back in the day. “He was a true gentleman. I was 11 or 12 when I did that and I was somewhat new to film. I didn’t really know who he was, I just knew that my mom was kind of gobsmacked by him. I just knew that he was kind of an older, cool, cowboy-looking dude. He was very respectful to my mother, … he was very hands on. He was the director, he produced it. He was the man.”
There’s a bit of the movie-making world in the world of business, Meier says. You’ve got to be the man.
“Just because you’ve got a little bit of money in your till, well guess what – you’ve got thousands of dollars in bills from vendors that are coming out in the next week, so you better make sure you are ready for that.”
Goodlad is located at 221 Esplanade at Chesterfield Avenue in North Vancouver. Website: goodladclothing.com.
