Founded in 1978, the Granted Sweater Company has knitted its last sweaters.
The Vancouver company has been creating popular hand-knit sweaters and other goods for almost half a century but recently announced the business is closing.
"I just decided it was time to close down," owner Brian Hirano tells V.I.A.
There are a couple of reasons, he says, notably the difficulty of finding people to knit the sweaters and the rising costs of doing business.
The history of a Vancouver clothing company
Hirano's family founded Granted in 1978; his parents moved from Japan to Manitoba so his father, Toyojiro, could manage the Sekine bicycle factory. His father had worked for the company in Japan, and they wanted him to oversee production when they opened a Canadian factory.
He eventually left the company, but the family stayed in Canada. They moved to Vancouver where Toyojiro became a tour guide.
"He saw, back in the day, in the early 70s, Japanese tourists buying hand-knit sweaters with maple leaves, snowflakes, and indigenous designs," Hirano says. "He saw they were selling like hotcakes to the tourists, so he decided, for some reason, to start his own factory in Vancouver."
It helped that his mother had designed kimonos in Japan. Hirano believes his parents had a desire to build something together in Canada.
For decades the family-run business employed local knitters to make sweaters by hand. Around 2007, Hirano and his sister took over and revamped the business.
"The Olympics was one of the boosts for our brand," Hirano says. "A lot of local retail shops were carrying our items and there was a big movement to support local."
They also started collaborating with other brands including CBC, Sitka, The Wu-Tang Clan, and V.I.A.
Keeping the business Canadian
Throughout the decades, Granted has stayed very Canadian, even using zippers made of Canadian maple.
The products, which included vests and accessories, were all hand-knit in the area.
"They're mainly home-based moms and grandmas," Hirano explains.
Supplies would be dropped off with the knitters, and when things were finished the items were picked up and brought back to the Granted shop for finishing touches.
"We've been really pushing the whole made in Canada, made by Canadians aspect," Hirano says. "It's also what holds us back; the beauty of our production is it's hand knit, but not scalable."
Finding knitters has become more difficult, Hirano says, and that's one of the reasons for Granted's closure.
Often knitters spend five to 10 years with Granted, which means there needs to be regular recruitment and training. Lately, they've had 30 or 40 working for them; in the past, they had more than 200.
Other factors have played into the impending closure; a lack of government support hasn't helped, Hirano notes.
As with many other things, costs have gone up since the pandemic, which is passed on to the consumer, making the hand-knit sweaters pricier at retail.
"I understand people don't have money; people have to buy groceries and necessities," Hirano says.
The writing was on the wall for Granted.
"I could see the outlook on how people are spending their money," he explains. "We're not considered a luxury item because our production prices reflect the retail costs, but we do look at the luxury market."
With the economic uncertainty in the market right now the decision was made to close instead of altering what Granted was.
Thankful to the community
Hirano says the response from fans of the brand has been very positive following the closure announcement.
"It's been great," he says. "We've had a ton of sales and we're so backed up. We're working around the clock to get orders out."
"I just wish it had been sooner so we wouldn't have had to close."
Some people have sent in photos of themselves wearing the sweaters around the world.
"We have the best customers," he adds. "We have people writing us, telling how they found out about us."
For now, he adds, they're selling out of Granted's last items.
"We're not knitting, but we will still be technically open until the end of March," he says, noting people can email Granted to find out what's left in stock.
While Granted is closing now, Hirano says it could return in some form (though he does have a new job lined up in a different industry).
"Never say never," he says. "It's never a fully closed door."
