Tilley Vancouver has found a familiar place to hang its hats, bringing the globally recognizable brand of brimmed headwear back to their North Shore roots.
Tilley has been selling its popular travel hats and clothing from a pop-up shop upstairs at Lonsdale Quay for the past few months and now the owners of the family-run business are looking to make it a permanent home.
“We really wanted North or West Vancouver because that’s where our family is from and where we built our client base,” says Nikki Tilley.
Nikki’s uncle, Alex Tilley, developed a sailing hat and a pair of shorts that he began selling at trade shows in Eastern Canada and the U.S. in the early 1980s. His brother (Nikki’s dad) John soon got on board, marketing the products at boat shows up and down the West Coast of Canada and the U.S.
As youngsters, Nikki and her brother Jeff would tag along to trade shows and braid hat cords while sitting in the back of boats. Later on, they would be at the helm of the hat business.
As the hats began to sell like hot cakes, in 1985, matriarch Barbara Tilley began welcoming customers by appointment into the family’s Lynn Valley basement where she’d set up a makeshift retail space.
A few months later, the North Shore Tilley family opened their first storefront on Pemberton Avenue, just south of Marine Drive, while the East Coast Tilley family built up their hat empire.
Tilley Vancouver has relocated a couple times over the years; there was a spot on West Broadway and another on Marine Drive in North Vancouver. For 20 years, Tilley was a fixture on South Granville, before moving back to West Broadway in 2015.
And today the Tilleys have brought their hats home to the North Shore, two decades after the Marine Drive store closed. The new store was created, in part, for longtime Tilley customers, who were struggling to get over the bridge to Vancouver.
“But also there’s so much more tourism on the North Shore now that Tilley wanted to tap into,” explains Nikki. “Lonsdale Quay Market, it has such a unique feeling to it, really great events during the holidays and busy during the summer. It’s a great environment.”
Alex Tilley hung up his hat recently, but the brand lives on through new management and ownership and an expanded line of products. Tilley Vancouver, while still closely tied to Tilley Endurables, operates as an independent retailer.
Nikki talks up the expanded line of hats, which, along with some fun fabrics, have more technical elements than their predecessors. Her favourite, the mash-up fabric hat, is a blend of recycled yarns including cotton, hemp and nylon used in the hat-making process.
Tilley hats are still made in Canada and most have a lifetime guarantee. The original Tilley hat, the T1, is now retired, but Tilley’s most recognizable head topper, the T3 (it snaps up on the sides) is still in stock.
“For the true Tilley fan, it is pretty iconic,” says Nikki.
One of the new Tilley hat brims was designed with paddlers in mind and is perfect for those summer excursions up Indian Arm.
“It’s a stiffer brim in the front, so if you are out paddling the brim won’t fly up in your face when it’s windy,” explains Nikki.
As for what makes Tilley products so ubiquitously popular, Nikki says it’s because the company stands behind its products and uses high-quality materials that stand up to the outdoor elements.
Customers have taken their Tilley hats to the far reaches of the planet, as evidenced by the photos they email of their adventures, some of which are showcased on the walls of the Vancouver store.
From India to the Rocky Mountains, to a remote settlement in Africa, to Antarctica and Europe, Tilley hats have seen the world.
One travel story on the Tilley Vancouver website, from a customer who had toured a wetland in western Brazil, reads: “Of the 10 people in our group from Canada, U.K., USA and Australia photographing jaguars, seven wore Tilley hats.”
Tilley Vancouver also sells other clothing brands that make for low maintenance travel companions, including David Cline and Patagonia. They are also looking at bringing in packing seminars, which have proved popular at the Vancouver store, to the Lonsdale Quay location.
Almost four decades later, and Tilley Vancouver is still very much a family business.
John drops by the store a couple hours a week, while Barbara does all the bookkeeping and accounting. Jeff, meanwhile, does the Tilley inventory and Nikki runs the day-to-day operations.
“It’s a passion, that’s why we do what we do,” says Nikki.
