A clothing store that has bite
[attach]5324[/attach]In the Chinese village where Roy Tan grew up, there was a saying that if you told a lie you’d lose one tooth.
“I suppose they told that to children,” says Chad Wenzel, the owner of One Tooth Toronto active wear. “It’s sort of one of those things you’d tell kids to teach them to be honest.”
He says Tan, the founder of One Tooth, adopted the philosophy as his company’s namesake because he wanted to maintain an honest business.
“We are not a dentist’s office,” Wenzel adds. “Some people think that but I guess nobody knew what a Lululemon was 15 years ago either.”
Wenzel, a former public school music teacher, decided to take a year-long leave of absence to bring the company to the city after discovering they also had a menswear line. For the past six years he says his wife Wilma Schreuders kept coming back from business trips in Vancouver with bags full of One Tooth products.
“I didn’t really pay much attention to it, I was just glad that she was happy but then last year I found the One Tooth store in Collingwood and I found their men’s line and I was interested at that point,” he says. “On the drive home from Collingwood I’m like you know someone should open that Toronto store and I thought, ‘Why are we going to wait and let somebody else do it? Why don’t we do it?’ ”
Located on Avenue Road north of Haddington Avenue, the Vancouver-made yoga, active and loungewear company is also branching out with mini displays in gyms across the city, such as the Extreme Fitness at Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue, where people can also place orders.
“We offer sort of a unique range of products that are similar to other brands but at the same time we have unique styles, designs, patterns and colours that you won’t find anywhere else and one unique difference is all of our active wear is made in Canada,” he says.
He says they want to build a community around active healthy living and will soon be offering zumba, pilates and boot camp classes in addition to yoga sessions and running clubs.
Although he decided to start in the north because he wanted to be near the 401 to be easily accessible by car, he says if things go well he hopes to branch out to other locations across the city.
“We’re really excited, it’s going really well,” he says. “I think the made in Canada, the prices and the unique designs are all hitting home with a lot of people and they want to share that with their friends.”