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43. JJ Wilson

43. JJ Wilson, Co-founder, Kit and Ace

July 24, 2015 • Blog, The Power 50, Uncategorized

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In less than a year since it opened, Kit and Ace, the Vancouver-based brand that specializes in technical streetwear for the luxury set, has created quite a commotion in the business and fashion communities – and for good reason.With an impressive 12 locations across North America (and another 22 on the way), it doesn’t take much math to figure out that co-founder JJ Wilson, son of Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, is doing something right. Here, the 26-year-old lays down the law on what it takes to start a brand that people love.

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The growth of Kit and Ace has been incredible. How do you manage that progression and still maintain the brand’s core ethos and integrity?

I’m actually trying to figure out some of that stuff myself. There are a few things that I take into consideration. One would be working with a local market to help build a shop. I go in about six months before our stores open and hire local shop directors. They’re connecting, sharing the brand story and building that grassroots element ahead of time. It’s about taking the time, even though it’s expensive, to really build the market before we open a new location.

It’s impossible to manage everything. What elements do you look for when you’re building your team?

What I spend a lot of time on is really building out a fairly cohesive onboarding system. I have everyone spend time in the shops because that’s ultimately where every effort comes full-circle. We spend a lot of time working with people to make sure that everyone really understands the brand and what we stand for. I continually emphasize it.

A lot of businesses today differentiate for the sake of differentiating. What do you think is the difference between innovation and gimmickry?

I see a lot of brands these days, and I just find that I’m a little bored of everything because they’re all the same. I think it’s really important to not be afraid of taking risks. Everyone is trying to play it safe right now because every brand is under such scrutiny. The ones that are doing it differently, even though 50 percent of the time they’re unsuccessful, are the ones that are getting noticed and actually innovating.

What have you learned from your family’s history in the fashion business that you’ve carried over to Kit and Ace?

So much. The whole progression of my life has allowed itself to complement what I’m doing with Kit and Ace. I’ve been really lucky to have Chip as my dad. Every single conversation that we had at the dinner table or on a plane as a kid was always about the business. I see my whole life as almost a mini-MBA. It was so specific in retail and fashion and technical apparel that I brought everything together and reinvented it for something that I wanted to do.

What do you wish you knew about business when you were starting out that you know now?

Don’t be afraid to hire big, and hire bigger than you. There is so much that I don’t know, and the world is changing so fast. I have to trust that the people we hire know what they’re doing.

What is the best advice you can give to young entrepreneurs and designers, given today’s business climate and digital age?

You don’t have to have all the answers – not everything has to be perfect. It’s actually the imperfections that make a brand cool on its own. I think sometimes with young entrepreneurs, because how brands emerge where they’re required to have everything set up, they feel like they have to have an answer for everything. For me, there’s no way that I’m going to have them all. I’m going to mess up, but I’ll work really hard to make it better.

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