At a time when retailers across North America are struggling with lower demand due to inflation and high interest rates, the story of Harry Rosen is instructive.
The Toronto menswear mogul thrived across decades of economic disruptions in the 51 years he ran his company before handing the reins to his son Larry in 2005.
And Harry Rosen Inc. is still flourishing.
To be sure, Rosen was financially prudent. He was judicious in expanding his business, did not stray from his core competence, and was quick to cut his losses on failed ventures.
Rosen was also among the first to introduce luxury designers like Giorgio Armani and Ermenegildo Zegna to Canada.
Harry Rosen really sold self-confidence
But that’s not what made Rosen successful, as Canada’s biggest menswear retailer with its current 20 traditional and outlet stores across the country and an online store.
You might be interested in
Rosen’s success came mostly from teaching men how to dress.
And he dressed the man in full.
Rosen didn’t sell jackets and pants. He sold a self-confident appearance.
Rosen had no American counterpart in that.
It seemed to Rosen that men were hopeless at co-ordinating their clothes, looking dishevelled even when wearing high-quality garments.
As Rosen explained in a 2004 interview, “Men don’t have a holistic approach to their appearance. [They] throw things together without a real vision of self-image.”
Harry was here to help.
Rosen trained his salespeople to ensure that customers left the store with suits, shirts, ties, and shoes that matched.
The Harry Rosen experience was, and remains, pricey but safe.
Opened his first shop with $500
The Rosen customer can be certain that his purchases will not invite ridicule, because Harry Rosen will not allow you to buy a repp tie to go with that argyle sweater.
Rosen opened his first made-to-measure tailoring shop in partnership with his brother Lou in Toronto’s Cabbagetown district almost 70 years ago.
Their initial grubstake was $500.
Rosen won his first big bet with a second store on Bay Street that was ten times the size of his original shop.
A classic entrepreneur, Rosen then had the audacity to believe that he could build a national chain in a niche market, with stores from B.C. to Quebec.
It was Rosen’s success in Toronto that convinced him that he could go national. It came in part from newspaper ads that Rosen wrote himself. They were text-laden lessons on how to dress.
The ads appeared so frequently that Rosen became a household name.
Rosen was a marvellous copywriter, crafting informational advertisements that assumed high intelligence among customers.
Rosen did not expand into unrelated businesses
In that, Rosen was the equal of legendary copywriter David Ogilvy of Ogilvy & Mather, renowned for insisting on respectful ads that explained rather than shouted or seduced.
Harry Rosen Inc. is still writing essay-style ads the way Harry did.
In one of its online store’s current “editorials,” titled “In Defence of Gifting Socks and Ties,” Harry Rosen asserts that these items are “amazing (gifts) because they’re exactly the type of things that people don’t treat themselves to, even when they really, really want them.”
Rosen stumbled twice in a big way.
His Harry Rosen Women stores didn’t work, and he soon closed them.
U.S. expansion was also disappointing. Rather than persist in it, Rosen promptly shuttered that division, too.
Rosen’s idea of diversification was to have a clothing boutique downtown that catered to financiers and a clothing emporium on Bloor Street that sold formal, casual and sports apparel.
Often, it’s what you don’t do that tells the tale. Rosen did not expand into unrelated businesses.
In 1992 he negotiated an amicable divorce from Dylex Ltd., the retailing and manufacturing conglomerate that helped Rosen expand beyond Toronto.
Had he not found the money to buy back the 50 per cent of Harry Rosen owned by Dylex, Rosen’s company might have gone down with Dylex’s other retail brands when Dylex filed for bankruptcy three years after the buyout.
Son Larry Rosen took over the reins
Among Dylex’s problems was that the founder-managers of its retail brands Fairweather, Thrifty’s and BiWay, among them — were retiring, and their nonfamily successors didn’t understand the business.
Succession was not an issue at Harry Rosen Inc.
For the past 18 years, the company has been ably run by Larry Rosen, tutored in the business by his father.
Harry’s business formula enabled Harry Rosen to outlast once formidable rivals including Tip Top Tailors and Stollerys, and its luxury womenswear counterpart, Creeds.
Humility and humour help in business.
In the early 2000s, Rosen was still fitting clients out of the trunk of his car.
And although his own marriage was a lifetime affair — Rosen is survived by his wife, Evelyn — he was philosophical about divorce.
“Certain things are very good for our business — weight loss, divorce,” Rosen once said. After the divorce, a man buys a new wardrobe “and goes out hunting.”
He might find what he’s looking for if he keeps his shoes polished. Harry taught him that.
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free).
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation