What is up guys? It was good meeting up a few months ago when I was back in town… things have changed quite a bit in just a year’s time? Crazy how things are popping up so quickly. Anyways, to the topic at hand, what were you guys doing before starting up HAVEN… cause I really don’t know exactly what you guys were up to haha… one of you were in London?

Daniel: What’s up Eug? Always good to hear from you. And hope you had a good time back in Canada and to the City of Champions! As for your question, before HAVEN, Arthur and I both were working finance-related jobs for banks and trust companies and what not. We both have commerce degrees from the University of Alberta. Arthur had moved down to Vancouver for a bit before starting up Haven and I had my time in London, England and also Calgary for a short time. We always knew we’d work for ourselves eventually and had this idea always to re-unite and start something. We were both really young when the shop started. Arthur was 23 and I was 24. So I guess you could say HAVEN is our first real “career”.

A funny little side-story… the 3 of us were all in and around the University of Alberta campus around the same time but didn’t know each other. I still remember seeing a dude breaking in the middle of the university’s main thoroughfare during some event and wearing SB Dunk Jedi’s… not sure who it was exactly but I think it was Arthur? But otherwise, what was the deciding factor in leaving what I assume were cushy corporate jobs to return back home to Edmonton and open up shop? Despite living in a relatively small boonie town in Edmonton, you guys seemed to have a pretty good understanding of what brands you wanted to carry which definitely didn’t have a local presence to begin with. Where did your so-called “brand-education” come from?

Arthur: Those were the good old days at University when I didn’t have a care in the world. Time sure flies.

Daniel: That was me wearing the SB Dunk Jedi’s. They weren’t the best shoes to b-boy in because they were so bulky but I liked how they looked. I’ve still kept all the SBs I bought from that crazy era.

Arthur: I actually bought those for Dan at Slam City Skates in London when I was visiting him way back when SB’s were at the peak. Anyways when I was living in Vancouver I noticed that there were a lot of cool boutiques that were opening up and started to pick up steam. I loved the city of Vancouver but I hated my finance job. Dan was in Calgary at the time, and we kept talking back and forth on how we could start our own store and when it came down to it we knew we had to both move back to Edmonton. The economy is one of the strongest in Canada, it is also the only major city in Canada that was pretty wide open with little competition. We knew we could move in without any problems and start off with a bang. Edmonton had the worlds largest shopping center with WEM, and has always had a lot of strong retail, but there was never a store that spoke to us, we knew we could fill that void. I was always really obsessed with street culture, clothes and cool sneakers and I guess it just became a natural progression. My first encounters would be with a store called Twenty4 in Vancouver which later turned into Richard Kidd. They were definitely ahead of their time. After that I just traveled a lot through UK, Europe and Asia and got to see cool shops like The Hideout, Stussy, Bape Busy Workshop, Union etc. They were all really inspiring because they were doing retail so much differently than anything I had ever seen.

Daniel: We always knew that day would come when we left our cushy desk jobs. Our parents were always self-employed so from an early age we were able to see the benefits of self-employment. And the love of the culture and the clothing were deciding factors to start Haven. When we started out I think we only had maybe 8 brands. But each brand was quality. We slowly used those brands as stepping stones to build up our brand list. We didn’t let any sub-par brands into our shop and have remained very picky about what comes through our doors. We get a lot of requests from brands for a presence in our store, but at the moment it is tough to get our attention. If you are a start up brand, you really have to have your shit together. Although we do take the time to evaluate everything that comes our way. A lot of my personal brand education came from travelling and seeing stores in other countries. I also have to give credit to Arthur as our buyer. We always have a thorough discussion as to any new brand we might add, but it always goes through Arthur first. He has a good eye for quality, trends and fashion. And lastly, globalization has inevitably made it easier to get information from around the world thanks to the Internet.

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