SHAN has spent four decades doing what they do best, designing beautifully made swimewear that fits incredibly. Over the years, the brand has expanded into everything from ready-to-wear to opening multiple boutiques in popular destinations (Miami and The Hamptons to name a few). What makes the story even more impressive is that their signature swimwear is still made in Canada, something that has become increasingly rare in the fashion industry. To celebrate the brand’s 40th anniversary, we sat down with Nathan Gilbert, whose parents founded SHAN, to learn more about the story of the brand.
How did SHAN come to be?
My parents started the business in 1985 in Montreal, they were both working in banking and finance at the time, but my mom had always loved sewing. Her mother sewed, and when my mom was young, she would make little dolls out of scraps of fabric and go door-to-door selling them. She always had that creative, entrepreneurial side.
When my parents decided to start SHAN, my mom left her job and began making swimwear in the basement of their home. She was pregnant with my older brother (Shan), and couldn’t find swimwear that fit her properly, so she made her own.
It took off pretty quickly! My mom focused on the product, and my dad was on the sales and marketing side. He was literally going door-to-door saying, “No, you don’t understand, you want this brand in your store.”
That first collection was made completely in their home. From there, they brought in more people, moved into wholesale, opened a store in Laval and just kept growing.
Forty years is a long time for any business, but especially in fashion. What do you think has kept SHAN going?
My mom actually doesn’t love it when we talk about the 40 years because she says, “Well, if the business is 40 years old, what does that make me?” But seriously, there is always something happening. There’s always another crisis or another challenge, and having a great product isn’t always enough.
One of our biggest advantages is that we manufacture ourselves. We have control, and when something changes, we can react very quickly. The other thing is that we don’t chase trends too much. Of course, we’re aware of what’s happening in fashion, but we’re not designing something just because it’s popular for one season.
That makes the product more timeless, people keep SHAN pieces for years. At our Laval boutique, we have customers who have been buying the brand almost since the beginning, which is pretty incredible.
Photo provided by John James PR
Swimwear can be one of the hardest things to shop for. How much of SHAN’s success comes down to fit?
A lot. Swimwear is much more technical than people realize. There are so many swim brands now because it’s fairly easy to buy something overseas in bulk, pick a colour and follow a trend. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to fit. The moment someone needs more support or a different kind of fit, it becomes much more complicated. The closer a garment is to the body, the harder it is to get right.
Even a very small change, we’re talking millimetres, can completely change how something sits on the body. For us, that expertise has been built over decades.
Being made in Canada has become a big part of the conversation around fashion lately. Why has SHAN held onto that?
There are a lot of Canadian brands, but there aren’t that many manufacturing in Canada anymore. If we manufactured somewhere else, would our margins probably be better? Yes.
We’ve looked at it. We’re always looking at different possibilities, especially because our factory gets so busy. But there are things we’ve developed here over 40 years that we’ve found very difficult to recreate somewhere else.
We’ve tried sending pieces abroad. We’ve explored different manufacturers. And when it comes to swimwear, we just haven’t found anyone who can do exactly what we do. Some simpler, ready-to-wear pieces can be made by partners here in Montreal, but with swimwear, the craftsmanship is very specific.
There’s also the advantage of having everything close to us. We can make decisions quickly, adjust things and stay very involved in the process.
Photo provided by John James PR
SHAN is known for swimwear, but ready-to-wear has become a much bigger part of the brand. How did that happen?
We had actually been working on ready-to-wear for a few years before launching it, then our first collection came out in 2020. COVID was obviously very difficult for swimwear because people weren’t travelling, nobody was going on vacation.
At the same time, we suddenly had this ready-to-wear collection that was doing really well. I don’t know if I would say it saved the business, but it definitely helped us through that period. Today, ready-to-wear is a very significant part of SHAN.
Personally, though, I always come back to swimwear. I tell my mom, we make great ready-to-wear, but a million brands are making ready-to-wear.
Swimwear is where we’ve spent 40 years building this expertise. It’s what we’re known for, and I think it’s important that we never forget that.
There also seems to be a lot of thought behind how people actually wear the pieces, especially the resort wear.
Absolutely.
When we design something, we’re thinking beyond simply selling a product. We’re thinking about where someone is going to wear it and how it’s going to fit into their life.
My mom and I both love travelling, so we understand that experience. If we’re designing a cover-up, for example, we’re thinking: she’s at the pool, she wants to throw something on quickly and go have lunch at the resort. Does it work for that? Those are the kinds of details we think about when we’re designing.
Photo provided by John James PR
You have boutiques in places like South Beach and East Hampton. With so much shopping moving online, do you still believe in physical retail?
I really do. I don’t think retail is dead. I think it’s changed.
We have three sides of our business; online, retail and wholesale, and they’re all very different.
Online obviously gives you almost unlimited reach, but retail is still one of the best ways to tell your story. When someone walks into a SHAN store, they get to experience the whole brand. They see the product, feel the fabrics and understand what we’re about. The boutiques can also become much more than shops.
During Swim Week, for example, we use our South Beach boutique as a showroom. I use it for castings, and it becomes a home base for us while we’re there.
Having that physical presence in a market where you want to grow is incredibly useful. It’s just expensive.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities for SHAN now?
There’s still a lot of opportunity internationally.
We’re looking at Copenhagen and the Scandinavian market, which is new for us. We don’t currently sell in any of those countries, and we think there’s a real opportunity there, especially for ready-to-wear.
The U.S. is also huge for us, and even though we’ve been there for years, it still feels like we’re scratching the surface. Texas has become a really strong market. Then you look at the Midwest and all of these other areas where there are customers who appreciate quality and design — there is still so much room to grow.
Canada matters too. Ontario is actually one of our biggest markets, and we’ve expanded quite a bit here over the last four or five years, especially through independent retailers.
After 40 years, what are you most excited about?
The energy inside the company right now. We’ve brought some really important longtime employees further into the leadership and even into ownership, which feels a bit like bringing them into the family.
I think we’re better at what we do than we’ve ever been, and we keep getting better. The team is inspired. I’m really inspired by the collections we’re working on. Honestly, the energy has never been better.
So when I think about what’s exciting about the 40th anniversary, it’s not necessarily one specific celebration or one thing we’re doing. It’s more about what is happening inside the company right now, and I think people are going to see that in what’s coming next.
