Last night I returned from a trip to Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler.
One of my best discoveries in the Whistler village was the hard-to-find Italian brand Napapijri. The name means Arctic or Polar Circle in Finnish and the logo they use on much of their clothing, headwear and accessories is similar to the Norwegian flag. Their designs sometimes get a bit convoluted, but when they keep their product simple – as with the pair of great fitting cargo shorts I bought – it is one of my favourite brands. Leave it to the Italians to make a really cool cargo short that actually fits. None of the North American brands that I’ve seen around Toronto is even close. Everything I’ve seen has been huge. Here they are:
The Helly Hansen Store in Whistler, near the Westin hotel, was also impressive. They are outfitting the Ericsson Racing Team in the Volvo Ocean Race 08/09 (pictured above). Very cool polo shirts with a zigzag design stitched on printed twill patches on the shoulder, left chest, back and hem. They look sharp and they mean that anyone can keep the dream of yacht ownership alive.
Yacht image courtesy of Maciej Zytniewski.
