East Coast Lifestyle Building New Bayer’s Lake Headquarters
HALIFAX–One of Atlantic Canada’s most popular clothing brands has continued to grow its success, and sales, during the Covid-19 pandemic. And now, after nearly nine years in business, East Coast Lifestyle is preparing to build a headquarters in Bayer’s Lake.
The two-acre property won’t be a typical clothing headquarters, however. East Coast Lifestyle founder Alex MacLean wants to make it a destination spot, complete with a coffee shop and basketball court.
MacLean is spending $1.8 million on the land alone, but it will allow the company to keep growing. Currently, East Coast Lifestyle has a 10,000 square-foot warehouse in Halifax that isn’t big enough for the company’s aspirations.
“We’re bottle-necked at how many orders we can get out per day, based on the space we have,” he told Huddle.
The new headquarters, which MacLean expects to finish by the fall of 2022, will also allow the company to hire more people. Right now, the clothing brand has 20 employees and MacLean wants to bring on 10 more.
East Coast Lifestyle has come a long way since its humble beginnings nearly a decade ago. MacLean was studying business at Acadia University when he was tasked to come up with a business idea for an entrepreneurship class.
MacLean noticed that Atlantic Canadians didn’t have a brand or symbol to call their own on clothing. So he decided to make his own brand they could be proud of showing off. That’s where East Coast Lifestyle’s famous anchor symbol was born.
“I saw a lot of people, while I was travelling, had a lot of NHL hats, shirts, and hoodies on…all these Atlantic Canadians have no logo or no team to really represent,” said MacLean. “We’ve got hundreds of variations on it now, but it started out as just the one, with the anchor in the middle.”
MacLean started by borrowing $800 from his father, which was enough to order the first 30 hoodies. They sold out in just an hour to family, friends, and classmates.
As he kept selling more hoodies, the money would go back into his business, gradually growing the brand.
“Still, to this day, we never had any other investors. It’s all been funded off my dad’s $800,” said MacLean.
In its first year, East Coast Lifestyle brought in $100,000 in sales, but in Year 2 that jumped to $1.5 million. MacLean attributes much of this success to Sidney Crosby, who was seen several times wearing the brand’s clothing in public.
“Sidney Crosby put 10 different shirts on and was all over the media with them. He helped us grow a lot at the start,” recalled MacLean.
A few years later, an even bigger international star helped give East Coast Lifestyle major recognition. Ed Sheeran was given some of the brand’s clothing as a gift from a Nova Scotian named Jessica, who befriended the uber-famous musical artist. He even played a concert in Toronto while wearing one of their shirts.
“She gifted him an East Coast shirt the first time he was in Toronto, and he threw it on for a photo and then we didn’t think it was real,” said MacLean.
The Sheeran exposure led to massive brand awareness overnight. It allowed the company to get verified on Twitter and quickly gain 20,000 followers.
For MacLean, East Coast Lifestyle didn’t just bring him money and success, but also love. In the very early days of the brand when he was selling hoodies and shirts on his parents’ front lawn, he met his future wife, Taylor Northey.
She came up to him to buy a tank top, and the two hit it off from there.
“We talked for three hours on the step and fell in love,” recalled MacLean.
Northey became East Coast Lifestyle’s first hire. Today, Northey is a VP of the company and takes care of everything from photography, and website design to hiring.
While many companies struggled during the Covid-19 pandemic, East Coast Lifestyle thrived, as more and more people did their shopping online. This led to the clothing company doubling its digital sales.
But they still have a significant retail presence–being available in 80 retail stores across Canada, including 28 Studio stores in Atlantic Canada.
MacLean is still finding new ways to expand the East Coast brand. Within the past year, the company launched East Coast Chips in partnership with Covered Bridge. So far they have sold 500,000 bags of chips.
They have also launched two alcoholic beverages under the East Coast brand: an iced tea and a rum soda product.
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].