There’s a lot of desire these days to buy Canadian — and exactly what that term means is hotly debated — but finding Canadian products in the sports and outdoor industry can be tricky. This spring, Brainsport would like to introduce you to some Canadian companies whose products we carry in-store. Today we share the story of üksi, a Saskatoon-based business that manufactures wool winter skirts. üksi is owned and operated by Elizabeth Stack, wife of Brainsport owner Brian Michasiw.
When Elizabeth Stack’s son was young, she spent a lot of time playing outside during frigid Saskatoon winters. Instead of struggling with ski pants, she would often wrap a heavy skirt over her pants before stepping into the cold. The fashion choice was fast, easy, warm — and attracted the attention of others in the community who wanted to know where they could buy winter skirts for themselves.
Stack, a civil engineer, set about designing warm and fashionable skirts to fill the need and started selling them under the brand name üksi (the phonetic spelling of the Finnish word “yksi,” which means “number one”) in 2009. Today she runs the business part time and the skirts are put together by a Saskatoon sewist. She typically sells 100 to 200 skirts a year, with November through January being her busiest time. This year, she’s seen more sales than normal in March, something she suspects has been driven by the surge of Buy Canadian sentiment.
Even in the midst of higher-than-normal sales, Stack took time to talk to the Brainsport Times about üksi and what it means to be a Canadian business owner in today’s environment.
It’s one thing to see a need in a community and another to decide to manufacture and sell a product to fill that need. Why did you want to become an entrepreneur and small business owner?
I really like making things, I’m really into sewing and knitting. At the beginning I had a skirt and I was like: This isn’t as good as it could be. So I wanted to make my own. I don’t know if I would have taken it to the next level if I hadn’t been able to do that myself.
Even though I don’t sew the skirts now, I still like the creative part of choosing the fabrics and seeing how they go together. And knowing that other people are enjoying them and seeing other people wearing them is really exciting for me.
What does it mean to you today to be a Canadian small business owner?
For lots of reasons, it’s so great to be able to support people who are operating their businesses locally — not just now, but always.
Recently, I’ve been thinking more about my own choices. I have had the same person making skirts for most of the time — a local person — but he retired last year. I have someone else local making them now, but I’m looking for someone permanent to make them or contemplating whether I should make them myself. Over the years, one of the big things I’ve talked about is: Maybe I should make this on a bigger scale to bring my cost down and make the product more accessible to more people. Manufacturing something locally is expensive so I’ve definitely considered if I should be looking at overseas production to bring the costs down and increase the volumes and sales that way. I didn’t really want to do that before and now I really feel like I’m not interested. I just want to continue to look for someone local or maybe do it myself.
The fabric we use comes from China and at this time seems unlikely to be affected by tariffs. I did look into sourcing more ethical fabric, but the cost would have been prohibitive.
What about your product makes you the most proud?
What I like about it is that it’s just so easy to put on and take off. I don’t feel like it’s the process of putting on ski pants. I’m really interested in clothes and fashion and for me, the skirt just fits in with that. It’s more fashionable, and a way to look put together and still stay warm.
A lot of people think about the longevity of products and I am into keeping things for a really, really long time. In the last couple of years, as some of the skirts have been out there for longer, I’ve had more and more people sending their skirts back to me to have the Velcro replaced or, if the accent fabric is wearing out after 10 years or so, then I’ll replace that. I really appreciate those requests because I like to think about the skirt lasting a long time.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Learn more at uksi.ca or stop by Brainsport to try some on.
