In the small beach town of Wellington in Ontario, Canada’s Prince Edward County, visitors are often surprised to discover the mix of wineries, fine dining, and galleries. They’ve become just as pleasantly surprised when they stumble upon Adelaide Utman and Tyler Beatson’s Oak Clothing Co. boutique.
That’s because the couple has built a men’s and women’s boutique and surf hardgoods store that artfully mixes Rhythm maxi dresses, Levi’s and Brixton pants, alongside Hobie surfboards and Crime soft tops. The couple got creative through the pandemic-induced downturn and said they’ve reached a point where shoppers are increasingly making the trek from outside Wellington to shop their store or pick up a board to use at the nearby beach, situated on Lake Ontario’s north shore.
Utman and Beatson think this year will bring an increase in sales, driven by a new, expanded store opened earlier this year, which sits at a little over 4,000 square feet across two floors.
“Last year was really tough because everything jumped in price so quickly, which made sense, but I think people were battening down the hatches a lot quicker than maybe they needed to because there was so much aggression in the media about a recession,” Utman said. “There was a lot of fear that people had. So everyone just stopped spending right when we were all relying on those dollars to get us through our super busy time.”
Around Christmas is when Oak saw spending begin to bounce back, along with tourism in the area, and the momentum hasn’t stopped. Even still, they’re cautious and remain focused.
“It’s a creative year,” Beatson said of the approach to 2024. “We have to be creative to survive the year and what are some creative things we can do? Can we have a shopping event at night? Can we do a movie premier because our winters are really quiet. We’ve had fun creating those things and coming up with campaigns to reach consumers.”
Oak Clothing Co.’s Adelaide Utman and Tyler Beatson. Photo by Calder Sidley for Oak Clothing Co.
Growing Out of the Storage Closet
Eight years ago, Utman had grown tired of not being able to find the styles she wanted at the local clothing stores after making the move back to Canada from New York. So she decided to start her own boutique.
“When I first opened, my whole idea and concept was built around the fact that I couldn’t find anything that I liked in the area because it’s quite up and coming,” Utman said. “It’s really touristy, but there wasn’t anywhere I could shop. I just got so fed up having to go back to big cities that I opened up a shop.”
From the start, Oak has offered men’s and women’s clothing, with about a rack-and-a-half dedicated to each and housed in a roughly 300-square-foot closet in the store’s first iteration.
“It was tiny,” Utman said of the original store. “It was a closet in this old, heritage building, and the owner came up(stairs) when I first opened and said, ‘I’ve only ever known this as a closet.’ So, it started like that. And then we’ve moved over the course of the last eight years to four different locations, and it’s slowly gotten bigger every time.”
Many of the same labels Oak launched with remain part of the assortment today, including Brixton, Levi’s and Gentle Fawn.
In fact, it was Utman’s meeting at the Brixton showroom to stock her store where she first met her future business partner and husband in Beatson, who grew up in Banff and got his start working in snow and skate shops as a teen.
The coffee and espresso bar on the ground floor of Oak. Photo by Kassandra Melnyk for Oak Clothing Co.
Creating a Shopping Experience
The couple’s backgrounds have led to a unique business.
Today, Oak Clothing Co. on Main Street includes a coffee and espresso bar – with a recently opened takeout window – and women’s assortment on the ground floor. It’s stocked with Pistola denim, Thrills, Rhythm, Gentle Fawn, Levi’s, and Kuwalla.
Upstairs is the office and showroom space, along with men’s apparel and surf hardgoods.
Rhythm, Thrills, Brixton, and Patagonia are all popular on the men’s side. Salty Crew, which is predominantly T-shirts and hats, turns quickly when new inventory comes in on account of fishing’s popularity in the area, Beatson said.
In the fall, Oak will begin selling the U.K. B Corp-certified brand Finisterre, along with Katin. The store is also set to be one of five in Canada to carry CAT WWR – a fashionable line from the workwear maker – beginning in August.
There’s also the growing Oak Surf Club in-house label of T-shirts, totes and hats.
Next year will see an expansion of the line into more cut-and-sew, along with collaborations with other Canadian brands.
“We’re working on building (private label) because margin is the name of the game to keep retail alive, so we’re being creative and I also think we have something unique that, in our market, people are into,” Beatson said. “But I also think you shouldn’t take what you’ve built (with third-party brands) and then just fill it with you own stuff. Brands will always hold a place and are so important in the industry and the market, so we’ll always have branded things.”
On the surf hardgoods side, Oak sells brands such as Hobie, Crime and Black Rose. Although, equipment is still a small percentage – about 20% – of the overall inventory, and Beatson said that’s partially intentional as the two make sure new brands coming into the store fit with the existing apparel mix.
“The surf gear is heavily influenced by what we like or have ridden or feel connected to, but then it also has to match with the shop,” Beatson said.
The women’s section. Photo by Kassandra Melnyk for Oak Clothing Co.
Building Community
It’s likely hardgoods could continue to grow as the radius of Oak’s influence grows.
“We got our roots in fashion, so we still have got quite a bit of loyal customers,” Utman said. “We have a lot of people who have discovered us from the nearby cities and come to this store specifically to shop because they like the selection and the curation. And then we’re getting more and more known in the surf community of the Great Lakes, so we’re getting a lot more people coming to look at the surf equipment.”
The two view it as a “whole other level of pioneering,” she said, where they’re at times teaching visitors in their stores about riding a surfboard or how to use leashes.
Beatson noted a recent surf session during which he saw 10 out of a dozen other surfers on Crime longboards that he said were all purchased from Oak. It was a rewarding moment.
“It’s neat to see,” he said. “(Surf’s) a bit in its infancy for us. We’re in a tourist-based area, so our season is May until December. I think clothing and the brands we curate is more the draw than core surf, but we are starting to finally have some surf customers that are like-minded or think we’re doing something really cool.”
If that’s not enough to encourage the couple that Oak is moving in the right direction, Utman pointed to their group of friends, who once mocked the idea of opening a fashion and surf boutique in Wellington.
“Our friends made so much fun of us when we opened up a shop,” Utman said, “and now they’re like, ‘Can you send us a shirt?’ or ‘We’re going to come surf.’ People are finally catching on that we’re not just totally nuts and that there’s actually quite a bit of surf here and this area just in general is amazing.”
