For four generations, the family behind Winnipeg garment maker Freed & Freed International has worked with the fabric of our nation, crafting police regalia like the scarlet tunics worn by the RCMP and uniforms for Canada's Olympic teams.
But there's another sliver of Canadiana the family considers itself lucky to have handled: the Hudson's Bay stripes.
Freed & Freed is one of a few companies that has made products bearing the Bay's iconic green, red, yellow and indigo motif that dates back to 1779. Its creations include full-length wool coats, puffer mittens and sleeping bags.
"It's a prideful moment to be able to say that we got to be a part of true Canadian history because that's what we consider it to be," said Marissa Freed, president of the company her great grandfather started in 1921.
"They've just been around forever and we got to touch that and be part of it and it's a huge feather on our hats that we will never forget."
Freed has been thinking about her family's journey with Hudson's Bay a lot since the 355-year-old retailer announced in March that its finances had become so strained it had to file for creditor protection. The liquidation of all 80 Bay stores and 16 run under its Saks banners followed as did a search for buyers to keep some semblance of the business alive.
With often broken escalators, quiet stores and a succession of staffing cuts, the moves were not entirely unexpected but Freed was still "shocked" when the news broke because her company's dealings with Hudson's Bay seemed to be moving along as they usually did.
She had even received purchasing orders from the business for Stripes products she designed for this upcoming fall.
"On their side, their team was told to continue to move forward, so they were really pretty much left in the dark as much as we were," Freed said. "When someone is going to file (for creditor protection), they don't go around telling everybody."
Freed imagines her business will take "a bit of a hit" because of the Bay. Court records show the company is owed $12,295 from the retailer.
But Freed & Freed has plenty of other contracts to tide it over. It makes many government uniforms and produces items for "a lot of the well-known high-end outerwear brands that you'd be familiar with," Freed said, declining to name them.
The company first brokered ties with Hudson's Bay in the '70s, when Freed & Freed was making London Fog apparel sold by the retailer.
When Freed took the helm of the company about 16 years ago, she started cold calling clients, including Hudson's Bay, to find ways to drum up business.
"Shockingly, I got an email back," she recalled.
"I think they had just got the first Olympic contract and if I'm not mistaken, at that point in time, they were looking for somebody to domestically produce their wool jacket that they were giving ... the athletes. I, obviously, was very interested."
Despite Hudson's Bay losing the Olympic contract in 2021 to Lululemon Athletica Inc., Freed & Freed's relationship with the department store blossomed and it started making striped merchandise.
There were striped mittens, snowsuits and even baby bunting bags. Many of the items were designed by Freed & Freed, others came with direction from the Bay. Most took more than a year to make it to shelves.
While the Hudson's Bay wool point blankets produced by A.W. Hainsworth & Sons Ltd. subsidiary John Atkinson in England remained the most famed products, many of Freed & Freed's creations sold out or made the pages of fashion magazines.
Even with Hudson's Bay collapsing, Marissa Freed is hopeful this won't be the end of her family's connection to the brand.
She wants to see Hudson's Bay find a buyer for the stripes amid the 17 bids for assets it recently received. If a new custodian for the motif is secured, she's willing to help return the stripes to shelves.
"I don't know if that's wishful thinking ... In a dream world, somebody does intervene and somebody realizes the stripes could be sort of this diamond in the rough, if you will," she said.
"It's a real loss in history if we don't see it through."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2025.
Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press
