Canadian Tire will launch a small collection of products featuring the Bay’s recognizable multicoloured stripe design on time for the holidays.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
When Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. CTC-A-T won the bidding for the Hudson’s Bay intellectual property in the spring – including the instantly recognizable multicoloured stripe design – the clock started ticking.
From the time the $30-million deal received court approval in June, only five months remained until the beginning of the crucial holiday shopping season. Retailers often plan and order such products a year or more in advance.
And so Canadian Tire’s first Hudson’s Bay-branded collection of products is limited, offering just a glimpse of what the Toronto-based retailer may eventually have planned in the future. The company announced Wednesday that the collection will hit shelves on Dec. 5, and will include items such as mittens, espresso cups, hand towels, Christmas ornaments and pillows decorated with the stripes. All are items that the Bay has sold in the past.
The collection will not be available online, but it will be in stores under signs featuring the Hudson’s Bay brand name.
“We will be able to do more for spring,” said Eva Salem, senior vice-president of marketing and brand at Canadian Tire, adding that the team is now figuring out what a more permanent collection using the stripes will look like.
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Canadian Tire announced last month that it is bringing back the Hudson’s Bay blanket, which will also be available in December.
The stripe pattern was a trademark of Canada’s oldest retailer until Hudson’s Bay collapsed this year, after 355 years in business. Canadian Tire bid on it and the other intellectual property as part of the Bay’s bankruptcy proceedings.
The rush of nostalgic shoppers who visited Bay stores in the spring, to snap up striped products before the chain closed for good, suggested there could be strong demand for products during the holidays.
“We would have ordered a lot more,” Ms. Salem said, had the timing not been so tight. “We kind of had to take what we could get in terms of quantities.”
Canadian Tire opted to buy up inventory from existing Hudson’s Bay suppliers, without any modifications, and to launch a limited-edition collection with slightly more than 20 products. Such orders usually take six to eight months.
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Developing its own products will be a longer project. When the company’s product-development team creates a newly designed item from scratch, the process can take roughly a year and a half.
In the long term, in addition to the stripes, Canadian Tire is looking into plans for the other intellectual property it acquired in the deal, including the Bay’s brand names, logos and slogans, and private-label product lines. (The company did not buy the Zellers discount brand, which Hudson’s Bay relaunched in 2023. In August, the Zellers trademarks were sold to Les Ailes de la Mode Inc., led by Canadian retailer Isaac Benitah. A new Zellers location opened at Edmonton’s Londonderry Mall last week.)
Canadian Tire also acquired the Hudson’s Bay social-media accounts, and in late October, the Bay’s Instagram posted a callout for suggestions of products customers want to see revived.
Liza Amlani, founder of consulting firm Retail Strategy Group, applauded the decision to engage with customers as Canadian Tire develops its products.
“My only caution is around distribution. Expanding too widely across banners like Sport Chek or Mark’s could dilute the brand’s appeal,” she said. “Keeping the assortment tight, premium and distinctive will preserve the magic of the stripes program and drive meaningful traffic to stores.”
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A challenge for the company will be to provide more access to the products for customers, while also being sure that they don’t become oversaturated, Ms. Salem said.
“It really symbolizes so much of this country in so many ways. So, we’re being respectful of that legacy and finding the right balance,” she said.
The acquisition included symbols such as the Hudson’s Bay crest featuring two stags and a shield, and the former retailer’s private-label brands such as Distinctly Home, Hudson North and Beaumark Appliances. It also covered several slogans, such as “The official store of Christmas,” “More than you came for,” “Because … the lowest price is the law,” and the Bay Days name for the seasonal promotions that Hudson’s Bay ran.
“Stripes was the easiest and quickest collection to turn around. So, we started there. But Hudson’s Bay is a legacy brand with hundreds of years of history,” Ms. Salem said.