Rock & Roll DTC Retail Concept ‘Clocks and Colours’ Opens 1st Storefront in Toronto [Photos/Interview]

Clocks and Colours caters to men interested in rock & roll, motorcycles, tattoos and barber shop cultures.

Originally designed as an online direct to consumer business, the retailer has opened a new storefront in Ossington in Toronto with plans to launch the brand as well into the United States.

Shane Vitaly Foran, CEO, said the concept began in 2013.

“I actually started another brand called Vitaly. That was my first brand 12 years ago and started building that. After about two years it had kind of found a place in the electronic music world, the bar crowd, which is fine. But it’s not really my background. My background was rock & roll, tattoos, motorcycles, that kind of a world. So I decided to start a second brand that lived in that universe and that world and that was Clocks and Colours.

“At its core, at its foundation, it really is a rock & roll brand. I wanted to create a brand that had extremely high quality products but were fair. What I found is you could either get garbage just like straight up costume jewelry at five or 10 dollars at a side stand type thing or everything being made for that world was astronomically expensive, not even aspirational. It was just ridiculous. So I wanted to fill that gap and that’s what I’ve done.”

The company’s primary offering is mid-tier sterling silver jewelry that is hand-crafted in Bali. 

“We’ve got a couple of wholesale accounts but it’s never really been part of the business,” said Foran.

The new flagship is at 154 Ossington Avenue. 

“It’s basically exactly where I’ve always wanted to have a store for the brand. I think it’s the perfect home for Clocks and Colours. Ossington has kind of always been the street in Toronto that’s reflected my values. It has cafes and the retail stores that I like, the restaurants and bars that I like. It just felt like the right home,” said Foran.

“It has that rock & roll sensibility but at the same time people are relatively well put together and are quite aware of fashion and style. It checked all the boxes for Clocks and Colours.

“We’ve always wanted to open a store. For a long time we didn’t feel like we had a big enough product assortment and we also just didn’t feel the brand was ready but the reality is that our product is incredibly high quality and it’s one of those things where you can see photos of stuff but often you can’t really tell how impressive something is until you pick it up. Another thing too is a lot of our products are not cheap. Some of our pieces are $2000 so I think for people to spend that much sometimes they just want to see it in person, try it on. We wanted to have an ability for people to physically engage with the product that way but at the same time we really wanted to have a place where we could really drive home our culture and create community.”

Foran said the retail store is very strategically set up. There’s a Harley Davidson in the front window, signaling its motorcycle background. There’s a photo gallery that is a huge part of the brand’s DNA. There’s also at the back an entire setup for a band with guitars, amps, showcasing its rock & roll DNA. And there’s a section for Peter McKinnon’s brand Pirate Life.

“We really wanted to have a space where we could tell that story and show people what we’re all about, host events so that people can come see what we’re actually like,” he said.

The Ossington store is about 1,200 square feet.

Foran said the retailer wants to open more stores. A goal is to look next south of the border at places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, potentially Austin.

“Those are all pretty serious considerations for us right now,” he added.

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