Illbury and Goose – London, ON

When I walked into Illbury and Goose, I didn’t really know what to expect. The first thing I noticed was the smell: a candle flickered on the counter, cozy and comforting. The next thing was the dog, who ran over to greet me and happily jumped up to kiss my face pretty sure I fell in love. The store has an ‘effortlessly cool’ vibe; it’s trendy but it doesn’t know it.

I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Meghan and Dan, the owners and creators of local London clothing company, Illbury and Goose. They told me about the inception of the company, their inspirations, and their motivations.

The company started when Meghan and Dan were in their final year of university, and it started with them printing Dan’s t-shirt designs at Masonville Mall for fun. Soon, their friends wanted t-shirts and custom bracelets, and Meghan was balancing a full science course load at Western while working with Dan to meet customer demands. Dan, a graphic design student at Fanshawe, was able to use his shirt designs and company plans for his classes, and found that his professors and his program were much more flexible to meet his needs.

They started selling their products at the Western Fair Farmer’s Market, then moved on to festivals and popup shops. They also got involved with Propel at Western, which allowed them to start a popup shop in the UCC basement. They won a grant in Propel’s ‘Seed Your Startup’ competition, which helped them incorporate the company in June 2014, and ensure that their products were Canadian made.  

The name ‘Illbury and Goose’ is a mashup of their grandparent’s business names: Illbury Furs and The Country Goose.

“[The names] were a pretty cool piece of Canadian heritage from our family history that we really wanted to tie into the brand, and solidified our goal of becoming a Canadian heritage brand.”

90% of their goods are made in Canada, and other Canadian creators make many of the other items in the store. 

They’re looking to expand to Toronto and Vancouver, and they travel a lot in order to get inspiration for their clothing designs.

“We bring back the inspiration from our travels and use it in our designs as part of our capsule collection. I think that’s part of our brand too, because we are a Canadian brand, but I think something that makes Canadians who they are is that they love to travel, and it’s such a multi-cultural place,” Meghan said.

But becoming an entrepreneur isn’t most peoples’ goal, and I wanted to know how they handled doing something professionally that was different than what they went to school for.

“It’s a lot of transferrable knowledge. Being able to critically evaluate. Leading a team, and managing your time. All that is stuff you get out of a degree regardless of what you go to school for. I didn’t know that I wanted to be an entrepreneur until I was one, and people don’t think that you can choose being an entrepreneur as a career.”

“I was going to be a doctor, I applied to med schools, and I choose this over that. It’s really just taking something that you’re super passionate about, and decide to learn about in school, and finding a way to make that into a unique career choice. It’s just a matter of thinking outside the box,” Meghan explained.

• Brand
• canada
• canadian
• clothing
• fashion
• london
• Ontario