Ten years after three Montreal brothers transformed a Quebec outerwear company into a global premium brand, Quartz Co. is marking its milestone anniversary with ambitious plans for technical innovation and international growth, while sister brand WANT Les Essentiels builds momentum through high-profile collaborations like its recent partnership with Bombardier.
Jean-Philippe Robert, who leads both Quartz Co. and WANT Les Essentiels alongside brothers François-Xavier and Guillaume, reflects on a decade that has seen the brand evolve from a regional Canadian company to an international presence spanning France, Germany, Japan, the United States, Austria, the United Kingdom, and even Greenland. “After 10 years, you have enough experience behind you to know exactly who you are as a brand,” Robert said in an exclusive interview. “I’m really proud of what we’ve built so far. We’ve maintained consistency in terms of design and what we bring to the market. But I also feel it’s just the beginning.”
The transformation began in 2015 when the Robert brothers acquired Quartz Nature, a Canadian brand established in 1997. Robert describes the original acquisition as pursuing “a high-quality product more than an established brand,” with the opportunity to add storytelling and marketing to exceptional Canadian craftsmanship. “The big opportunity we saw was to take this amazing product—very well made, amazing craftsmanship, the fact that it was made in Canada—and add a layer of storytelling and marketing over it,” Robert explained. “It was fairly straightforward to do initially because it was essentially a blank canvas.”
The decade since has been marked by significant milestones, including international expansion into prestigious retailers like Le Bon Marché, Breuninger, Holt Renfrew, Barneys Japan, and United Arrows. In 2019, the company made the bold decision to acquire its own factories in Montreal and Victoriaville, ensuring full control over production and reinforcing its commitment to Canadian manufacturing.
Robert’s 2021 acquisition of iconic Canadian brand WANT Les Essentiels has proven equally strategic, with the luxury accessories brand recently completing a notable collaboration with Bombardier that exemplifies sustainable luxury innovation. The WANT Les Essentiels x Bombardier collection uses “Nuage” leather upcycled directly from aircraft cabins, creating travel accessories that give new life to premium materials. “I love this collaboration because it tells an authentic story. It’s not just a marketing gimmick,” Robert said. “We literally took their premium leather materials, fantastic quality pieces that were sitting in a warehouse here in Montreal waiting for a second life, and we transformed them into products that people genuinely love and purchase.”
The partnership represents more than symbolic collaboration between Canadian icons. Robert emphasized the substantial business impact: “The collaboration volumes were substantial. This isn’t simply an image collaboration with 10 pieces—it’s a significant business project, which I appreciate because there’s real commercial value behind it.” WANT Les Essentiels is showing strong growth momentum, with the brand announcing a renewed partnership with Holt Renfrew starting Fall/Winter 2025, alongside positive results from Harry Rosen and recent expansion into international markets including new relationships with Mitchell’s Group in the US and Ships in Japan.
Both brands are shifting their retail approach, moving away from pop-up activations toward strengthening wholesale partnerships. Robert explained that previous pop-up strategies, including a notable Toronto Yorkdale location, served their purpose in testing markets and building brand awareness. “We’ve decided to pause pop-up activations and refocus our efforts on building strategic wholesale partnerships,” he said. The decision reflects the challenge of sustaining year-round retail operations with seasonally-focused brands like Quartz Co.
“The challenge is that we operate a seasonal brand, and sustaining 12-month retail operations requires developing a broader product range,” Robert noted. “We believe our core products deserve greater market awareness, so we’ve chosen to focus our efforts there.” This wholesale-focused strategy appears to be paying dividends, with both brands securing partnerships with premium retailers across multiple markets.
Looking ahead to 2026, Quartz Co. has teased a “groundbreaking line engineered for the harshest climates on Earth,” building on the brand’s Montreal-based testing advantages. Robert emphasized the unique position of developing outerwear in a major city that experiences extreme winter conditions. “Here in Montreal we use a jacket for over 150 days every winter,” he explained. “The particularity with Montreal is we’re in metropolis, a large city with a lot of snow in the city. And you don’t see that in a lot of different places in the world.”
The brand is focusing on developing “dressed up technical fabrics” that bridge the gap between technical performance and urban aesthetics. “People dress up again. That’s a big trend that we see here and abroad, but they still have to be protected,” Robert observed. This evolution reflects broader market shifts where consumers demand both technical performance and sophisticated styling, particularly in urban environments where professional appearance matters alongside weather protection.
Robert’s manufacturing philosophy centers on premium positioning as essential for Canadian production viability. “If you want to make in Canada and keep making in Canada, it’s got to be high-end. It’s got to be premium, to add the proper value into the product and to communicate the craftsmanship and the know-how,” he said. This approach has proven successful across both brands, with Quartz Co.’s owned manufacturing facility in Montreal serving about 70 employees and acting as a testing laboratory for new materials and techniques.
The international expansion strategy reflects Robert’s belief that Canadian luxury brands have natural advantages but need more aggressive global market pursuit. “People love Canada. They trust us for many reasons. So it’s just a matter of Canadian entrepreneurs and brand owners to have the force to go beyond borders,” he said. This perspective comes from direct experience, with recent business development trips to Paris revealing the potential for Canadian brands in established luxury markets.
Robert believes Canadian brands bring unique storytelling advantages to global luxury markets. “Canada is seen as upscale around the world, right? We’re part of the G8 countries. We have a fairly good reputation around the world,” he explained. “When you tell a global story, you have to do like the French do so well, you have to tell your own story. So I think we should take all these advantages that we have about being a well-loved country and input more of its storytelling into our product.”
The success of both brands demonstrates the viability of this approach. Quartz Co.’s expansion from a regional Quebec brand to an international presence with distribution in eight countries proves Canadian outerwear expertise translates globally. Similarly, WANT Les Essentiels’ revival through focused brand essence and strategic collaborations shows how Canadian luxury accessories can compete with established international players.
With Quartz Co.’s second decade beginning and WANT Les Essentiels gaining momentum through strategic collaborations, both brands represent the potential for Canadian luxury to compete authentically on the world stage while maintaining their distinctly Canadian identity and manufacturing heritage. The company’s Montreal flagship and Royalmount location continue to serve as brand ambassadors, while the focus shifts to expanding wholesale partnerships and developing the technical innovations that will define the next chapter of Canadian outerwear excellence.
Dustin Fuhs is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of 6ix Retail, Toronto’s premier source for retail and hospitality industry news. As the former Editor-in-Chief of Retail Insider, Canada’s most-read retail trade publication, Dustin brings over two decades of expertise spanning retail, marketing, entertainment and hospitality sectors. His experience includes leadership roles with industry giants such as The Walt Disney Company, The Hockey Hall of Fame, Starbucks and Blockbuster.
Recognized as a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert in 2024 and 2025, Dustin delivers insider perspectives on Toronto’s evolving retail landscape, from emerging brands to established players reshaping the city’s commercial districts.