Jean-Sebastien Siow can tell you your exact measurements in centimetres just by looking at you. It’s an unusual skill for an engineer, but then again, most engineers don’t spend their forties visiting strangers’ homes with fabric samples in the trunk of a car.
“I remember the moment I realized I didn’t need the tape measure anymore,” Siow said on a recent call from Montreal, where his company SUITABLEE operates a 4,000-square-foot headquarters in the Old Port. “I’d studied engineering at McGill, I’d taken this AI course, and suddenly I was standing in someone’s living room mentally calculating their shoulder width before I even pulled out my tools. At that point, I said, ‘Well, I don’t even need to be with a person physically to measure them.'”
That realization in 2018 became the foundation for proprietary algorithms that have since generated custom suit patterns for thousands of customers across North America and Europe. It also became the reason Siow spent the past year methodically evaluating Toronto real estate, ultimately securing 20 Richmond Street East in the Confederate Building.
“Toronto is a monster. It’s a true next-level step for us,” Siow said. “That’s why we spent months pushing for this exact address. It sits where the Financial District, King East, and St. Lawrence all overlap. That’s where people are working, moving, making decisions every day.”
The store, targeting a March or April opening, represents more than geographic expansion. It’s validation that a company built on data and AI can compete against tailors who’ve cultivated relationships for generations in Canada’s most competitive retail market.
The Trunk Years
The brothers Siow—Jean-Sebastien and Jean-Jeremie—launched SUITABLEE in 2015 without funding, without a storefront, and without any meaningful fashion experience. Both had engineering degrees from McGill and Concordia. Neither had any business being in the custom suit industry.
“Being young and not in the industry made it possible,” Siow said. “When you’re in a certain industry, there are predetermined barriers and boxes you’re used to working in. We looked at custom suiting not from a fashion perspective—we looked at it from an engineering perspective: How do I get from A to B? How do I create structures that make this scalable?”
The first phase meant learning traditional tailoring. The brothers drove around Montreal measuring customers manually, documenting every adjustment, every pattern modification, every alteration required after delivery.
“We learned a tremendous amount. Montreal became our laboratory,” Siow said. After thousands of measurements, patterns emerged. Siow noticed he could visually estimate proportions with surprising accuracy.
“I had taken an AI course back at McGill, and nobody even knew what AI stood for in 2018,” Siow said. “Now it’s the buzzword in every industry, but back then we were just trying to solve a problem: How do we eliminate the tape measure?”
SUITABLEE hired AI specialists and fed years of measurement data—thousands of body scans, pattern adjustments, customer feedback—into neural networks. The result: custom suit patterns generated from 14 simple questions about height, weight, body shape and preferences. First-time fit rate: 95%.
“There are very few bodies that are identical. Every single person has their unique morphology,” Siow said. “Our AI understands these correlations because we have thousands of real measurements, thousands of alterations, thousands of customer profiles in our database. A competitor can’t just copy that overnight.”
The Women’s Surprise
Two and a half years ago, SUITABLEE decided to take women’s suiting seriously. Today it represents 40% of total business—a trajectory that surprised even Siow.
“We started as a menswear brand, but women kept asking for suits, and we realized there was this massive gap in the market,” Siow said. The growth pattern was immediately different. “Women engage more, they share more. Men are secretive about where they get their suits. Women flaunt them.”
Building the women’s line meant starting over with data collection—new measurements, new scans, new patterns. The AI infrastructure SUITABLEE had refined over years could adapt, but it still required building an entirely new database of body measurements and fit preferences specific to women’s tailoring.
The investment paid off faster than anticipated. Going from zero to 40% of revenue in 30 months suggests SUITABLEE found a market gap nobody else was properly serving: affordable custom women’s suits with near-bespoke fit quality and extensive design options.
“I think we’re probably the number one custom women’s suiting company in North America,” Siow said. “There’s nobody in the US or Canada that can match what we do.”
Traditional tailors focus primarily on menswear, treating women’s suiting as a secondary offering. Online custom clothing competitors often lack the AI measurement precision SUITABLEE has refined. Off-the-rack brands offer limited customization. SUITABLEE sits in the middle: true custom construction with AI-powered fit, priced between $900 and $1,700.
Siow expects the women’s line to be particularly successful in Toronto for two specific reasons.
“Number one, there’s a lot of powerful businesswomen that wear suits and are looking for a good place for it,” Siow said. “And number two, there’s a lot more LGBTQ weddings now where women wear suits. Those two factors alone make Toronto different from Montreal.”
The Financial District concentration of professional women combined with the city’s cultural diversity creates exactly the demographic mix where SUITABLEE’s women’s line has historically over-performed. If the trajectory holds, women’s suiting could represent half of the location’s business within two years.
Finding the Confederate Building
Siow visited Toronto four or five times over the past year. Queen West felt too retail-tourist. The Distillery District was interesting but isolated. Various Financial District properties came and went.
“We really wanted to understand Toronto as a culture, being that we’re from Quebec,” Siow said. “Toronto is always viewed for us as this large piece of real estate, and we wanted to understand the personality.”
Then 20 Richmond Street East became available—a former Subway location in the Confederate Building.
“The Confederate Building is absolutely beautiful. Just visually, it’s absolutely beautiful,” Siow said. “Our flagship store in Montreal is in the Old Port, beside the cathedral. It’s part of the history of Montreal. It’s symbolic. We needed that same feeling in Toronto.”
Jackson Turner of CBRE handled the negotiation on behalf of the Tenant.
“He’s one of the best we’ve ever worked with. So diligent, responsive, professional,” Siow said. “We’ll probably work with him nationally going forward.”
The location choice wasn’t purely aesthetic. SUITABLEE already serves a few hundred Toronto customers annually through its website. GTA residents visit the Montreal showroom for fittings roughly every 10 days.
“I love those customers. I ask them why they’re in Montreal, and they’ll say, ‘I’m here for a suit, then I’m packing up and leaving,'” Siow said. “That told us everything.”
The Underdog Playbook
Without early funding for professional models or sample production, the Siow brothers became the brand’s faces—a decision born from necessity that became a strategic advantage.
“People started recognizing us on the street. They were interested in the story—two Asian brothers modeling suits, which was rare in 2018,” Siow said. “We realized people like a local story. They like a good story.”
The partnerships followed the same logic. SUITABLEE has dressed UFC fighters including Montreal’s Aiemann Zahabi, who appeared wearing SUITABLEE in UFC 315 Embedded footage, and UFC champion Joshua Van for his UFC 323 title fight. The company also counts Montreal Canadiens player Patrik Laine and NHL’s first female coach Jessica Campbell among those who wear their suits, along with R&B artist Lloyd.
“One of the highlights of this 10-year journey in the suiting game,” Siow wrote on LinkedIn after fitting Van for UFC 323. “What an absolute insane experience—especially being a fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.”
UFC athlete sponsorships particularly align with SUITABLEE’s positioning.
“Until recently, the UFC has always been the underdog in combat sports and sports in general. A lot of Canada focuses on hockey, but we thought differently,” Siow said. “We want great stories behind great personalities that wear our suits. We intentionally don’t dress anyone—but when we do, they become true ambassadors.”
This approach reflects what Siow calls the “own the town” philosophy.
“We don’t want to own just 10% of a city. We want to be one of the main custom suiting brands in that area before we open new territories,” he said. After establishing itself—potentially with three or more GTA locations—Vancouver and Calgary are next, with “aggressive timelines” for both cities within the next few years.
SUITABLEE announced plans for a Laval location in the second quarter of 2026, describing the expansion as “securing home base” before broader national growth. The company also runs pop-up shops across North America, including recent events in Houston where Lloyd surprised SUITABLEE employees with a return visit.
“Every now and then, a celebrity pops in and surprises the team,” Siow wrote on LinkedIn. “One of the keys to keeping people happy is to make sure they live unforgettable experiences.”
The Test
Toronto will determine whether SUITABLEE’s decade of refinement can translate beyond protected home markets. The city has established tailors with generational relationships, sophisticated customers who’ve worn Savile Row and Hong Kong bespoke, and retail turnover that claims ambitious brands regularly.
“Before we expanded anywhere, it had to be clear that we could scale the same service, the same technology,” Siow said. SUITABLEE is relocating Montreal-based stylists to ensure consistency. “At least the culture stays, so the level of service remains.”
The March or April opening answers whether AI-powered custom suiting with accessible pricing performs in Canada’s most competitive city. If it works, Vancouver, Calgary and eventually New York and Boston become realistic.
Siow isn’t hedging.
“Our goal over the next 10 years is to have a very strong presence and to be the leader when it comes to custom suiting in North America,” he said. “Toronto is a monster. It’s a true next-level step for our brand.”
The Confederate Building will have its answer by summer.
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.