Company Spotlight: Rudsak
by Christina Lee on November 4th, 2008
For 14 years, leather outerwear company Rudsak tailored its sleek classics toward a strictly Canadian market. For the first time this month though, the company presents its urban image to the United States, through new wholesale efforts.
“We see our new focus as a second step for the brand,” said Kelly Surrette, sales manager at Rudsak’s company headquarters. Later, she added, “We’re just looking next door.”
To date, the company has mostly concentrated on selling its apparel, handbags and home furnishings to Canadian retailers and in their 11 signature stores. In the United States, the company hopes to sell its fashion to east coast boutiques before its wholesale efforts become nationwide.
This market expansion stems from an expansion within the brand itself, in which Rudsak created full men, women and shoe lines.
Since the company’s creation, founder and designer Evik Asatoorian has made Rudsak known for solid silhouetted basics like its jet black trenches.
“We’re not a stripe company; we don’t believe in flowers or patterns. Not because we don’t like it, but because it’s not us,” he told AskMen.com.
But the company unsheathed a few daring surprises this year, further qualifying it as a “full lifestyle brand,” as Surette said.
These days, leather also serves as an accent to military-inspired wool coats. For its spring 2009 collection, Asatoorian also used berry finishes — most noteworthy on a bolero with cap sleeves — and liquid leather, on shorts as well as leggings.