The Great Western Garment Company (GWG) was a Canadian

denim Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This twill weaving produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. While a denim predecessor known as dungaree has been p ...

and western wear clothing company founded in 1911 in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

by Charles A. Graham and

Alexander Cameron Rutherford Alexander Cameron Rutherford (February 2, 1857 – June 11, 1941) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the first premier of Alberta from 1905 to 1910. Born in Ormond, Canada West, he studied and practiced law in Ottawa before h ...

(the first Premier of Alberta). The company's slogan of "They wear longer because they're made stronger" suggests the clothing's intended market: farmers and working-class people. The company also appealed to a working class demographic with their affordable pricing, usually 2/3 the price of red-tab Levi's jeans. GWG provided clothing for the war effort during both

World Wars A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, GWG produced up to 100,000 pieces of military clothing per month for the Canadian and Allied armed forces, making it the largest clothing manufacturer in the

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the C ...

. During the 1950s, GWG's Donald Freeland developed the stone washed technique for its products, increasing the softness and flexibility of the rigid denim fabric. By the 1970s, the denim and

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not t ...

s industry had fully adopted the stone-washing technique, helping to bring denim to a larger and more versatile market. In 1961,

Levi Strauss Levi Strauss (; born Löb Strauß ; February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Francisc ...

acquired 75 percent of GWG, expanding these holdings to 100 percent in 1972, at a time when GWG held roughly 30 percent of the Canadian jeanswear market. Market share for the workman like quality of GWG jeans fell as designer label and fashion oriented jeans grew in popularity. By the early 1990s, the GWG brand held less than 5 percent of the Canadian market. The same conditions were impacting the market share for the Levi brand, leading to Levi Strauss closing a number of factories worldwide and taking direct control of the operations of GWG in 2002.The Globe and Mail, May 24, 2002, p. B10, Levi Strauss & Co. (Canada) to Resume Responsibility for GWG Brand Apparel. Attempts to make the GWG brand profitable again were not successful, and the Edmonton GWG factory, along with all remaining Levi Strauss factories in North America, closed in 2004.

References

Clothing companies of Canada Defunct textile companies of Canada Jeans by brand Companies based in Edmonton Clothing companies established in 1911 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2004 {{Fashion-company-stub