Montreal’s Empire Sports has spent more than two decades shaping the city’s streetwear, skate, and snowboard culture. We spoke with Philippe Grisé, co-founder and president, about how a shared passion for music, art, and board sports grew into a homegrown retail staple with 11 locations across Quebec. Today, Empire continues to bring curated style, community spirit, and authentic culture to shoppers of all ages.
What is your business called and what does it do?
Empire Sports. Retail store that specializes in lifestyle streetwear, sportswear, skateboarding and snowboarding with accessories and footwear.
What made you want to do this work?
Our love for the music, art, skateboard and snowboard culture.
What problem did you want to solve with the business?
Offer a shopping experience that combines all our passions for the different cultures we’ve been passionate about over the past 25 years…
Who are your clientele/demographics?
It’s a pretty wide audience. We cater to young kids all the way up to more mature adults who stayed interested in the cultures we represent…
How does your business make money?
We profit from selling products
How does it work?
We select and curate a selection of products that we showcase on our website and our physical stores. Then we market our concept and vision to our customers and people who might be interested by our offering.
Where in the city can we find your profession?
We have 11 locations in the province of Quebec and an online store that ships worldwide.
What is the best question a prospective customer could ask a member of your profession when comparing services? Give the answer as well.
I’d say one of the important questions is why buy from a retail store versus a web giant like Amazon or the brand itself?
My answer to that is that buying from a local vendor helps build the local economy, but mostly the local community… it’s very important for almost any culture to be supported on a local level for it to thrive. Amazon and these big brands don’t have the bandwidth to be able to speak and dialog with the end customer one on one…. But your local vendor can and will… and that’s what make something memorable and sometimes even life changing….
What is the best part about what you do?
We are fortunate to be able to make a living doing what we love.
What is the worst part?
There’s always something to do, and it can get overwhelming to someone who isn’t mentally strong… a lot of work, but the reward is worth it when you are fortunate to do what you love in life…
What is your favourite joke about your own profession?
Never thought skateboarding would bring me this far in life… I’ll never be thankful enough….
Where can we follow you?
Website | Facebook | TikTok | Instagram | YouTube
PAY IT FORWARD: What is another local business that you love?
