Montreal's Street Culture

Last May, I visited Montreal, a city known for its good sense of independent culture and fashion tastes. No doubt a city thriving with street art.

I visited some botiques along Ste. Catherines, the main street in Montreal. The list of stores I visited included Underworld Skateshop and most definitely Off The Hook Upperground Botique. Funny, these Montrealers don’t seem to like being on the ground. The Underworld website carries a lot more streetwear labels than the Ste. Catherines space. The space there was more of a conventional skateshop. However, they did carry a selection of Creative Recreations, Supras, and Nikes, along with some LRG, Altamont, WeSC, and KR3W pieces. The rest of the two storey space was filled with the latest skateboarding gear with an impressively large and diverse collection of decks.

Off The Hook, on the other hand, was fully stocked with streetwear labels such as WeSC, The Hundreds, Stussy, 10 Deep, King Stampede, Dissizzit, Freshjive, LRG, and the Montreal streetwear label Rated Rookies. They also had a number of limited edition retroed sneakers.

There was also a notable second-storey botique called City Styles. I think this boutique used to be an urban wear stop, yet it seems to have converted into streetwear. This store carried an incredible range of New Era’s in a large variety of bright colourways. They also sold clothes from brands such as Evisu, Rocksmith, Lemar & Dauley, and Crooks and Castles, while carrying a memorable collection of Jordan’s and Nikes. I think there was a third storey as well, but I didn’t have time to check it out.

Other notable spots include the Puma store that offered a small selection of their limited edition retroed sneakers as well as a large variety of jeans that they did in collaboration with Evisu. Urban Outfitters was also another stuff to grab some streetwear, yet in my opinion, this store is the tragedy of streetwear and is everything streetwear is not intended to be, a corporate money grab. They do offer cheap Vans Authentics, Nike Dunks and other retro sneakers. I wanted to buy an Obey hat there that was only $10. However, I decided to fight the urge and save my purchase for an independent shop.

One botique that I did miss was Goodfoot Montreal. Since it's not on the main Ste. Catherines street, I didn't manage to stumble across it. It's on 3830 St. Laurent Street. Don't miss it if you ever go there.