Paris Glove

Czech immigrants Félix and Lily Monk arrived in Canada in 1939 to escape the European conflicts and to work in the family’s glove factory, owned by Lily’s uncle in Prescott, Ontario, therefore following a long family tradition. Lily meets her husband Félix in 1935 in Grenoble, France, the glove-making mecca of its time. They marry and have two children, Peter and Evie.

During the war, the Prescott glove manufacture, of which Félix owns half of the shares, makes gloves for the Canadian army.

When the war ends, they decide to move to Montréal and open their first glove-making business on the Hôtel-de-Ville Avenue, which, at the time, is not deemed reputable. They hire three employees and give the company the name Paris Glove, with the Eiffel Tower as their symbol, a nod to the world’s couture capital. Since the gloves are sewn by hand, only two sewing machines are needed. The company does not own any die cutting machines. Félix uses another glove manufacturer’s equipment.

He hires hundreds of seamstresses who make, at a pace of two pairs of gloves per day, over 1 200 pairs of gloves each week.

In 1961, the company grows and establishes itself in a large building on Parc Avenue. Another factory is opened in Saint-Tite. Besides manufacturing their own gloves, Paris Glove imports some from Italy and Eastern Europe.

Peter Monk, graduated from Columba University, joins the business. He convinces his family to take up to ski glove market, supplied in Japan at little expense. The company keeps on growing, thanks to the Canadian-made production, products imported from Europe and ski gloves, made in Japan. In 1973, Peter is the company’s president. He buys Les Gants Laurentide from the Boulet family and Paris Glove enters the industrial glove market. The Québec company Gants Auclair is bought in the 1980s. At the same time, Paris Gloves becomes a well-renowned name of the Canadian glove-making business.

To allow the Paris Glove brand to expand on an international scale, the company is bought in 2011 by New Wave Group in Sweden, a multinational organization, and becomes Paris Glove of Canada. Due to its exclusive history in the field of glove-making, Paris Glove is unique in Canada and one of the few still prospering in North America..