Nikkei Place - Crane sweater
Treasures from the Collection: Granted Sweater Company’s Nikkei Place Sweater
By Sam Frederick of the Nikkei Place
This recent addition to our archives brings with it stories of a family-owned business that operated for decades in Vancouver, BC. Founded in 1978 by Toyojiro and Noriko Hirano, the Granted Sweater Company produced locally-made hand-knit woollen sweaters and accessories. Their high-quality, crafted garments featured beautiful, whimsical, nature-inspired patterns, cherished by loyal customers in Vancouver and around the world.
Toyojiro and his wife, Noriko, immigrated from Japan to Canada in the 1970s for work opportunities. The Sekine bicycle factory, where Toyojiro worked in Japan, was establishing a factory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Toyojiro was selected to oversee production. When the plant later closed down, the couple, along with their first child, chose to remain in Canada and moved to Vancouver, where Toyojiro became a tour guide. It was here that Toyojiro was inspired to open his own sweater company after seeing how popular hand-knit sweaters were with tourists. Alongside Noriko, who brought her expertise as a former kimono designer in Tokyo, they launched their company and found success in bringing their Canadian Heritage sweaters to locals and tourists alike. The Hirano’s had 2 more children in Vancouver, and as the little ones grew up, they became immersed in all aspects of the business, from design and inventory to quality control and accounting.
In 2007, Brian and his sister Ai took over operations from their parents and launched a new era for the company. They brought modern graphics to their well-loved sweaters and led collaborations with dozens of organizations, including Ghibli Studios, CBC, Canadian Wildlife Federation, NASA, Burton Snowboards, and the David Suzuki Foundation. With the latter, the proceeds from sales of their David Suzuki sweaters were donated directly to the David Suzuki Foundation, supporting the foundation’s work on sustainability and environmentalism.
All of the Granted Sweater Company’s patterns were designed in-house at their studio, and they made use of a community of local knitters to produce each sweater, with all wool, trim and tags sourced from within Canada. With this focus on local production, a guiding principle and value for the company, each sweater could take up to 20 to 25 hours of knitting.
After 47 years in business, Brian, Owner and Creative Director of the Granted Sweater Company, made the difficult decision to cease operations in January 2025. But before they closed, Brian custom-designed one last signature garment, the Nikkei Place sweater. Brian’s creative and thoughtful design features the red and ivory colours of Nikkei Place complemented by blue and grey hues, a red and gold origami crane on the back, and is fastened with the Granted Sweater Company’s signature maple wood zipper pull. Brian’s design is intended as a symbol of peace that represents both Canadian and Japanese heritage in much the same way that Nikkei Place does.
With a limited production of these Nikkei Place sweaters, we are grateful to preserve this one as a part of our archival collection and we are honoured to continue to share the stories of this longstanding local family business. As best said by the Granted Sweater Company, this sweater honourably represents "Our story told in stitches.”
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A few last words from the Granted Sweater Company:
We would like to thank all of the Nikkei Place staff with this amazing collaboration especially Keiko Funahashi for all of her hard work. A second sweater was also produced and donated to support the fundraising efforts across Nikkei place to strengthen community, culture and senior care. Please follow the Nikkei place for upcoming opportunities to “win” this one-of-a-kind sweater by visiting nikkeiplacefoundation.org, or contact gifts@nikkeiplacefoundation.org for more information.
