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Celebrating 50 Years

Sept 1, 2025

It started in 1975 with a husband and wife team, a 600 square foot workshop and two sewing machines. Now, 50 years later, Winner Garment is among North America’s largest and most successful operations of its kind. 

As a teenager in post WW2 Hong Kong, Ben Wong apprenticed under tailors. It took him seven years, once immigrating to Edmonton in 1968, to return to his trade.

“I’ve been in the business for 70 years,” says Ben, proudly of the company he and his wife Yin Mi Wong, started.

Winner Garment Industries opened its doors in 1975 under the name of Winner Crest Arts Service in a 600 square-foot building. In 2004 the manufacturing company increased its size almost 100 times to 50,000 square feet as it expanded to a second location in downtown Edmonton. Now Winner Garments operates two adjoining buildings, employing almost 50 people.

Now celebrating 50 years of operation, the company, which is a leading manufacturer of workwear, sportswear, and protective safety apparel in western Canada, has seen many changes.

In 1980, Ben successfully applied for a loan through the provincial government's Alberta Opportunity Company program and renamed his business to Winner Garment Industries. That money allowed him to purchase a computerized embroidery machine, the first one in Edmonton. It also allowed him to move from his original location to an 8,500 square-foot facility.

In ten short years they outgrew that facility, with Winner Garment Industries moving to its present location at a warehouse of 28,000 square feet at 12003 Kingsway. In 2004, Winner Garment Industries added its second production space jumping to a total of 51,000 square feet.

The manufacturing plant houses state-of-the-art equipment, producing top quality clothing, including custom embroidery and modern imprinting.

For most jobs, an automated spreading machine is how garments begin their journey. Fabric rolls are layered upwards to form a stack. It weighs dozens, if not hundreds of pounds, but the stack is easily floated along an air table to a large truck sized CNC cutter. 

The cutter is used to enable fast bulk production while retaining precision. The stack is draped with a plastic film to allow the cutter’s giant vacuum to suction out the air and compress the fabric tightly, so the cutter’s knife blade can cut dozens of layers quickly without distortion, improving the precision and fit of the final garments. 

For smaller custom jobs and single garments, paper patterns and traditional hand cut techniques learned from Wong’s apprenticeship years are still being used today.

With the pieces now cut, the fabric pieces are bundled into their respective project lots and moved in carts to the sewing workstations, progressively taking form into garments as the experienced sewers quickly take the various pieces and sew them together.

When Winner first began garment production, its focus was on leather and polyester/cotton sportswear for local league teams and varsity programs. The intermediate name of Winner Jackets and Crests was adopted during that period. 

Ben Wong’s desire to start making jackets were pragmatic – in the 1970s Winner was only adding embroidert to the jacket – they were being made in Montreal and Winnipeg, and Ben’s customers felt underserviced when jackets weren’t being delivered quickly enough due to supplier issues and shipping delays. So Wong solved the issue by bringing in all the machinery and parts needed to make a complete garment, and Wong’s tailoring knowledge guided the company to make jackets that were better than his competitors and being delivered faster.

Less than 10 years later, Winner was approached to make workwear coveralls. It was a similar story. Winner was adding embroidery to coveralls being made elsewhere, and the customers weren’t happy with delays when the coveralls couldn’t be delivered any sooner. Again, Wong acquired more machines in and workwear specific fabrics were brought in house to manufacture coveralls.

This was a heady time, as the early 1980s saw the oil boom causing a gold rush in northern and central Alberta, and Winner grew quickly along with the entire economy.

Although Alberta’s boom also underwent a bust cycle, for Winner, this was also a transition from regular industrial coveralls to safety coveralls, and a much higher awareness of fire related protection swept the oil and gas industry.

Today, Winner Garment Industries is a leading manufacturer of fire-resistant clothing with 60 per cent of its product going to the oil industry.

“Fire resistant clothing was required in Oil & Gas first,” explains Wong, “but today it’s also needed with commercial electrical, utilities, mining and wildland firefighting. Even police uniforms. We make all of this, as Canadians, for Canadians.”

Advanced flame-resistant textiles such as Nomex IIIA, Indura Ultrasoft, Tecasafe Plus, and PBI Kevlar allow comfort and durability without giving up occupational safety.

Winner Garment Industries makes flight suits, coveralls, parkas and bib pants, suitable for all seasons from unlined uniforms to warm lined garments. The company even produces winter work wear for outside temperatures as cold as -60°C for customers in Nunavut. The mini version of coveralls they created so their customers’ children can emulate mom and dad is a very thoughtful addition.

Winner Garment is unique in its ability to customize, tailor and provide results in a very short turnaround. They have a local warehouse dedicated to fabric stock. They have a team with the ability to do hand detailing and finishing. They have invested in automation and brought in the machines it takes to quickly process large orders. Whether it's an oilfield operator needing thousands of coveralls at a time, or a single person needing a custom fit to accommodate special conditions, Winner Garment delivers high-quality, expertly tailored results across Canada.

Winner Garment started long before Amazon and Temu allowed for buying cheap and fast from anywhere on the globe. Yet, despite the digital ramp up and widespread competition, the company more than holds its own.

“Our clients want high-tech fabric and Canadian manufacturing,” says Fanny Liao, sales manager, “We listen to, and provide for, our clients’ needs.”

Winner Garment Industries still manufactures custom-made sportswear and corporate apparel. The company has over $3 million inventory of finished goods, in a variety of sizes, colours and fabrics, which are available to be shipped immediately, plus a huge stock of various fabrics to enable fast production of bulk orders and custom garments.

Winner Garment Industries provides product to retailers all across the country, from Victoria to Newfoundland. Virtually all the products that Winner sells are made completely in their facilities, and all the products that are made in their factory bears the Winner logo. 

For Wong, it's more than making a top-quality product. “We don’t do a lot of advertising and we don’t hire sales staff to sell our product,” he says, “it’s our name on the product that we must be proud of and the product sells itself.”

“With these values we survived and grew, even with increasing competition from overseas,” says Liao. 

It's about treating employees fairly. Wong is proud that Winner Garment Industries can support its employees with a benefits package includes health and transportation allowances. The company also has a scholarship program where Winner Garment Industries matches government scholarships for employees' children who attend post-secondary institutions.

The experience of the team is another driving factor. As a great place to work, many of the staff are long-term. Luis Ascencio, for example, has been with Winner Garment for 38 years and has no plans of retirement. Under the tutelage of Wong, he started in the cutting room. He’s still there today, overseeing millions of investment in automation and cutting hundreds of garments simultaneously with the same enthusiasm as his first cut on the job.

These days, making things work is a collaboration between manufacturers and consumers.

“We are not against imported work gear,” Wong assures, “as long as customers realize the importance and the difference of a Canadian owned and operated company. While you may be able to get an item quickly online, the quality and fit cannot be guaranteed. Here at Winner Garment, we have a full team that can design whatever you want. We have millions of feet of fabric in all colours, thickness and durability. We can meet – and often exceed – Canadian regulations and standards. With our facilities and on-site talented team, we can often deliver what you want faster and better than what you can get online.”

Wong is thankful to provide customers with the gear that helps protect them on the job, and a workplace dedicated to the success of their families.

“Thank you to all my staff,” he concludes. “They are my biggest helpers. Without them, I cannot do anything. I am lucky to have such good staff.”

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