Retail Isn't Dying. The Operating Model Is. With David Lui
EP 202 · May 26, 2026 · 51 min · David Lui
0:00 / 51:14
The short version
The Bay closed. Frank and Oak shuttered. Insolvencies have been climbing for years and the narrative everyone's repeating is that retail is in trouble. David Lui has a different read. Retail isn't dying. The operating model is. And the brands going under aren't the ones customers stopped loving, they're the ones whose people, product, and place stopped working.
As CEO of Kit & Ace and co-founder of Unity Brands, David is doing almost the exact opposite of what you'd expect. He's buying beloved Canadian brands that almost didn't make it, and he's opening stores.
In this episode, Marc and V sit down with David, a former colleague from their Canadian Tire days, to unpack what changes when a marketer crosses over to the P&L seat. We get into why every store opening is a bigger marketing spend than any ad campaign, the P's most marketers consistently underrate, what David learned scaling Korite into China through live-streaming when North America wasn't ready for it, why he calls his stores billboards, and the metric he ignored as a CMO that he refuses to take his eyes off as a CEO.
If you've ever defended a budget, sat through a quarterly review, or wondered why a brand you loved quietly disappeared, this one's for you.
Timestamps
00:00 Cold open and intro: the Canadian retail paradox
03:34 David's origin: Hong Kong factories and a counselor who got it wrong
10:25 Canadian Tire days and the move to Mark's
15:11 Selling Korite in China: live-streaming before North America was ready
19:51 Kit & Ace's origin story and the DNA Unity Brands kept
22:32 Building the Unity Brands portfolio: Tilley, Mastermind, and operational synergy
28:02 From marketer to operator: the P&L reframe
30:23 Why every store opening is the single largest marketing spend
33:08 The P's marketers underrate: people and place
35:06 The metric David ignored as a CMO and refuses to lose as a CEO
40:34 Premium positioning and why fast fashion is fading
43:36 What the next Canadian challenger brand has to get right
46:24 Where Canadian retail is headed
About David
- David Lui, CEO, Kit & Ace; Co-founder, Unity Brands
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidymlui/
- Kit & Ace: kitandace.com
- Tilley: tilley.com
- Mastermind Toys: mastermindtoys.com
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Transcript
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SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Sleeping Barber Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: I only saw that one piece of the pie, but now I'm seeing a broader spectrum of the business. I'm like, okay, if you don't spend it, that's good. You're efficient and you're driving results. If we spend it all in marketing, I'm not gonna be able to invest in our product, invest in our price, invest in our people, get the best experience.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Sleeping Barber Podcast, a place for business leaders to get the best and most credible information on marketing, strategy, and innovation. Your hosts, Mark Finkley and Vasilis Duros, share their experiences as they gather insights from the world's leading experts.