Fall for Local: Peregrine Supply Co. crafts grooming supplies for modern gentlemen

In anticipation of Fall For Local’s biannual pop-up market, taking place on October 22 at the Pipe Shop Building (115 Victory Ship Way, North Vancouver), we’re getting to know some of the fair’s 70-plus independent designers and small-business owners.

Today, we meet Tyler Hill, Katrina Moscato, and John McQueen, founders of Peregrine Supply Co.

Who are you

There are three of us who make up Peregrine Supply Co. There’s Tyler, our founder, product design head, and production guy. He likes backwoods camping and craft cocktails.

Katrina is our wholesale accounts manager, accountant, and executive administrator. She claims that her dog, Eddy, is the best dog that ever was, loves The Office (U.S. and U.K.), and hates driving.

John is the third member of our team and Tyler’s right-hand man. He’s been there since our inception and is always ready to help. He’s recently been placed in charge of our growing media presence, which should keep him busy!

What’s with the name

The name just kind of happened. We went through quite a few names in the early days of the company, and Peregrine was the name that stuck and fit best with the design language that we had created at the time.

We’ve since learned that the name has lots of interesting meanings—the one that sticks out the most is from the word’s Latin roots, which mean foreign traveler. We feel like this meaning has become more and more fitting as we expand across Canada and internationally.

We’ve also noticed that our products are influenced greatly by different cultural forces that we experience here in Vancouver. We like to think that when the items go abroad, they take a bit of what makes the city as vibrant and exciting as it is along with them.

Describe your craft

We handmake thoughtful and functional men’s grooming products, offer a complete line of beard-, shave-, and face-care products, and are working hard to expand this line in the coming months.

All of the ingredients that we use are naturally derived and carefully combined to create the end results that we sell. We are passionate about creating products that go beyond basic requirements and offer more to our customers than meets the eye.

An example of this is our beard oils, which have been painstakingly formulated to offer a complete care package for both the beard and the skin it underneath. This ensures that all of the user’s needs are tended to by one product.

We take pride in the fact that we are able to fit so much functionality into simple and refined products.

Business philosophy

Our business philosophy has evolved considerably over the last year, but we’ve always aimed to be the counterstatement to what we were seeing in the market when we first started.

We saw branding and attitudes that we didn't feel reflected or perpetuated healthy men’s lifestyles, let alone our own personal values. We feel that men should feel comfortable in their own skin and have that confidence rooted in a simple understanding of themselves.

We don’t subscribe to the idea that a man is dictated by how he looks or what he buys, but by how he acts and chooses to live. We saw too many brands taking advantage of and perpetuating a hypermasculine stereotype that wasn’t reflective of what we saw men to be.

Claim to fame

I’d say our Beard Box would be our claim to fame. It’s a complete beard-care kit that comes with a bar of face and beard soap, a bottle of beard oil, and a tin of our conditioning beard balm.

We are working to expand this platform with limited-editions and subscription services, and are excited to see it grow in the near future. We find that guys like the simplicity of having everything they need in one package and that it makes a great gift.

Favourite item handmade by you

This isn’t an item that’s directly related to our brand, but it’s been an ever-present companion at the various events that we’ve attended. We built a small triangular item stand, affectionately referred to as the “Triangle Stand”.

The Triangle Stand has fallen out of cars and has traveled across borders and through harsh weather conditions in several provinces. It’s stayed steady and true since it was created, and has recently been retired to live in peace. But it may still make an appearance during this year’s holiday season.

Sending local love to…

We’d like to send our local love to Cheryl and Simon of Eight-1 Apparel. They work with local artists and designers to create awesome small-run designs, and they print them on clothing made from bamboo-fibre. Their sweatshirts and joggers are our faves—it’s like wearing a hug on your legs!

Tickets to Fall For Local are $3 in advance online or $5 (cash only) at the door. For more information about the event, or to purchase tickets, click here.