Mister Leonard was a leading Canadian women's sportswear company. It was founded in 1965, by Leonard Wasser and Sam Gertner, growing out of their previous company Pantman.[1] Mister Leonard grew to become one of the country's leading apparel manufacturers, at its prime doing 90 million plus in annual sales, and becoming the largest garment employer in the city of Toronto, Ontario.[2] The company also was amongst the first Canadian manufacturers to set up production in Hong Kong.[1] A rapidly changing economic and retail environment, coupled with founder Sam Gertner's increasing health problems in the late 20th century, put a difficult strain on the company and in 1999 Sam Gertner decided to shut down the company.
Early years
Mister Leonard evolved out of a previous partnership between Sam Gertner, Syd Stein, and Leonard Wasser in the Company Pantman. Pantman manufactured men's styled fly-front pants for women. A concept so foreign at the time that one confused model employed by the company famously zipped them up with the zipper on the back.[1]