John Pomer Menswear

Our Story

Our story began in the late 1940s, at the northwest of corner Dundas and Bathurst, where John Pomer opened his first BiRite location. He slowly refined his selection from workwear, footwear and camping gear to dress oriented menswear. John had a saying, ‘Quality clothing at Popular prices’, which we still stand by today.

Over the years he expanded to a small chain of stores, catering to Toronto’s new Canadians, as the city grew and the population changed. Birite has called many historic neighbourhoods of Toronto its home, setting up shop in the Junction, Little Italy, Oakwood Village, Leaside, Parkdale, Bloor & Ossington, Mimico and Etobicoke.

As the city grew, gentrification shifted his business from street front neighbourhood locations to newly developed suburban community shopping centres, including London, Niagara, Hamilton, St Catharine's, Barrie, Scarborough, Pickering, Oshawa and Peterborough. It was at this time that son Henry assumed more responsibility for day to day operations.

Peaking in size at 25 stores by the early 90’s, John and Henry along with many other independent retailers battled the arrival of Big Box stores. Upon John’s passing in1994, Henry realized that in order to survive, the business had to grow smaller. Entering the 21st century and a new, changing economy he persevered to thrive within the local community shopping centres while practicing the same beliefs as first instilled by his father, to treat every customer as if they are your best customer.

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