Established in 1973, Stock Jeans has been somewhat of an institution in the Canberra retail and fashion world.
I wish I knew a little bit more about the store’s history and had some pictures to post. Not even a Google search returns anything even remotely interesting about the store. It’s a shame really, given that it’s been around for such a long time. Once it’s closed, will it just fade into obscurity only to be forgotten about?
I worked for Stocks around 2000 -2001, just in a casual position, but managed to spend a great deal of my time between all the stores, even working in the warehouse in Fyshwick at one stage, unpacking and pricing about a million mohair knits that I think ended up in just about every girl in Canberra’s wardrobe.
I’m not sure how the business started up, or who actually founded it, although I do know that while I was there the business was a family owned affair, two sisters with their partners.
The store saw great success, being pretty much the only place in Canberra to shop for anything remotely cool. They’ve had stores in Manuka, Garema place, Queanbeyan and even as far as Wollongong. Chat to anyone who has grown up in Canberra and they’ll surely have some memory of shopping at Stock Jeans, buying a new pair of jeans or something fancy to wear out on the town. I can certainly remember buying Stussy pants and shorts from there and wanting desperately to own a pair Slouch jeans in some crazy colour in the early 90’s, to lusting over the newest arrivals from Fresh Jive and Lee in the late 90’s.
They underwent a branding change sometime in the late 90’s, changing the name from Stock Jeans to Stocks and refurbed a couple of the stores. This was around the time when the denim industry was particularly struggling. A lot of people were wearing to cargos and other pants with lots of toggles, pockets and zippers. Stocks noticed this, cutting down on their denim range and dropping the Jeans from their identity. I guess the thinking was that they couldn’t really be called Stock Jeans without the jeans.
I recall someone mentioning, not too long ago, that they wanted to resurrect the old branding, but unfortunately I can’t see that happening.
Stocks has always been a supporter of the local music scene, promoting and selling tickets for various events around town. A Stocks party was always a good night out, with all of the ‘beautiful’ people out in force to let their hair down. Putting on parties were something they were particularly good at, events like the parade at the Rex Hotel (I think it was called Urban Cowboys with Nik Fish being the main act), Fabriq at Questacon and the Rockstars Ball at Academy will always be remembered. There was always a massive vibe in store when something big was coming up; the music would be loud, the staff would be excited (sometimes annoying?) and everyone would come in for a ticket and a new outfit. The worst thing about this was that you’d head out and see at least 2 other people in the same T-Shirt.. the problem with being in a one store town I guess.
More recently the family sold the company and, in a sense, it hasn’t had that same vibe since. I’m sure that this isn’t the only factor for it’s closing; Canberra has grown so much in the past 10 years with more competition, especially from stores like Parliament and Globalize, have seen Stocks suffer massively. (could the GFC be at play as well??) Their stock just didn’t have the same punch that it used to. The first sign of it’s demise was that the Queanbeyan store was shut. It was never a great performer, but it did OK. (well, at least it was when I was still there). At the beginning of this year they dropped their men’s clothing range, which I feel was a bad move, but from what I’ve heard it didn’t move as fast as it should have. I haven’t really been in there since.
It’s sad to see a Canberra institution go down like this, but I guess that’s the retail world and nothing lasts forever.
I’d be interested to know if anyone else knows more about the history of the store or has any experiences they’d like to share - please feel free to leave a comment! (keep in mind that my account isn’t entirely accurate, just based on what I know)
UPDATE (22/9): Apparently when the store first opened, the owner had a friend who worked at local radio station 2CA. 2CA would lend Stocks all the new records for them to play in store. Pretty soon it became a bit of a mecca for school kids to hear all the latest music. When school would finish the kids would flock to the store and just sit around the store to get their new music fix. This would have created a pretty awesome vibe and definitely something I would have been into. God bless the 70’s.
