Casey Richardson

Penticton is home to a new clothing, accessories and home goods store with a unique on products that are sustainable, Canadian brands, with ethical manufacturing.

Husband and wife team Bryan and Susie Gay opened Slow Current in June, after years of having a vision for their own store.

Gay said the name, emphasizes slow which is for a “slow fashion” and current as the “connection of currents bring nutrients all through different sea life and various areas of the ocean.”

“And that’s we want to create that connection in the supply chain and connection with consumer to the purchaser or consumer to maker,” she added.

Gay has a background in graphic and apparel design and has owned and operated multiple local businesses in the past with her husband.

She said the jumping-in point came when she was in a mountain bike accident in the summer of 2022 that forced her to take a break and examine where she wanted to go next.

The store carries brands that give back to environmental and socio-political causes, including helping farmers regenerate their fields through organic practices, making swimwear from recycled ocean plastic waste or even supporting women’s freedom from human trafficking, slavery, and poverty through self-sustaining jobs.

Finding ethical and sustainable brands was important to the duo as they work in trying to live their life that way.

“We’re not always perfect. But I just feel like there are so many great reasons, obviously. There are so many great brands and that’s what I was finding is you’re not sacrificing by choosing something that’s ethically made [and] sustainable. It’s almost [as if] you’re getting more, right? You’re getting quality, you’re getting a story,” Gay said.

“We have young kids and so we’re conscious of the planet and leaving it as good as we can.”

The two started the store because they saw a need for it in the South Okanagan community.

“I think especially [with] the next generation is becoming, I think, really conscious of that. And I think through COVID, people became a little bit more conscious in their consumerism,” Susie added.

“People are becoming a bit more conscious and one of our goals was an effort towards sustainability at an attainable price point. We wanted to make it so it was easy to make that choice for kind of a more conscious product.”

Many of their brands are also female-owned or Indigenous-owned as well.

So far, Gay said the community has been welcoming and very receptive to their store opening.

More information online here.