About the Company
Founded by husband-wife team Arjuna Thiagarajah and Min Kang in 2010, OAK + FORT is a
Canadian minimalist fashion and
lifestyle brand. The company started in Vancouver in 2010 with one store location in Gas
Town and has since grown to 27+
locations across North America.
The OAK + FORT team comprises of over 450 employees, across its design, merchandising,
store, and other staff. The brand
produces their products overseas in South Korea, China, Vietnam and India.
A member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, OAK + FORT also runs an environmentally
conscious sub-brand Oak Refined,
in partnership with Hallotex, to manufacture products with the highest sustainable
standards, using organic farmed and
recycled materials.
Working with WFX takes efficiency to a whole new level and finding information is really streamlined and easy. It has streamlined our processes, it made us more organized, more efficient, and our communication improved hugely using it.
Julia Moldovan
Director of Production, OAK + FORT
Challenges they faced
OAK + FORT has seen very rapid growth in single a decade, growing from just one store in 2010 to running 27+ outlets as well as a strong online presence. With more stores, they needed more and more products to stock the shelves.
The team’s biggest challenge was staying track on time while still developing the highest quality products for their customers. Before WFX, there was no official system of working or managing the business at OAK + FORT. They were doing everything on spreadsheets and communicating via emails, which led to miscommunications between team members. Without any centralized system for managing their products and production schedule, it became difficult for the team to stay on track with time while developing the highest quality products for their customers.
The lack of a unified system also led to confusion about who was responsible for what tasks, which often led to delays in completing tasks. This resulted in a lot of confusion and miscommunication between departments, as well as a lot of time wasted on manually tracking product availability and inventory.
Impact after implementing WFX
Centralized access to product data has eliminated the need to toggle between documents, giving the team a single source of truth for accurate, real-time information.
WFX has brought new levels of organization and operational clarity, streamlining processes and enabling better cross-functional collaboration.
The team now creates standardized vendor packages with ease, simplifying communication and removing the need for error-prone spreadsheets.
WFX provided the infrastructure for a smooth expansion into new categories, helping the brand uphold its quality standards across apparel, accessories, and homeware.
Its cloud-based platform enables flexible access from anywhere, ensuring the team stays connected and aligned across geographies.
Built-in automations and templates have accelerated product development cycles, reducing manual work and driving faster speed-to-market.
