This week, CBC News profiled Wei's Western Wear in a feature story celebrating 70 years of our family business in Red Deer, Alberta. Reporter Lina Elsaadi sat down with the Mah family to tell the story of how a young immigrant from southern China became a fixture of Alberta's western scene, and how three generations have kept his legacy standing tall.
You can read the full article on CBC.ca or watch the full CBC segment here.
From a Cobbler's Bench to a Red Deer Landmark
Wei Mah arrived in Canada from Taishan, in southern China's Guangdong province, with no English, no family waiting for him, and a single skill: he knew how to repair boots. In 1956, he opened Red Deer Shoe Renew in downtown Red Deer. That small shop is the seed of everything that followed.
His first loyal customers were RCMP members stationed in Penhold. As his brother and co-owner Chung Mah told CBC, those officers used to bring in their tall ceremonial show boots because the shafts kept flopping over. Wei engineered a fix, lining the inside of each boot with leather so the boot would stand up on its own. That's the kind of craftsmanship that built our reputation. One customer at a time, one solved problem at a time.
From shoe repair came boots. From boots came jeans. Then shirts, hats, jackets, belts, and tack. By the time the second generation took over, Wei's Western Wear had become one of the largest western wear retailers in Alberta, with two locations in Red Deer.
Three Generations, One Standard
Wei and his wife Moon raised their family in Red Deer. Every one of their children was born here. Wei also helped relatives emigrate from China and taught them the trade — his siblings and a nephew went on to open their own shops in Rocky Mountain House and Stettler.
Today the store is run by the second generation: brothers Al and Chung Mah. As Al told CBC, "Red Deer and the surrounding communities have supported us immensely. I don't see it as sacrifice, I see it as just an opportunity just to carry on his legacy."
Chung put it this way: "They did the hard work of getting everything started. We've got the easy job of just trying to maintain it. This is our way of paying back."
Marilyn Mah, also part of the second generation, captured what makes Wei's different from any chain retailer you'll ever walk into:
"We recognize families by their faces. We know their names. And not just them, but their parents and their children, their grandchildren. So we have multi-generational customers now that shop at the store for all the same reasons. Because we care."
That's not a marketing slogan. That's 70 years of showing up.
The Third Generation and a National Reach
The CBC feature also highlighted how the third generation, Marilyn's son Nathan, brought Wei's online. Today Wei's Western Wear ships to every Canadian province and territory, and to every American state. A boot Wei's grandfather hand-stitched in a Red Deer back room in the 1960s now has a digital descendant being shipped to a customer in Newfoundland, Nunavut, or New Mexico.
The store hasn't changed what made it Wei's. It's just expanded who gets to walk through the door.
The Bulldogs
If you've ever visited the store, you know Molly and Bella, our family's English bulldogs, are as much a fixture as the boot wall. The CBC piece gave them a well-earned cameo. They're working dogs, in their own way. Greeting customers is the job, and they take it seriously.
What 70 Years Actually Means
A lot of brands talk about heritage. Most of them are using the word loosely. At Wei's, it's literal: a man crossed an ocean in 1949 with nothing, learned a trade, opened a shop in 1956, served his community for decades, and passed the work and the values to his children and grandchildren. The same family. The same town. The same standard.
We're grateful CBC told the story. We're more grateful to the customers who made it worth telling.
If you want to read the full piece, it's here on CBC.ca. If you want to learn more about Wei himself, our founder's story is here. And if you want to see what 70 years of curating the best in western, work, and casual wear actually looks like, come visit the shop, online or in person at 5115 Gaetz Avenue, Red Deer.
Here's to the next 70.