Kent of Inglewood is the staple shavewear shop located on Whyte Ave. They pride themselves on making sure everyone who enters is happier on the way out than the way in, and hopefully with some of their handcrafted shaving supplies in hand.
The manager Kris Armitage graduated from the Culinary Arts Program in 2003.
What got you started with Kent of Inglewood?
Basically after 15, or so years in a kitchen, I was looking for something else to do. The company that I work for, Knife Wear, has two different brands. So we’ve got Knife Wear that does high-performance Japanese kitchen knives. Then we’ve got Kent of Inglewood, which is a shave shop.
Having a background in the kitchen led me towards the kitchen knives to start with, but I’ve been doing both ever since.
Supplied photo.
What are some challenges you’ve had to overcome in your line of work?
Learning. Learning retail, really, because that wasn’t my training. I was used to being in the back of the house in the kitchen and not having to deal with people on a regular basis.
Getting my face out in front of people and talking to people that weren’t cooks every day was probably the biggest challenge.
Basically, improving people’s day, giving them something that is going to help them take whatever mundane chore it is whether it’s, you know, shaving, having a shower or cooking, and finding them something that’s going to improve that puts a smile on my face.
How would you say NAIT impacted your life?
It was great. I really appreciated the fact that it was hands on learning. I tried to go a more academic route at university beforehand and that wasn’t really a way that I found learning works for me. Actually getting to do things with my hands every day let me know that there were different ways to learn and different ways to improve my skills.
