The story of Eddie’s Men’s Wear starts in the winter of 1957 with the story
of Barret and Olsen — a venerable haberdashery a half-block south of Whyte Avenue on 103rd Street.

Apparently Ted Olsen used to nap in this huge armchair when sales were slow. You’d find him there alongside the cash register, snoring away. One morning they found him and he wasn’t snoring anymore — he was dead. Barret put the store up for sale a few months later, and somehow young Edward Klapstein managed to scrape together enough for a down payment. He bought them out, lock, stock, and armchair.