PAWZ was born in the small city of Kelowna in Western Canada. Leann, the founder of PAWZ and designer of every one of its products, is not what you would consider to be the prototypical entrepreneur. “To be honest, I don’t really know what being an entrepreneur means!” she says with a laugh.

 

Leann is incredibly humble about her designs, her quality, and her business as a whole. She makes other Canadians, usually known for being “nice” and often “self-deprecating”, look like egocentric braggarts. An abstract artist in her younger years, Leann would never sign or even acknowledge her own work, preferring to avoid the limelight. Even today she prefers to stay mostly anonymous allowing her products to speak for themselves, and prefers we publicize pictures of her “babies” instead of herself.

 

Leann has always been a dog lover and avid dog owner, having had 2 to 3 Shih Tzus in her home at any one time. Over the years she’s purchased numerous articles of clothing for her fur babies.  As she continued to buy items online, she was repeatedly let down by the quality of the products she received.

 

“I was always excited when a product I purchased would arrive. Then I would open the package, and immediately be let down by either the design, the quality, or both.”

 

Until one day she decided to create the clothes for her dogs herself and so Pawz Hoodies was born.