A story spanning
over three generations

History of Crown

This has been a family operated business going on three generations. My father opened the original doors on the heels of the Korean conflict.

A couple years later we opened a new location in the heart of Inglewood on 9th Ave SE, “Calgary’s Original Main Street” and had our warehouse just down the street. And a couple years later in 1955, we closed up the shop on 9th and started using the warehouse as our storefront too. The building has changed a few times, expanding and adjoining the neighbouring lots over the years, but we’ve been here ever since.

While the basic “Surplus Business” has changed dramatically over the years, we have carefully kept pace with the times to appeal to a broad range of consumers….from the well informed collector…to someone wanting to make a fashion statement! Anyone looking Tactical and Adventure Gear should look no further! Crown can deck you out for any mission or adventure!

No question…we could probably write a best selling book about some of the fascinating people we have encountered, buying trips we have had, the wonderful (and sometimes scary) things we have discovered in storage sheds and shipments from far away lands.

Crown Surplus Stores is privileged to have been a source to the film industry over the years. We have provided uniforms, mortars, firearms, tents, torpedo, camouflage nets and assorted fabulous props and treasures to the film industry.

We hope you have enjoyed many of the feature films and T.V. series that
Crown Surplus Stores has had the pleasure to be part of listed below:

Little Big Man (1970) Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway

Superman II (1980) Christopher Reeves, Ned Beatty, Gene Hackman

Superman III (1983) Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor

Dead Bang (1989) Don Johnson

The Fourth War (1990) Roy Scheider

Unforgiven (1992) Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman

Cool Runnings (1993) John Candy

Legends of the Fall (1994) Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn

Viper (1996) TV Joe Nipote, James McCaffrey, Dorian Harewood

THE EDGE (1997) Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin

SNOW DAYS (1999) Kipp Marcus, Bernadette Peters

JACK BULL (1999) John Cusack, John Goodman

MYSTERY, ALASKA (1999) Russell Crowe, Burt Reynolds, Hank Azaria

SHANGHAI NOON (2000) Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson

ANTHRAX (2001) Cameron Daddo, Ed Begley Jr.

Texas Rangers (2001) James Van Der Beek, Ashton Kutcher, Rachael Leigh Cook

HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS (2001) TV

K19 The Widow Maker (2002) Harrison Ford, Liam Nelson

BLADE II (2002) Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson

OPEN RANGE (2003) Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Annette Bening

WORD OF HONOR (2003) TV Don Johnson, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Jesse Johnson

HELLBOY (2004) Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair

THE LAZARUS CHILD (2005) Andy Garcia, Frances O’Connor, Angela Bassett

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005) Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES (2007) Brad Pitt, Mary-Louis Parker

BURN UP (2008) Bradley Whiford, Neve Campbell

Passchendaele (2008) Paul Gross, Caroline Dhavernas, Joe Dinicol

Pet Heroes (2010) TV

Fargo (2014- Present) Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Ewan McGregor, Kirsten Dunst

Revenant (2015) Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Wynonna Earp (2016- Present) Melanie Scrofano, Shamier Anderson

Damnation (2017) Christopher Heyerdahl, Killian Scott, Sarah Jones

Plus countless numbers of smaller, independent film productions, music videos, even some wedding parties!

Some of our favorite entertainers have sprinkled Crown Surplus with their “STARDUST”. To name a few – CHER, Radiohead, Dwight Yoakam, Jan Arden, Slipknot, Erika Eleniak, Michelle Williams, Marilyn Manson, the late Heath Ledger, Tom Hardy, and Calgary's own K.D. Lang.

And all the wonderful people that work with them and around them, Thank-you for coming by.

We enjoy seeing and serving the many customers who regularly drop by our store in the trendy Inglewood Community of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Even if some of them are just coming by to say hi, trade stories or visit the “office pets”.

We are proud of our first 65 years in business and look forward to serving you for many years to come. We appreciate your business and are constantly looking for New and Old Genuine Military surplus items to keep you coming back.

Gordon Cumming, President

Our retail store

1005 11 St SE
Calgary, Alberta
Canada

Mon - Sat, 9:00am - 6:00pm
Sunday, 10am - 4pm

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