Take a look around any subway or downtown sidewalk and you will notice a recurring logo on throngs of Toronto's men and women: a white circular patch illustrated with a glacier and emblazoned like a badge on the sleeves or chest of puffy coats.
You would be forgiven for thinking Arctic expeditioners are in town for a conference.
This puffy parka with the iconic logo is from Canada Goose, a Canadian company that has been manufacturing its down-filled coats in Toronto since 1946. The company sold more than 250,000 jackets worldwide last year, and judging by the growing number of these coats seen on our city streets, it looks like the unofficial uniform for winter in Toronto.
"I see so many of those badges," says Donnell Enns, owner of Yorkville boutique Uncle Otis, where the Canada Goose coats sold out this winter and had to be reordered several times. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around this phenomenon."
At the Queen St. W. boutique Due West, it's the same extraordinary story. Sales associate Anthony Iammarino says that in the five years since stocking Canada Goose coats, the store has sold more coats this winter than any other year.
These coats retail from $350 to $885 or more for special editions. So, why are they so popular?
"It's the warmest jacket in the world," says Dani Reiss, president and CEO of Canada Goose and the third generation of this family-owned company.
What puts Canada Goose in an elite league may be a technical marvel developed by the company. But asking Reiss to divulge it is like asking how you get the caramel in the Caramilk bar.
"We have our own proprietary blend of down – all Canadian down. It's a combination of the down, the kind of down, the blend of down, the fabrics that work together with the down, the properties of the fabric – there is a lot of technology behind it."
There has been no mass marketing campaign to explain the explosion of these coats. Reiss cites the company's reputation and word-of-mouth. One Canada Goose slogan is, "Ask anyone who knows."
So that's what we did, at last weekend's Interior Design Show at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
"It's beautiful in the functional sense and warm as hell," says Alex Gardner, who was wearing the Japanese-style Canada Goose coat he bought from Uncle Otis.
"Best money I've spent," says Maria Raco about the bomber-style jacket she wears every day.
The brand's popularity won't fade, Enns says. "There is no competition with that price point, functionality and with that quality."
It literally is the goose that laid the golden egg.
You would be forgiven for thinking Arctic expeditioners are in town for a conference.
This puffy parka with the iconic logo is from Canada Goose, a Canadian company that has been manufacturing its down-filled coats in Toronto since 1946. The company sold more than 250,000 jackets worldwide last year, and judging by the growing number of these coats seen on our city streets, it looks like the unofficial uniform for winter in Toronto.
"I see so many of those badges," says Donnell Enns, owner of Yorkville boutique Uncle Otis, where the Canada Goose coats sold out this winter and had to be reordered several times. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around this phenomenon."
At the Queen St. W. boutique Due West, it's the same extraordinary story. Sales associate Anthony Iammarino says that in the five years since stocking Canada Goose coats, the store has sold more coats this winter than any other year.
These coats retail from $350 to $885 or more for special editions. So, why are they so popular?
"It's the warmest jacket in the world," says Dani Reiss, president and CEO of Canada Goose and the third generation of this family-owned company.
What puts Canada Goose in an elite league may be a technical marvel developed by the company. But asking Reiss to divulge it is like asking how you get the caramel in the Caramilk bar.
"We have our own proprietary blend of down – all Canadian down. It's a combination of the down, the kind of down, the blend of down, the fabrics that work together with the down, the properties of the fabric – there is a lot of technology behind it."
There has been no mass marketing campaign to explain the explosion of these coats. Reiss cites the company's reputation and word-of-mouth. One Canada Goose slogan is, "Ask anyone who knows."
So that's what we did, at last weekend's Interior Design Show at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
"It's beautiful in the functional sense and warm as hell," says Alex Gardner, who was wearing the Japanese-style Canada Goose coat he bought from Uncle Otis.
"Best money I've spent," says Maria Raco about the bomber-style jacket she wears every day.
The brand's popularity won't fade, Enns says. "There is no competition with that price point, functionality and with that quality."
It literally is the goose that laid the golden egg.
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