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ROB Magazine

Since reluctantly taking over his family's business, Dani Reiss has turned Canada Goose's cold-weather gear into a hot commodity around the globe. But how many parkas does the planet need?

In just a few years, Canada Goose Holdings CEO Dani Reiss has done a couple of things most people would have thought impossible. He's taken an image of Canada that we ourselves have long been trying to downplay—our inhospitably cold winters—and built a global luxury brand around it. In the process, he's turned the bulky, utilitarian parka into something desirable, even sexy, proudly worn by celebrities. Oh, and as a bonus, he's given Canada a quick-footed consumer goods contender on stock exchanges more accustomed to our resource sluggards. What makes all of this even more remarkable is that, initially, Reiss didn't want the job. As a student, he had no intention of keeping to the garment-industry path established by his immigrant grandfather. He imagined himself a writer and once so spurned the idea of brands that he cut the crocodiles off his Lacoste shirts. Now that he runs a $3-billion apparel company, this carefully curated history defines his own personal brand. Reiss, like Canada Goose, is considered "authentic." Arguably, the most authentic thing about him is his success.

Let's start with something philosophical. What does wearing a Canada Goose coat say about a person?
It says they want to own a best-in-class product that actually works, that is functional.

How much is it about the iconic label on the shoulder?
That has certainly helped. We're a 60-year-old family business, and I have been doing this since 1997. In that time, our logo has helped fuel the growth, without question.

You were once against the idea of applying a company's brand to your own identity. Now you're profiting from it. What changed?
Very ironic, isn't it? I didn't like brands because I thought they were about people selling more stuff. I learned when I came here that our products are amazing. Our products save people's lives. And I learned that a brand is not just a bunch of marketing. A brand is actually a reputation that is earned over time. So the story for the past 20-plus years has been turning this authentic brand, which is used by people who live and work in the coldest places on Earth, into a consumer brand.

You've talked about how hard it was initially to sell Canada Goose to stores. How did you make parkas desirable?
In Canada and the States at the time, people weren't interested. But in Europe, it made sense to them. A down-filled jacket, made in Canada—obviously, this is the real thing. So we built the business in Europe first, and we had to effectively re-import our own Canadian brand back into Canada. But we didn't have a big marketing budget. We had roughly $3 million in sales, and most of that was private-label product for other brands.

There was no cachet.
No. Except among the people who lived and worked in the coldest places on Earth. The question was, how do we get more people that don't live up north to know about it? So we tried hard to partner with people who were going on expeditions, who were going to be on TV, wearing our products. Doing that year after year helped build up the knowledge in the mainstream.

At a certain point, you got bouncers and scalpers and film crews to wear the coats. When did that happen?
Film crews have been using our products for decades. Even before me. I think being used on camera was a result of being used behind the scenes. Stylists, wardrobe people, directors wanted their films to look authentic.

And the bouncers and scalpers?
That was tactical. We started doing that in Scandinavia and Toronto. Scalpers, bouncers, nightclubs—these are influencers, right? I remember going to the Guvernment nightclub in Toronto back in the day. I would walk up to the main guys and say, "Hey, man. You look cold. I can help you with that." We made sure they were warm. Same thing with people selling tickets outside the Air Canada Centre.

It was a big moment for you and Canada Goose in 2013 when Kate Upton wore one of the coats on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Were there other moments?
The Danish princess bought her boyfriend one of our vests, and that was in a tabloid. In that market, that was big. The Sports Illustrated thing, what I love about that is, it was authentic. Sports Illustrated was shooting the first ever fashion shoot in Antarctica, and they wanted to use our gear, not for the cover, but because it's cold in Antarctica.

Did you know prior to it appearing on newsstands that it was coming?
A few days ahead of time, the cover was leaked. It was a Sunday morning, and I turned on my laptop and Googled the thing, and I saw the front cover and I was like, "Oh my God!" Then I was a little disappointed that you couldn't see our logo. You could only see a little red outline. And then I realized—to this day, I am thankful you can't see our logo, because if you could have seen our logo, people would have thought we'd paid for it. And authenticity is everything to us.

How involved was your father in this process? Did he just hand over everything when you became CEO?
When I got involved in 1997, I was not intending to stay. At some point I said to him, "Look, I see something here. I am willing to do this. It's going to be different than what you've been doing. So it's up to you whether you're going to let me do this or not."

You decided, "If I'm going to be here, I've got to be the guy making the decisions."
I had a vision for how to take this great brand and bring it into urban centres around the world. But it involved a different way of doing things. In any family business, the tension is always between keeping good family relationships and working together. My father, to his great credit, was able to say, "Go for it."

Brands come and go. How do you ensure lasting popularity?
The high-level answer to that is proper brand management. We are not a fashion brand; we are a function-first company. We have to make sure every product we make is the best-in-class product. Other companies in the past have made mistakes—making the wrong product, signing multiple licensing deals, deciding to make "stuff." We don't put logos on "stuff." We are not rushing to make new things just so we can sell more stuff.

You've gone from making something like 15,000 coats a year to a million. How have you managed that?
One of the things we do really well is build capacity in Canada. Scaling is hard. There were years when we got orders that exceeded our ability and we tried to make them anyway. We shipped stuff late, or we shipped the wrong stuff. We had lots of growing pains.

What is the value of the "Made in Canada" label?
Massively valuable. I would go to Japan, Germany, Switzerland, and people would tell me, "The fact that you're made in Canada, that's why we like you. Because you are real." At the time, factories were shutting down, everybody was going offshore with their garment production. I perceived a movement starting that would eventually become much bigger—people's willingness to pay more money for luxury premium outerwear. Back in the day, I would go into a store in New York and they'd say, "I love your stuff, but it's too expensive." I'd say, "I'm sorry, I can't make it cheaper, 'cause I make it in Canada." But eventually people started to want investment clothing.

As you expand, is this high-cost, high-quality business plan sustainable?
I think it's very sustainable. There is a lot of runway for growth.

What is your strategy in China?
We're working it out right now. We have an opportunity in China to do things a little bit differently than we have done it elsewhere.

In 2013, you needed an investor and you went to Bain Capital. Why give them a majority share?
It wasn't necessary. It was a choice. We were growing so fast that we needed more equity in the business. We ranked all of the different folks and felt Bain was the best. My management team did not know they were a majority bid. I very strongly felt that they would give us the autonomy. They believed in all the things we believed in. Lots of people didn't.

Was it their expectation that pushed you to go public?
No, it was a joint decision, and we operate as equal partners.

Being public makes its own demands on image. The criticism about things like the use of coyote fur and steel traps—do you have to take that into consideration in a different way?
We have dealt with this issue for a long time. There are people who don't believe animal products should be used for anything, including food. What is important is that all the raw materials we use are sourced responsibly. We have an industry-leading traceability program with regards to our fur, which is wild. It's not farmed.

Are you more sensitive about this issue now? I'm told there was to be a photo shoot with you in a hood with fur and you nixed it.
I have done a bunch of photo shoots in a fur hood, and I have hated every single one of them, so I just don't do them. I have no objection to being photographed in any way, but the fur hood thing, I think it's a vanity thing.

You're opening your own stores now—20 or so in the next few years. Why?
I wish I had done it sooner. Stores are a place where we can interact with our consumers, and they can see Canada Goose through our lens. Our retailers will continue to be an important part of our strategy, but being able to create our own environment is really important.

I notice you're wearing your Order of Canada pin. You're awfully young to have that honour. Where do you go from there?
When people around the world think of Canada, I want them to think Canada Goose. That would be success. It's not a financial metric—it's an emotional metric. There's not a lot of brands that are emblematic of their country. That's what I always wanted Canada Goose to be. And I still do. I think we have a long way to go.