#12 | 2020 Business Excellence Award Winners Miniseries: Canada Goose

Next in our Business Excellence Awards miniseries is Canada Goose, Gold winner in the Outstanding Member category. This episode features a conversation between CCBC Vice Chair Scott Brison and Dani Reiss, President and CEO of Canada Goose, at CCBC’s AGM Business Forum in the fall of 2021. Scott and Dani cover a variety of interesting topics, including:

• Canada Goose’s Human Nature initiative and its mission to “keep the planet cold and the people on it warm.”  
• The December 2018 opening of the first Canada Goose store in China, and how the business has grown significantly despite the headwinds of bilateral relations over the past few years.
• How people-to-people ties trump politics, and the strength of the Canadian brand, in China and across the world.  
• Canada Goose’s methodical and thoughtful China entry strategy, choosing to go direct to consumer, and running China from China, with a local team which understands China better than anyone at HQ.
• How important IP protection is for a brand based on authenticity. The company tackles counterfeit product where the clothes are made and sold, by raiding locations, training border agents how to detect fake goods, and helping consumers understand how to buy authentic Canada Goose products.
• The complementary role of bricks-and-mortar retail vs online. Canada Goose had 18 stores in China at end of 2021, and in some cities, the cold rooms in their outlets help consumers experience subzero temperatures for the first time.
• Teaming up with Chinese designers for collaborations to make products that are hard to come by, using it to create more demand than supply.

 This multi-part miniseries is sponsored by SnapPay.