Outerwear specialist Canada Goose is bringing the heat for Spring 2015.
Known for its highly technical gear that combats some of the world’s most brutal climates, the brand is expanding its outerwear arsenal with its first-ever Spring Outdoor Performance collection. Comprised of 25 lightweight men’s and women’s pieces, this functional range introduces a new Soft Shell category intended to keep you warm and dry while in action.
The Soft Shell range features the Trenton, Moncton, and Bracebridge styles constructed with proprietary Tri-Durance SS™ material—a waterproof three-layer fabric with high-loft fleece for extra mobility and breathability. But that’s not all: The jackets also feature four-way stretch panels, recessed Lycra® stretch cuffs, and reflective tape for increased visibility. And we can’t forget to mention the set of new colorways—tundra blossom, torch, and altitude blue—which are also featured among this season’s Technical Shells and HyBridge™ Lite pieces.
Check out the men’s Spring 2015 Outdoor Performance jackets below, as well as a Q&A we conducted with Canada Goose Vice President of Design and Merchandising Spencer Orr.
Canada Goose is focusing on performance hybrid jackets (soft shells) for Spring 2015. How do you expect this category to influence the overall brand?
The launch of our Spring Collection will extend the Canada Goose experience beyond winter. Consumers will now have many options to choose from so that they can wear our products year-round, including more technical, lightweight pieces ideal for various aerobic activities. As our expertise is now extending into non-down-filled outerwear, we will be able to move into even more markets, including warm weather regions.
What will fans of Canada Goose most enjoy about the soft shell Collection?
Our soft shells use sophisticated technologies designed to protect consumers from the elements such as rain, wind or cold. The combination of our proprietary hard shell fabric with our soft shell fabric gives the collection an incomparable stretch, feel and fit while unique detailing such as reflective strips and long cuffs add to the functionality of each jacket. The collection is comprised of three tiers, allowing consumers to choose the style that fits their lifestyle – whether it’s a highly technical piece for climbing or an urban style for everyday wear.
Canada Goose is known for reliable, highly technical products that don't rely heavily on patented names for their fabric technologies. Many of your competitors rely on these names (trademarked, capitalized, vowels missing...you know the kind) to sell the overall functionality of the product. Can you talk a bit on why Canada Goose is different?
Canada Goose has a longstanding history of making authentic, functional outerwear for some of the coldest places on Earth. Our expertise in extreme weather outerwear has built us a reputation that stems from functionality. Because of that, we don’t need to rely heavily on branded fabrics because our consumers know that we are the real deal and have a long history making functional outerwear. Our branded fabrics are in place to help tell the story and describe the product, not to create marketing hype.
As the brand expands into the performance spring category, how will your marketing change or stay the same to bring in a new consumer?
We’ll continue to market our products the same way we market everything else – in an authentic way. Our product speaks for itself, and we believe that when consumers are looking to choose a Spring jacket, they will be able to rely on Canada Goose for the same functionality and quality that we provide across all of our collections. What will change is more strategic regional marketing. With our new Spring collection we have the opportunity to target new consumers in new markets, including those with warmer climates.
You are color blocking for the first time thanks to this collection. What else are you doing out-of-the box in the name of performance? Does this category allow you new freedom that you can't play with in Core or Branta?
We always put function first, regardless of the style. Our Spring collection gives us just as much flexibility and opportunity to play with functionality as our other collections. What’s unique to this collection is our foray into non-insulated pieces and the ability to play with our own proprietary fabric, like mixing our soft shell fabric with hard shell fabric, while also having fun with colour. Spring is an athletic-driven season and people are anxious to get outdoors, it’s the perfect opportunity to play with fun, bright colours and that shows in our seasonal palette.
Your current bestseller is a women's model. How do you plan to accommodate the female customer in your performance collections, especially since the "athleisure" trend is growing in today's market?
Every women’s style in our entire collection is specifically tailored to a woman’s body, and we’ve worked hard to perfect that over the years. We know that men and women are different, and so we always make subtle differences in the design because we know that you can’t just put a men’s jacket on a woman and have it function the same way. For example, in our HyBridge Collection, we’ve utilized Thermal Mapping to strategically place down where women need it most – in their shoulders.
When it comes to the “athleisure” style, our Spring collection is perfectly on trend. There are so many versatile athletic pieces that are functional and stylish. We also offer a tiered collection, so women can choose a sportier style without all the bells and whistles and still achieve that athletic look.
What would you say to the person comparing a jacket to one at a lesser price point?
Our philosophy is “function first”, so you can guarantee that any of our jackets will work for whatever activity you’re doing. Everything Canada Goose produces is best in class, and we only use the best materials: from our proprietary custom down blends to our waterproof, windproof, breathable 4-way stretch fabric, to smaller details like the placement of buttons, grab straps and zippers. And of course, we are made in Canada; every jacket is made by hand by an artisan. Together, all of these elements create a high value product at a premium price.
Eventually, how do you see Branta, HyBridge and the Core collection influencing one another?
All of our collections relate back to one another. Overall, we are “function first”, so every jacket in the collection is completely functional – whether it’s the Snow Mantra, known as the warmest jacket on Earth, or our technical shells, which are completely waterproof and durable. We also have a long history of making the best outerwear in the world, so our heritage and iconic styling can be seen throughout all the collections.
Will we ever see Canada Goose footwear?
Maybe. We’re very careful as to where we build out product extensions because we’d only make things that are best in class. We don’t want to just put a logo on everything. It has to be the best, completely functional, and authentic to our brand.
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