Canada Goose Forgoes Furs
In the past few years, puffer jackets with little blue and red arm patches have become ubiquitous. It would be hard to walk down a New York City street on a cold day without spotting Canada Goose outerwear. Now the brand—one of the pioneers in luxury winter wear—is making a huge change: they will be going fur-free.
Today, Canada Goose announced that they plan to stop purchasing fur by the end of this year and will cease manufacturing with fur by no later than the end of 2022. Though the brand offered coats without fur, many of their most popular styles included a fur-trimmed hood. Anti-fur groups have pressured the brand to stop using the material for some time, and in April 2020, Canada Goose said it would halt using new fur, switching to reclaimed fur. The brand decided to transition to an all-out ban for environmental reasons.
“The decision is driven by our purpose and our focus on sustainability and innovation,” Dani Reiss, president and chief executive officer of Canada Goose, told WWD. “We know that consumers are putting more importance on brands and their sustainability.”
“Sustainability is a huge thing and that comes through in our Humanature platform,” he continued. “Personally, I believe that companies that don’t evolve and aren’t good for the world won’t be here in 20 years. It’s incumbent on businesses to be the catalyst for that change. This is the right time for us to make this sort of transformative transition for the long term.”
Animal rights activists are praising Reiss, who transformed his grandfather's company into a global outerwear powerhouse, which expects to drive sales of more than 1 billion Canadian dollars this year.
“This is a significant step forward toward building a more humane and sustainable world,” said Barbara Cartwright, CEO of Humane Canada, per WWD. “We applaud Canada Goose’s commitment to end the use of all fur by late 2022 and the leadership position they are taking in their industry.”
Reiss noted that this change will not effect the warmth of the jackets nor the quality. He noted: “At the end of the day it’s my job, our job to make the world’s best products, the world’s warmest jackets and I know we can do that without fur.”
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