“When people buy Canada, they buy authenticity” – Dani Reiss, Canada Goose

From my experience, the Canadian brand is very strong and I think that many Canadian companies, even ones on a global stage, especially ones on a global stage, don't leverage the power of the Canadian brand.

Goldie, thank you so much for having me on again.

It's very, very funny. I think you could just call me Denny, that would be great. But in all seriousness...

Recognition of this kind is always nice, Goldie. It's a tremendous honor to be included amongst a list of people who've been given this award over the years. Some people on this list are people I've looked up to for such a long time. It's something I never imagined would ever happen, looking back over the last 25 years. So it's a humbling experience and it says a lot about what we've been able to do and what the whole team of Canada Goose has been able to do really well.

It's a great question and it's true. I never wanted to do this. I didn't go to business school and I was going to go traveling. I took a temporary role at the company, and my parents never really wanted me to do this either, so it was really a foregone conclusion I wouldn't do this. And that worked out well. But I realized that our product was important, it was authentic. I learned from people in Northern Canada, I learned from people that I showed the product to in Europe as well. My first job was calling on northern airlines in the Canadian hierarchy, and realizing that our product actually meant a lot to them, enabled them to live their lives. It was really an authentic product, and that meant a lot to me. The authenticity behind it has a lot to do with our success. Then I saw an opportunity. I saw a product that was only known in the furthest reaches of the world, and the people who knew about it loved it. I thought, if we can get more people to know about it, then more people would love it, and we could build it into a bigger company. So what started as a really small company, less than $3 million in revenue, turned into a global luxury brand out of Canada. Canada's only real luxury brand, sold all over the world now. We went from being an industrial brand to really turning this into a consumer brand.

I'm not surprised by that, but it wasn't always that way. Made in Canada was something that, especially in Canada, many people thought Canadians don't care about made in Canada. In the early days, trying to sell Canada Goose products in Canada, going door-to-door on Queen Street, I was turned away a lot. People would tell me my stuff's too expensive, mainly because it was made in Canada. They said nobody cares about made in Canada anyway, and it was too warm. So we started selling products in Europe. When we started selling in Europe, our prices were much higher by the structure of how the sales structure worked, but the most important point was they really cared about the fact that it was made in Canada. To them, a Canada Goose jacket made in Canada is like a Swiss watch made in Switzerland. It's a quintessential Canadian product, and the place of manufacturing cannot be separated from the product itself. That is how we were seen at that point in time in that place in the world. We expanded that over time to be seen that way globally. As many companies left Canada to manufacture in other parts of the world, we decided we were going to stay made in Canada. We were small, not even working 12 months a year in the factory. We decided if we could stay made in Canada for five years while everybody else left, and if it's true that made in Canada was going to become more important in the future, then in five years we would have a massive competitive advantage because there would be nobody left making apparel or outerwear like us in Canada. It came true. It's played out exactly as advertised.

Our company, being a fast-growing entrepreneurial company, is one that is different every year. I've seen so many different generations and iterations of this company over time as we've grown from less than $3 million to well over a billion-dollar company. In the last 20 years, my job has changed so much. In the early days, I was doing cost sheets for a jacket by hand, then on Excel, and then I didn't do that anymore. I was the company's first customer service person. We've been through so many iterations. Even today at our scale and size, I always tell everybody who works at Canada Goose that things are going to change a lot. Your job will change. I warn people before they take a job at Canada Goose that this is a fast-paced, dynamic environment, and we have to be able to move with that. That's the kind of person that does well here. For me, my job has been different every year. I've had to restructure the way the executive team works many times. We just did one recently with the appointment of a president. Yes, we did.

We will always do the right thing. We always have done the right thing. That's been very important to us. It was a no-brainer for us to go and do the right thing for the country. What I learned about the country is that it's important that our country is prepared from a strategic point of view with whatever assets and capabilities it deems essential and strategic, so that should this sort of situation ever occur again, we don't find ourselves in the situation we did before. I do believe that our manufacturing infrastructure to manufacture apparel is unlike any in Canada, and I think that's a very important strategic advantage for our country. Our country needs to learn from that.

It's a very good point and it's extremely pertinent these days. Government used to be trusted and relied upon to cause change of all kinds—policy change, social change. I think people have realized the government can't do it at the speed they need to anymore, and people are relying more and more on companies to do these things. Things like sustainability, fighting climate change, social justice—those sorts of very important societal issues—companies have the ability to act quickly and make things happen much more so than governments. Governments get together and decide to cut emissions by a certain percentage in the next 10 years, and then hit half of that, meet again, argue and disagree, and have a hard time building consensus. Companies can just act and make things happen. Consumers realize the urgency of certain things in our society these days. Certainly from a sustainability point of view, Canada Goose is committed to doing that. I want us to be one of the leaders in apparel, making it not only more sustainable but very sustainable. We've pledged to be net carbon neutral by 2025, and we're going to hit that target. I think it's now the domain of companies. I don't think consumers are going to buy things from companies that are not good for the world. I don't think there's going to be a company left 20 years from now that isn't good for the world. I just don't think people are going to buy from those companies.

I know that for our business, we look at our business—we're a public company, we report in quarters, but we think in generations. We don't think in quarters. We have always tried to build and focus on building a long-term business that's good for the long term, sustainable, and going to be around for generations to come. That's the way we've always looked at our business, the way I've always made decisions. When we became a public company, I told the public markets that's the way we're going to look at this business and not make short-term decisions. This short-termism is not the way we look at our business. Hopefully our best investors understand that.

I feel very confident. Obviously there are lots of things that are uncertain for everybody—we're living in very interesting times. But with regards to our business in particular, we're optimistic about the future. Our business is doing well. We just came off a year which will be the best year we've ever had. We have strong momentum heading into next year. I'm feeling very good about the future.

I think that we are a global brand, so obviously there are macro factors that affect us. I'm optimistic by nature. I think this is where the role of government comes in. I think governments will resolve the horrible situation happening in Eastern Europe. I'm optimistic that diplomacy will resolve that. I'm optimistic that the current lockdowns in China will be resolved through political means. For us, our busy season is not right now, so we got lucky. The lockdowns in China are not having a material impact on our business at the moment. I'm optimistic that by the time it is important for us, the Chinese economy will be open and strong and continue to be one of the most important markets for our business.

I do think it's concerning, but I'm optimistic that at the end of the day, the economies of the world are too intertwined to disentangle. When you talk about reshoring, we're the original reshoring company—we've been making stuff in Canada forever. I'm not opposed to making things where they're supposed to be made. But I'm also a strong believer in globalization and global trade. I think that's imperative for all countries involved. I think the die is cast. The world's two largest economies, China and the United States, have different political systems but the same financial system, and they each need each other. You can't disaggregate them at this point in time, as much as some groups may suggest. I think it's too hard to do. There probably is a way for politicians to put together a framework that allows everybody to feel comfortable doing business together, even with different political systems. I don't think it's beneficial for the world to go back to isolationist, nationalistic ways.

Personally, I'm pro-immigration. I think it's important that Canada has a strong workforce and continues to grow. At Canada Goose, we've been training our own employees to become sewing machine operators. Many of them are new Canadians coming here as immigrants, and we're creating meaningful jobs for them, helping them and the economy. On another level, the nature of work has changed due to the pandemic. Businesses have to be open to the fact that people can do good work from home. We're looking at a hybrid model where people spend time in the office and also not in the office. I think that's a good thing; it creates a lot more flexibility. If used wisely, it can be an asset for companies.

That's a very interesting question and an interesting way of putting it. Within our own company, we have jobs that require you to be present—if you're a sewing machine operator, you have to be there; if you work security, you have to be there. Other jobs, like graphic design, you can do from home. Any time in history when there are transitions or inflection points, it can cause dislocation for a short period of time. But I think it'll work itself out. People will realize they can choose what kind of work environment they want and choose a profession accordingly. At this point, perhaps some people don't have that choice, but that's what happens when big change occurs. Like everything, this will settle itself out over time, and a new normal will emerge. I'm optimistic that new normal will be a good thing, and it has to be a sustainable thing.

It means dramatically reducing our carbon footprint, making our products sustainable. We're making great strides in changing the materials we use and the amount of carbon we emit. As I mentioned, we're committed to being net carbon neutral by 2025. That means taking lots of steps internally with our own operations and with our partners to achieve that objective. I think it's critical we achieve that objective. From a planet point of view, we have to achieve that. The majority of people realize that's an imperative right now. I don't think anybody is going to buy things from companies that aren't good for the world. Our intention is to be good for the world. We always were. We've been a purpose-driven brand since we started, and we're going to continue doing that, being good for the world, and hopefully many other companies will follow.

It sounds simple, but you've got to do what you love. Do things that you believe in. When I joined this company, one of the reasons I stayed was because it was real and authentic. I did something that meant something. I didn't know it would lead to this. I didn't set out to be here today; it kind of happened to me. Sometimes your life chooses you, you don't choose your life. The most important thing is to do something you're really passionate about and that you get enjoyment from. Today more than ever, we've learned that life is precious, the world is a very fragile place. People need to make decisions that are healthy for themselves and healthy for the world.

From my experience, the Canadian brand is very strong. I think that many Canadian companies, even ones on a global stage, especially ones on a global stage, don't leverage the power of the Canadian brand enough.

I think that when people buy Canada, they buy authenticity, they buy honesty, they buy the perception of the great expanses of wilderness and natural resources, the imagery of the North and the Northern Lights. Part of it is romanticized, part of it is goodness. There's a lot of prestige attached to being Canadian. Every time I've traveled around the world in the last 20 years, I've found that we don't leverage that enough.

Goldie, thank you so much for having me on again.