On November 1, 2014, we had a foot of snow.
A few weeks later, we had another foot of snow.
This past week, we were in Georgia, conducting a training, and it was 72 degrees, while the kids were home, with school canceled due to yet another Fall snow storm. The morning after getting home, it was a balmy 7 degrees F for us.
Ugh!
Canada Goose makes high quality warm jackets. They are made in Canada, since the 1950's, with the exception of their gloves, which are made in China. The parkas are expensive, but customers claim that they are not only warm, without the constant losing of down feathers after a few seasons. Even used, they are costly.
A few years ago, the price increased dramatically after a movie showed a star wearing one, and they became a status symbol in Canada.
Like many status symbols, a "anti-establishment" backlash developed where it was no longer vogue to have a Canada Goose.
Like many swings of a pendulum, equilibrium prevailed and people went back to not hating Canada Goose because the jackets, albeit expensive, were still warm and long-lasting due to the high quality of the product.
Canada Goose has fought a fierce battle against "knock offs", particularly, in China, where instead of down feathers, knock offs were found to have newspaper clippings, and worse, chicken feathers, which could cause disease. Lawsuit after lawsuit, Canada Goose has spent a fortune in legal battles. If you search "Canada Goose" on Ebay, note how many are advertised as "100% authentic", "genuine" and even at times, "110% authentic"!
Canada Goose had to make a specific design label to help customers discern between the fakes and the real thing. A short search on "cheap Canada Goose" will reveal a host of knock off websites. It is an expensive battle for them. As Martin Guitar learned, painfully, the government and courts of China will not afford them any protection from intellectual theft.
Last year, Canada Goose sold a majority of its business to Bain Capital. Since CG employs approximately 1000 employees in Canada, and since labor costs are extremely lower in China, and since Bain Capital has a reputation for outsourcing, Canadians wanted to know if the iconic Canada Goose parka would be produced in...
some place other than Canada.
The CEO made a statement.
“Made in Canada is extremely important, and extremely important to Canada Goose, and we’ve chosen partners to whom it is also extremely important to,” Mr. Reiss said in an interview. “And I have no expectation that that’s going to change. If I thought that it was going to change, I would not have done this deal.”
If you believe that public backlash will keep Canada Goose productions in Canada permanently, please remember that once-upon-a-time, Canada sold its most prized asset, Wayne Gretzky, to La La Land, US of A.
What do you make of this statement? Thus far, the parka continues to be made in Canada, but now the hats are manufactured in China.
Principle: anything that is repeated is important.
Principle: the need to persuade weakens an assertion
Principle: that which is in the negative is always important
Principle: the word "this" indicates closeness, while the word "that" indicates distance
Principle: allowing for the possibility, within speech, contrary to the assertion, is also weak
Here is the statement again:
“Made in Canada is extremely important, and extremely important to Canada Goose, and we’ve chosen partners to whom it is also extremely important to,” Mr. Reiss said in an interview. “And I have no expectation that that’s going to change. If I thought that it was going to change, I would not have done this deal.”
This statement came in December of 2013 and the parkas are still made in Canada. Will it remain this way?
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