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Spoiler: There Are No Geese In This Article
The first time I saw Canada Goose was in college. I was sitting in the cafeteria, and my friend Drew said, “That’s a Canada Goose,” and I said, “No, Drew, that’s not a Canadian goose, that is a human being.”
The main topic of this Canada Goose Expedition Parka review is what happened to Canada Goose, and it’s an interesting one. The main question is what happened to Canada Goose from when they first started their company and they weren’t even called Canada Goose to now when they are like a luxury fashion icon.
We are talking about Canada Goose. There are two really fascinating things: one, hoods and what the fur is for and why fur is maybe better and will keep you warmer than synthetic. And then also there is something on this jacket that you would consider a cheap cop-out on Canada Goose, which is really fascinating, but it’s not. It’s actually much more effective than the more expensive version.
You’d assume you’re getting the best of the best down fill, but you are not. So we’ll get to that, and then finally, let’s talk about whether Canada Goose is even worth it at all, which is a little controversial topic.
Part One: How Canada Goose Became Important by Michael Kristy
Eddie Bauer is the father of down jackets because he really popularized it, but Canada Goose is the son who made the cool innovation that made the down jacket really the sole choice for any cold weather activity.
So Canada Goose has a really, really, really cool history that’s not talked about too much. I’m not a hundred percent positive about the mechanics of how Eddie Bauer stuffed their jackets with down. Still, down jackets are full of baffles that hold down from goose and duck and feathers.
I think Eddie Bauer at the time, while he was outfitting people for Everest and all these super cold locations, was packing his jackets by hand or had some machine that could just kind of drop the down into the baffles, and then they sewed it up.
Canada Goose, which at the time was called Metro Sportswear, actually invented a volume-based down-stuffing machine so it could pack way more down in the baffles than whatever method Eddie Bauer was using. So then they became really, really prominent, and the most fascinating part, which I’ll tell you in a second, they were really the kings for a while.
Everybody used them. Metro Sportswear, which is Canada Goose, then changed their name to Snow Goose. You could see the gears turning, they’re like, “Okay, something with goose.” We’ll talk about why they actually changed their name to Canada Goose because that is really important in the shift from a no-name wholesale brand that, like cops and firemen and stuff bought, to Canada Goose.
The interesting part was after Canada Goose, or Snow Goose at the time, developed their down stuffing machine, Eddie Bauer actually outsourced their down jacket production to Canada Goose, and so did L.L. Bean.
But probably the most important thing was since Snow Goose at the time had such a reputation for being the warmest jacket with no cold spots or anything, they actually were the go-to choice in the Arctic, and that is why when you think of a scientist in the Arctic, you probably think big boots, black pants, and red jackets. That red jacket is Canada Goose’s original claim to fame.
The other claim to fame I think, is Kate Upton or Kate Moss, I forget which Kate, but she’s second to the red jacket. That is their incredibly heavy expedition parka. It is literally engineered so that way you can take it off, and it will hang around you when it gets too warm in the Arctic.
So that is their no-joke parka, and that established them as this like incredibly serious brand for cold weather. They were the best of the best, and they were what the scientists used in the Arctic.
And then naturally, of course, another profession where you are sometimes outside for a very long period of time with a lot of people is Hollywood.
So Canada Goose and their warmest jackets became the kind of official down jackets of inside Hollywood – not in the movies yet, but worn by directors and actors and everything off the camera. So that’s that.
Part Two: How Canada Goose Became a Luxury Brand by Michael Kristy
Of course, what always kind of seems to happen is when there are Arctic scientists using it, really just super tough people that need to do stuff in the cold, Hollywood directors and stuff are using one product, and it then gets adapted by the luxury market.
Okay, and here is where perfect timing, or what’s that saying? Um, luck is when preparation meets skill. That’s actually not what I wanted to bring up at all. What I wanted to bring up was the fact that Canada Goose was getting adopted into the luxury market just as Dani Reiss was taking the CEO-ship of the company.
And that’s when two things happened. One, he kind of just said like, “This is getting adopted by the luxury market, so we need to really embrace that,” and his actual quote about that is – which is now why it’s called Canada Goose, Canada being very important – is “for Europeans, a Canada Goose jacket made in Canada was like a watch made in Switzerland.
Rolex is not going to move its production to China.” This led to the decision to make it Canada Goose, and part of why Canada Goose jackets are so expensive is that, for the most part, they are made exclusively in Canada. Then, kind of going off of that, Dani Reiss was really just embracing the fact that this was now a luxury brand, so he just advertised this like crazy.
Canada Goose was everywhere and now was making appearances in Hollywood films. Hollywood stars were wearing them when I went to Sundance a while ago, there were Canada Goose stations – like just advertising stations where they just had their expedition parkas out, and you could just put it on and chill and talk to everybody.
Part Three: The First Fun Fact by Michael Kristy
The best part of this Canada Goose Expedition Parka review is happening now! It’s fun fact time! The whole thing is people like fur because they say fur does not freeze and synthetic does, and we’ll get to that in a second.
Just a quick thing: I am obviously not talking about the ethics of Canada Goose and their fur production. They used to trap and kill coyotes for their fur, and now they use reclaimed fur that was already used in other garments, so make of that what you will, but this is purely the function of the fur that is on the jacket by Michael Kristy.
The main purpose of fur is when you put your hood up, the wind hits this fur first, which is great, and you think maybe from the side it’s great, but what really happens is this fur takes the air that’s coming towards your face, which would remove all the heat that the jacket is storing or that the hood is storing, and creates a barrier that, actually, instead of the wind coming and hitting you in the face, it goes around you.
I don’t know the physics of this at all, but because of fur, there is a barrier basically around your face that keeps the air still, and then all the heat that your body is generating that the jacket is capturing stays there.
This is the coolest part because not only does air coming in get deflected, but also air, hot air that would normally come out of your jacket from your face area because this is exposed also stays in better. So it doesn’t come back out, it stays there, which keeps your head way, way warmer. Isn’t that fascinating?
So the other thing about the fur hood actually is that this is not the optimal fur hood. The optimal perfect fur hood is a much, much bigger barrier of fur because the longer that barrier, apparently, the bigger the barrier in front of your face that keeps more hot air around you.
And there is one, I think it’s called the sunburst fur hood from the Inuit tribes where it’s very cold, they would have the sunburst hood, which is incredible. It’s just massive and very, very, very functional. But what people like to do is have their fur up on their hood behind their cheeks because if it’s in front of their cheeks, then they freeze the sides of it. Fascinating.
Part Four: Fun Fact Number Two by Michael Kristy
This is my favorite fact about the entire article because it deals with efficiency, and it’s just a testament to the truth that not everything is what it seems. Okay, so really quick, there’s down fill and there is down weight.
Down is the most important part of your jacket, and you’d assume when you’re getting a Canada Goose Emory Parka, for example, which is twelve hundred dollars, you assume you would be getting the best of the best, most efficient down, which is 800 fill down. You could do 900, but that is usually a laboratory down.
So you’d assume you’re getting the best of the best down fill, but you are not, and here is why – this is the coolest part ever, and it makes perfect sense. Down is not a feather, that’s not down, that is a feather.
Down is under a duck or goose’s feather, and it’s what keeps them warm. It looks like feather material that was in the shape of a ball instead of the shape of a feather, and it puffs out and it traps air very effectively. But there are different levels of quality.
There is 800, which is a very big puffball and very efficient, and then I think it goes down to 500, and that is small and not very efficient.
So the way you make up for that is if you have a 500-fill down jacket and you want it to be an equivalent warmth of an 800-fill jacket, you need to stuff a lot more 500-fill down than you would with 800. So an 800-filled down jacket can be way lighter, it can compress easier just because there’s less down in there that does the same amount of work.
So 800 is usually very fancy, 500 not, but there is a giant caveat, and that is a very important property of down is that when it gets wet, it is essentially useless because it just flattens, and then you are cold.
The big drawback with 800-fill down is that it is so big and efficient that when it gets wet, it takes a lot longer to dry and expand back out and be warm when the smaller down, the less efficient down dries much faster. So if you get wet, it is a smart idea to have a less efficient down in your jacket because it will dry out faster, puff up, and get you warmer faster.
Part Five: Is Canada Goose Worth It by You, Not Me
Is a Canada Goose jacket worth it? From a purely cost perspective, absolutely not. You can get a down jacket with the same fill with the same materials and everything like that somewhere else cheaper.
It’s made somewhere cheaper or there’s some corner cut that won’t really affect your day-to-day life, absolutely no big deal. But when you consider the fact that it’s made in Canada with all premium materials, then it changes. My favorite jacket company is also around the same price, and that’s made in Italy, it’s just not a luxury, very popular brand, so it has a little bit of a different stigma around it.
Watch This Review
My Final Thoughts (And Some Worries)
If you like a Canada Goose style and you have the money and it doesn’t matter, I think it’s totally worth it if it looks like the parka. I think if you’re going to get a Canada Goose jacket, get one with the Arctic Tech outer. It is 85 polyester, 15 cotton, which is a really cool blend mainly because it will fade a little bit and show really pretty wear over time.
I don’t think the thinner, ultra-lightweight Canada Goose jackets bring a lot of value to me. They don’t really feel like legacy jackets – like they don’t feel like you’re getting the point of a Canada Goose jacket when you get one of those.
But at the end of the day, that’s about it for my Canada Goose Expedition Parka review. Bye bye!
This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here.
The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered.
