Text: Adam McCarthy
There are plenty of reasons I would rather not love the Canada Goose Arctic Program jackets. First, the price doesn’t scrape below $500. Second, they’re everywhere. Third, the use of animal products in their jacket is questionable, at best. And yet, for those very few classmates whom I have seen sporting the red badge of Goose, I have felt an irresistible attraction. Finally, a company has created a winter jacket that actually looks good. You can go outside and not look like the Michelin Man.
For those who sport the coat, the principle reason they give for having spent so much money is because the jacket feels exactly like you think $500 should feel. In northern areas such as Canada and New England, traveling outdoors in warmth is a priority. Made in Canada, as the name implies, the company delivers on the heat: filled to the brim with Canada down, the jacket is light-weight yet extremely insulating.
The secret to Canada Goose is in the name: animals. ‘Down’ is the insulating feathers on birds that go beneath their outer feathers. A combination of this down with synthetic insulating layers, makes the jacket fit to brave the Arctic. For the hood, the company employs coyote fur that does not hold water, cannot freeze, and whose uneven hair length creates a wind-break for exposed skin. Canada Goose does not try to outdo Mother Nature in their quest for warmth, they simply borrow gratuitously from her bounty.
But what really matters about their line of jackets is their look. With a slight dent in the pocket, you can brave the winter in style. Most winter coats are about as flattering as Dad jeans; Canada Goose does not sacrifice style for warmth. The slim fit, combined with the bronze fur hood and minimal exterior design, has made it so Canada Goose has become the hottest jacket of this past winter.
The characteristic style choice of the jacket is its gleaming red patch located on the upper part of the left sleeve. The logo is the only design to interrupt the minimalist aesthetic of the jacket. I remember when my friends first pointed the phenomenon out to me.
“Those jackets man, the ones with the red patch on the arm, they’re everywhere.”
We looked out the window onto Newbury Street and within seconds the patch came into sight.
“There!”
I was amazed. They really were everywhere. And yet, we had no idea what Canada Goose even was at that point, all we knew was the patch.
Today, however, I probably wouldn’t buy one of their jackets even if I did have $500 disposable dollars lying around. The jacket says too much. The red patch, annexed by the Boston elite parading around Back Bay has morphed the jacket into a symbol of status instead of style. In the coming winters, other companies will start to capitalize on the winter jacket frenzy and the Canada Goose craze will fade into the darkness, though the red patch will continue to burn as a legacy of the Arctic Program.