Canada Goose teams up with Nunavut, Nunavik Inuit

This year, Canada Goose will expand a sewing material donation program to Kuujjuaq and Rankin Inlet. Since 2010, they have been donating materials to Pond Inlet and Iqaluit. (IMAGE COURTESY CANADA GOOSE)

Updated Oct. 2

What do Canada Goose and the Inuit have in common? Here’s the answer: they both make warm clothing.

And now they’ve found a way to spread that warmth.

It started in 2010, when the company invited two Pond Inlet seamstresses to its Toronto production facility to share parka-making ideas.

As the women were leaving, they noticed scraps of unused fabric, zippers and Velcro that were destined for the garbage.

The women asked if they could take the materials home, recalls Kevein Spreekmeester, the senior vice-president of marketing at Canada Goose.

“We came up with the idea that we could solve the waste problem and support the sewers of the north,” Spreekmeester said.

The company teamed up with First Air and began sending pallets of unused material to Pond Inlet and Iqaluit four times a year.

The pallets would usually go to a space at the local Northern store, where they were opened up for people to use.

And now that program is expanding to two more Inuit communities.

Canada Goose is expanding to both Kuujjuaq and Rankin Inlet.

“In my experience, I’ve seen sewers be very creative. They can cobble together products to make whatever they can for their families,” Spreekmeester said.

“This gives them a chance to use some better quality fabrics.”

Spreekmeester said the communities will set up “resource centres” at a local building, where the pallets will be delivered about four times a year for people to use.

Canada Goose will also send its iconic circular patch, which appears on its parkas and jackets, although this one includes project co-sponsor First Air’s name, as well as the term “hand-sewn” written in Inuktitut, Spreekmeester said.

Canada Goose had to cancel a launch scheduled for Kuujjuaq Oct. 1, but the company will host a public event in Rankin Inlet Oct. 3 to kick-start the project.

The launch takes place at Rankin Inlet’s community hall at 10:30 a.m, Oct. 3.