Inside Canada Goose’s Museum-Like Waterfront Toronto Office

Business
Published 08.08.2023
Inside Canada Goose’s Museum-Like Waterfront Toronto Office

For a decade, Canada Goose had known as a sprawling manufacturing facility in north Toronto its international headquarters. During that point, the corporate grew quickly, opening over 50 retail shops, launching new classes like footwear and knitwear, and surpassing $1 billion in annual gross sales for the primary time in 2022. Even after a couple of expansions and renovations, it turned clear that they’d outgrown the place—each when it comes to house and magnificence. 

Canada Goose began exploring a transfer earlier than Covid hit, however ultimately signed a deal for 4 flooring of a shiny new downtown waterfront constructing in the summertime of 2022. CEO Dani Reiss cherished the prime location and thought the state-of-the-art, platinum LEED–licensed constructing can be extra reflective of Canada Goose’s standing as a world maker of luxurious items. Plus, it’s not removed from the corporate’s very first warehouse that Reiss’s grandfather opened greater than 65 years in the past, again when the model was known as Metro Sportswear. “It feels like a full circle moment to bring our brand back to where it all began,” says Reiss. 

Staff have been concerned within the design of the brand new house by way of surveys, focus teams and particular person conferences. After an intensive 12 months designing the workplace with Toronto-based structure and interiors agency M Moser Associates, the Canada Goose workforce lastly moved in June this 12 months. Everyone signed the surface of one of many model’s Snow Mantra parkas (allegedly the warmest winter coat on this planet) in everlasting marker to mark the event, which is able to quickly be on show on the new workplace.

Related: Inside Novartis Canada’s New Montreal HQ

The aesthetic of the house is impressed by the model’s Arctic wilderness roots with partitions printed in Northern panorama images, rugs with patterns that mimic snow-covered mountains and an illuminated ceiling within the reception space designed to appear like the Northern Lights. Creative inspiration was necessary, too: Wandering the halls, workers encounter museum shows showcasing varied components of the model’s historical past and a formidable assortment of artwork from Indigenous creators like visible artist Ningiukulu Teevee and sculptor Couzyn van Heuvelen.

Functionally, the brand new workspace facilitates collaboration. There are 52 small focus rooms (for as much as two individuals), 17 huddle rooms (for as much as 4 individuals) and a grand whole of 36 boardrooms, which may accommodate anyplace from 4 to twenty workers. With 500 employees members and counting, these areas have been a lot wanted. Plus, Canada Goose remains to be maintaining its outdated workplace, and utilizing it as one other house to design, sew and retailer their limitless collections of outerwear, attire and equipment.  

The workspace is filled with different facilities to foster well-being, like a library, nursing room and yoga house with month-to-month courses. Even so, Reiss says the situation has been his favorite a part of the workplace to this point. “It creates a different type of culture I can see people are enjoying,” he says. He notices individuals are leaving the workplace to seize lunch, commuting in collectively and taking offsite conferences now that it’s extra handy to nip out to a classy café or meet exterior model companions at their very own downtown places of work. “I feel a renewed sense of energy when I walk the floors.” 

Related: This Former Convent in Nova Scotia Is Now a Vibrant Arts Hub

One of the corporate’s targets is to be as sustainable as potential—its present motto is “keep the planet cold and the people on it warm”—and goals to attain net-zero emissions by 2025. To assist with this, the constructing’s roof is outfitted with photo voltaic panels, and cisterns gather rainwater and groundwater for reuse. Inside, fixtures are energy-efficient, from low-water bathrooms to responsive sensor lights. And the downtown location helps obtain this, too: “We wanted the space to not only have sustainable policies but to also champion a sustainable lifestyle,” says Reiss. The location scores extraordinarily excessive on all stroll, bike and transit measurements, and there’s even an on-site bike service run by the constructing that lets cyclists get common tune-ups and repairs whereas they work.

Here’s a glance inside Canada Goose’s Toronto headquarters:

The reception space contains a custom-designed illuminated overhang supposed to appear like the Northern Lights by design agency M Moser. (Photography: Canada Goose)
Each flooring has a micro-café, with espresso, tea and seating areas for when employees want a break. The firm’s principal cafeteria has the model’s core values carved into the picket slats on the ceiling. (Photography: Canada Goose)
This is the model’s showroom, which is up to date quarterly and designed to information guests and workers by way of seasonal product choices. It lets workers interact with new collections and collaborations in order that they have a tactile sense of what gadgets are hitting the cabinets. The house can be often used to host bigger conferences with model companions. (Photography: Canada Goose)
This is likely one of the huddle rooms, which may accommodate as much as 4 individuals. It comes geared up with a TV for video conferences and is designed for artistic or technique–based mostly conferences. (Photography: Canada Goose)
The acoustic panelling between desks is produced from 60 per cent recycled supplies. Staff can give you their very own hybrid work schedule—there’s no minimal variety of days per week they should be within the workplace. Desks aren’t assigned, however every division has a chosen space. (Photography: Canada Goose)
Museum-inspired shows showcase the whole lot from classic vests from the Nineteen Seventies, to the legacy of the “Big Red” parka in scientific Antarctic expeditions and a tribute to their lengthy standing partnership with non-profit conservation group, Polar Bears International. (Photography: Canada Goose)
This large-scale panorama portray by B.C. artist Rick Leong is an interpretation of an historic tree known as Coastal Tower discovered on the west coast of Vancouver Island. (Photography: Canada Goose)