CANADA GOOSE opens new flagship store in Paris at Champs-Élysées

GOLDEN GOOSE has unveiled a new retail concept with the opening of its flagship on Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The location lays out a global design concept to redefine its retail stores as upscaled and immersive. The opening also sets the groundwork for a renewed push into Europe, a region chief executive officer Dani Reiss frames as both its historic base and a key growth territory.

Despite the Canadian name, “Europe is where it started for us,” Reiss told WWD, with Italy and Scandinavia early territories for its parkas. “We began building the consumer side of the brand here 20 years ago, and now it’s time to bring this luxury brand back to Europe.”

It took about 18 months to transform the 3,200-square-foot location from a former mobile phone store into an immersive, conceptual design space. The brand worked with Oslo-based architecture firm Snøhetta, best known for its modernist work on major landmark buildings such as the Beijing Library, Shanghai Grand Opera House and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Local French oak was used for the walls and fixtures, echoing the Canadian company’s sustainability commitments, while aluminum shelving has been engineered without glue for easy recycling. The space also integrates light sensors that adjust brightness according to rain or shine, a nod to the natural world that is part of the brand’s outdoor heritage.

The result is a visual and tactile contrast that recalls ice and trees, which references both the brand’s Arctic roots and its new positioning in the global luxury landscape. The flagship houses art from the company’s extensive collection in Toronto, including a stone-and-copper sculpture by Michael Belmore and an etched wall fresco by Inuit artist Ningiukulu Teevee.

Seating has gentle curving to mimic parka interior quilting, while pieces from the brand’s archives are exhibited museum-style, including a jacket designed for Canadian mountaineer Laurie Skreslet. Downstairs, a private VIC suite — the brand’s first in Europe — has been designed to support its growing clienteling program aimed at cultivating high-spending clients.

Asked about speculation regarding a potential sale by its majority shareholder Bain Capital, Reiss dismissed knowledge of any internal movement on the corporate side. “We’re not working on anything. There are no processes that I am aware of,” he said. “I can’t speak for them, but I’m not personally participating in any process…it’s not something that’s gonna be worked up at all.”

Paris is the first of two major openings for the brand, with Milan slated for the end of November. Paris now serves as its global design hub, home to creative director Haider Ackermann and more than 30 employees. While Toronto remains the base, those design teams now report into Paris.

Ackermann, who joined the brand in 2023, oversees both capsule and main-line collections, including Snow Goose, a limited series inspired by archive pieces from the company’s early years. “He went back to the archives and reengineered some of our older, more iconic pieces,” Reiss said, describing Ackermann’s aesthetic as “strategic and very particular.” A fourth Snow Goose drop is expected later this year.

Best known for its parkas, Canada Goose has broadened its offer into knitwear, fleece and sportswear, categories Reiss says are outperforming core lines. Eyewear, launched this year, has also shown strong initial results. “Our new products are growing faster than our core products, which also continue to grow,” Reiss said, with fleece products a standout.

The flagship highlights the company’s ongoing shift from wholesale to direct-to-consumer retail, a strategy that began about a decade ago. Canada Goose was a fully wholesale brand before it started online sales. Reiss said at that point he couldn’t even imagine having a store, but with one, then two, his mindset shifted. “I realized how powerful a direct relationship with customers can be,” he said.

Now about 80 percent of sales come from its DTC channels, including e-commerce and nearly 80 stores worldwide. The company does not break out online versus in-store figures, but digital remains “a very material number,” said Reiss.

Physical retail is key to the brand’s expansion strategy, however, as the best way to “feel the product.” But while some competitors have hundreds of stores, Reiss believes in quality over quantity in retail spaces. “Brands and products that succeed make people feel something,” he said. “This store is another way of doing that.”

Canada Goose has been opening about eight to 12 stores annually, and plans to keep near to that rate, though Reiss stressed that depends on securing the right locations alongside luxury peers. “We don’t force the pace,” he said. “It’s about finding the right space, where our peers are and where we want the brand to be going.”

Despite being just steps away from brands like Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton on the famed shopping street, Reiss believes the brand is complementary and not competitive with big French labels. He frames Canada Goose as less as a fashion house than a functional luxury brand.

It’s the brand’s Canadian core that separates it from traditional luxury competitors, and he would place it more along the lines of Range Rover than runway. Which means that while the brand presented the upcoming collection in its atelier during the most recent Paris Fashion Week, there are no plans for a formal show.

The Canadian approach has also exempted the brand from some of the U.S. tariffs, as the wholly-made in Canada products qualify for an exemption under the current North American trade treaty. Some products, like knitwear, are made in Europe but it has not affected pricing in the U.S.

The company reported strong first-quarter results earlier this year, with comparable store sales up year-over-year. That trajectory has continued into the second quarter, Reiss indicated. “We knew after Q1 that going into Q2 we had great momentum. Going into Q2 things were looking really good. The beginning of Q2 was really strong,” he said. Financial results will be released Nov. 6.

Alongside product diversification, Canada Goose is deepening its approach to clienteling. The VIC suite is part of a broader strategy to elevate the brand through personalization and luxury positioning. “Customer service is more important than it’s ever been,” Reiss said. “Real service is knowing what an individual wants — whether they want a full tour, a private appointment, or just to buy one thing and leave.”

“Historically we used to be known as a jacket brand, then an outerwear brand, and we are known for making the best in kind, best in class, products,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to be known as a luxury brand, but I think we’re moving out of [outerwear brand] and just becoming known as an iconic Canadian brand, period.”

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