How Canada Goose, the king of all parka companies, makes one of its coats

Walk down any Toronto street between October and April and you’ll spot about 20 zillion down-filled parkas stamped with the unmistakable Canada Goose logo. At the company’s 90,000-square-foot headquarters uptown, 300 workers spend their days designing, cutting, sewing, stuffing and cleaning the ubiquitous coats. We followed the Langford jacket, a cozy men’s parka, on its journey across the factory floor. Here’s a peek at the process.

The company’s global headquarters is located at 250 Bowie Avenue, just north of Eglinton West and Caledonia.

The brand’s latest looks are displayed in a showroom inside the main entrance.

In the product development department, designers dream up concepts for each coat. The line drawings are turned into patterns, which are copied onto large pieces of paper. Once completed, they’re rolled up and sent out to the factory floor.

Bolts of fabric are stored in rows along the factory floor.

At the spreading stage, up to 60 layers of fabric are laid out on a long table. The pattern for the coat is placed on top. The tables are fitted with suction holes that keep the fabric from bunching up.

It takes about 24 minutes for a laser Gerbercutter from Germany to slice through all the fabric layers. (The equivalent of 120 jackets can be cut in a single session.)

Once the pieces are cut, they’re bundled and distributed to different production lines.

The Canada Goose badge is attached to a separate piece of fabric using a specially designed sewing machine.

The factory floor is divided into sections, each responsible for assembling a different piece of the parka. The coat travels from section to section until the production cycle is complete.

Workers sew a lining into the coat, leaving a hole where stuffing will later be inserted.

In the stuffing room, each section of the coat is pumped with down.

Canada Goose sources its duck and goose down from the Toronto-based company Feather Industry. Four blends are used, all of which incorporate high-quality Hutterite down.

Once all the coat’s panels are stuffed, they’re sent back to the factory floor to be pieced together. Workers use a quilting technique to ensure the down doesn’t shift around inside the jacket.

Once the lining has been assembled, it’s sewn into the outer shell.

In the finishing department, coyote-fur trim is added to the coat’s hood.

The last step? Cleaning. Loose strings are snipped and coats are blasted with air guns to get rid of any dust. Once that’s done, they’re ready to sell.

On the left, a finished Langford parka. It retails for $825.