Outerwear from Haider Ackermann's third Snow Goose collection for Canada Goose. Ackermann’s hiring suggests the company’s intention to shift from utilitarian items to a more diverse brand.Supplied
If you waited longer than usual to finally buy a winter coat, you’re not alone. With colder weather and snowfall arriving later in the season, retailers say Canadians are putting off their parka purchases.
In the past, buying a winter parka felt inevitable. Now, uncertainty makes it feel optional – even like a gamble. With Canada’s average winter temperature warming by 3.6 C since 1948, and cold snaps becoming more unpredictable, designing and buying for the season has become more complex, forcing the outerwear market to adapt by displaying winter parkas later in the season and offering coats that work for fluctuating temperatures.
Alex Binette, a Toronto-based outerwear buyer for Harry Rosen, has seen these factors affect when stores order their coats and which styles they carry. “We typically won’t bring in parkas until November now, whereas before it seemed like people were shopping earlier, anticipating the rush and buying them even in the summer,” he said. “Now that doesn’t really happen any more.”
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Binette noted that even after Boxing Day, when sales hit and the temperature typically drops, outerwear sales fall significantly – perhaps because of post-holiday belt-tightening, he speculated, or optimistic hopes for an early spring. This shift means that customers are buying regular-price outerwear almost exclusively in November and December, putting added pressure on retailers to hit sales targets before the end of the year.
More pieces from Ackermann's third Snow Goose collection. The French fashion designer was hired as the brand's first creative director in 2024.Supplied
As the price of winter jackets – already high to begin with – has increased, much like everything else in recent years, cost plays heavily on consumers’ minds. While outerwear sales may slump after Boxing Day, Binette said that cruise and resort wear sales around the same time are high. “What we hear from our customers is: ‘I don’t want to buy a parka; I’d rather spend money on vacation,'” he said.
To adapt, Harry Rosen has leaned into hybrid styles that function as both sweaters and outerwear, which have a longer selling window, Binette said. These include pieces with down-filled fronts and knit sleeves.
Brands predominantly known for their outerwear, such as Canada Goose, Mackage and Arc’teryx, have also evolved in response.
Binette points to a bestseller from Moose Knuckles this season: a cotton fleece zip-up hoodie that isn’t weatherproof but that customers are wearing as outerwear. “Wearing a chunky, heavy-gauge sweater as outerwear is the new thing for September, October, even parts of November,” he said.
The popular cotton fleece zip-up hoodie from Moose Knuckles retails for $495.Supplied
The shift isn’t just practical, it’s psychological. Shoppers generally delay big purchases and buy more reactively, according to David Hardisty, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia.
When cold weather arrives later, consumers simply feel less urgency, he said.
“You see this with other products too, like road salt,” Hardisty said. “People don’t stock up early – they wait until the first freeze and then suddenly it’s sold out everywhere.”
People buy when they need something, he said. “So if it’s getting colder later, people naturally buy coats later.”
That dynamic favours brands offering lighter, versatile pieces that work across fluctuating temperatures. As Hardisty put it, “people focus even more on the present when the future feels uncertain.”
To weather this change in consumer mindset, brands are investing in more versatile designs. Canada Goose signalled this shift by hiring French fashion designer Haider Ackermann in 2024 as its first ever creative director, along with the recent opening of a sleek flagship store on Paris’s Champs-Élysées. A highly respected name in fashion, Ackermann’s hiring indicates the company’s intent to shift from utilitarian outerwear to a more diverse brand with fashion credibility in more categories. You can see this in their latest collection which features a variety of layers from tees to graphic hoodies and shorts.
Moose Knuckles has followed suit, this month bringing in a new creative team with experience at Stüssy, Comme des Garçons and Moncler – brands known for full collections and high design rather than single-purpose outerwear.
These moves reflect a broader industry pivot: Outerwear is no longer just extreme-cold gear, but a category that blends technical performance with fashion appeal. Montreal-based brand Kanuk exemplifies this recent trend. Once defined almost entirely by its heavy-duty winter parkas, Kanuk now offers lighter, more adaptable and more fashion-driven pieces without abandoning its cold-weather roots.
Kanuk president Elisa Dahan said the idea was to go back to the brand’s ethos of country living from its founding in 1974.
“It was rooted in leisure activities and being close to nature, a whole lifestyle as opposed to just a winter parka,” she said. The brand’s latest collections reflect that shift, with denim overshirts, jeans and chunky knits alongside its winter staples.
Current designs include jackets with zip-off sleeves, which gives the coats “more purpose and more wearability,” Dahan said.
Brands like Kanuk have to offer clothing that works across a shifting climate and appeals to a more budget- and style-conscious customer. “People want comfort, but with a good look,” Dahan said.
In Canada, a country defined by its winters, outerwear has become an uncertain market. The big parka isn’t going anywhere, but for retailers and brands alike, it’s no longer the centre of gravity. If winter ceases to arrive on time, the industry has no choice but to meet shoppers where they are: somewhere between a fleece-lined chore coat and a -30C parka, waiting for the weather to make up its mind.