Every holiday season, Canadian families spend thousands of dollars on gifts, like clothing. But these days, how often do those fancy dresses or tailored pants have a patch saying made in Canada?
One Uptown Waterloo shop is dedicated to supporting local labels. When much of what we wear is mass produced overseas, selling higher priced, Canadian-made brands may sound like a risky affair.
Alnoor Keshvani, who owns Waterloo's Loop clothing it's a business philosophy that sells.
“I think in this day and age a lot of people are willing to spend a little bit more to support their community in order to shop local” says Keshvani.
Whether its winter coats made in Toronto or backpacks from Vancouver, Keshvani says there's a sizeable clientele, craving Canadian. Quite the surprise, when you look at just how much of our clothing supply is foreign-made.
In 1992 Canada imported $111 million dollars worth of clothing from India. By 2004, that number increased to 400 million dollars. In the same time frame imports of Chinese clothing went from $571 million dollars to $2.3 billion dollars.
One-hundred twenty dollars for a sweater may seem steep, but customers like Nathan Beers say what you get your money's worth in quality and craftsmanship.
“The clothes I’ve never had anything wrong with them, everything's turned out the way I’ve liked it, so everything's good” says customer, Nathan Beers.
If quality is one side of the coin, original design is the other. For Cristian Hurtado, there's nothing quite like a pair of jeans made in Montréal, using denim from Japan.
“I just notice that the quality and the detail was really really really nice. So I figured I should get a pair.”
In the lead up to Christmas, Keshvani says he's found shoppers are willing to invest for things that last.
“Looking at the way stuff is produced today I think the only way we can compete in Canada is based on quality and not quantity.”
