Thank you, and thank you very much for hearing us today.
Canada Goose is a 53-year-old privately held Canadian company. We made a decision decades ago to manufacture all of our product here in Canada. We have rebuilt the apparel manufacturing industry to support this growth. We now sell in over 40 countries around the world, and we have, I dare say, become an iconic heritage jacket globally.
Today we face an incredible problem with counterfeiting. The way it shows itself is twofold. One is in product coming into Canada through unprotected borders, and the other is on the Internet. The way we deal with it is in many forms. First of all, we work with the IP crime unit out of the U.K., who helps us educate border patrol throughout Europe. Working with us, they seize and destroy counterfeit product, almost at a cost-neutral position. They send us notices when they find product and we pay for the destruction of it. We can't do that here in Canada because border patrol has no ex officio rights to seize counterfeit product, and we need that support.
On the Internet, consumers in Canada are being fooled all the time. Counterfeiters steal our images, they steal our copy, they put up what we call rogue websites that mimic our website. Consumers can then go and buy jackets at seemingly a great bargain, but the jackets are, of course, counterfeit. They're mostly made in China. The jackets that are sent here and get through our unprotected borders are filled with undesirable content. We had three jackets tested at the labs at Feather Industries Canada. Two of them had absolutely no traces of down insulation in them at all. They were filled with bird parts—anything off the factory floor. They were covered in mildew, bacteria, feces, whatever they could get their hands on, and that's what's coming into Canada.
The coyote ruff that we use on our jackets is meant to protect the face from frostbite or worse. We learned that from the people of the north, that there are really only three types of fur that you should use to protect the face. Coyote, as you know, is a pest in this country. Many provinces have a bounty on coyote. They're plentiful. The way the coyote fur works is it that it creates turbulent air in front of the face and that's what protects you from frostbite. The jackets coming in as counterfeit we've had tested, and they have anything from what has been referred to as racoon dog to German shepherd—you name it. There's no control over what's coming in on these jackets.
In short, open borders means an open season on Canadians. It means that Canadians are being sold these jackets and they're being ripped off. It causes great confusion with our retailers. Our retailers are having consumers come back and say, “This isn't a real Canada Goose jacket. Can you take it back?”—our jackets all have a lifetime warranty. The retailers are saying, “This isn't even a real Canada Goose jacket”, and it's almost impossible for consumers to tell. One of the simplest steps we can take is to provide our border patrol with ex officio rights to seize and control product.
I've brought a counterfeit jacket here today, which I'd be happy to pass around, or for any of you to take home and share with your families, now that you know what's in it.