Canada Goose (GOOS) began trading on the NYSE on 16 March 2017

• Hot debut values Canada Goose at $2bn.
• Shares were priced at $12.78, opened for trading at $18.00, and closed 40% higher on first day of trading.
• Shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange.
• CEO and president: Dani Reiss, the grandson of company founder Sam Tick.
• The IPO raised C$340m for the company as well as shareholders Bain Capital and Mr Reiss. The company plans to use the proceeds to pay down debt.
• Fans of the trendy brand are willing to pay upwards of $1,000 for the down winter coats with coyote fur trim and a circle patch logo.
• Founded in a small warehouse in Toronto in 1957 as Metro Sportswear making outerwear such as woollen vests and snowmobile suits, Canada Goose went on to develop a parka for scientists at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station and one that was worn by the first Canadian to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• The stock sold in the IPO carries fewer voting rights than those held by existing shareholders enabling Bain Capital, which bought a majority stake in the company in 2013, to control 68 per cent of the voting rights after the IPO, while Mr Reiss holds 29 per cent.
• The IPO wasn’t large at 20 million shares, which helped create scarcity value.
• There are about 106 million shares outstanding with Bain Capital, owning more than 60%.

Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss, second from right, rang the New York Stock Exchange opening bell to mark his company’s IPO on Thursday.

Grandson of the founder’s stake is worth about $418 million

Actor Daniel Craig wearing a Canada Goose coat. 

PETA staged a protest outside the New York Stock Exchange Thursday.

       

Canada Goose has been around for six decades, but only in the past few years has it risen to trendy status, appearing on everyone from James Bond actor Daniel Craig to students at cold-locale colleges to Kate Upton on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Canada Goose shares priced at C$17 last night (the company listed shares on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange). In U.S. dollars, that's equivalent to $12.78.

Canada Goose's IPO timing was serendipitous, coming the week a surprise mid-March snowstorm blasted through the East Coast. Its debut is also two weeks after Snap Inc.'s highly anticipated IPO, which also priced above its projected range and surged in its first day of trading.

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Unusual business risk: animal-rights activists. Because Canada Goose's products include animal products including goose and duck feathers and coyote fur, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and others lament the brand's business practices.

In November, Canada Goose opened its first New York City retail store, in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood.  Protesters from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) crashed the grand opening.

Since that time, protests and marches have continued, and signs have popped up around New York that slam the company’s use of coyote fur to line its parka hoods. (“Fur trim kills.”) And PETA intends to buy $4,000

worth of shares in the company when it hits the market—the minimum number needed to attend Canada Goose shareholder meetings.