As a vast land of temperate rainforests, endless plains and redoubtable mountain ranges, it hardly comes as a surprise that Canada, the Great White North, has acted as a breeding ground of sorts for brands that consistently prioritize function over form. Borne out of necessity in combating unforgiving winter conditions, heritage brands like Viberg and Canada Goose headed the vanguard of the current corps of brands rooted in technical performance materials. Founded in 1931 and 1950 respectively, Viberg and Canada Goose initially began as workwear manufacturers — Viberg’s first boots were geared to the specifications of workers in the booming logging industry of the Pacific Northwest, and its service boots were later issued to the foot soldiers of multiple nations in WWII. Meanwhile, Canada Goose concentrated its efforts in producing heavy-duty down parkas for the likes of the Canadian Rangers, city and provincial police departments, and municipal workers from the ’70s onwards. To this day, heritage is more than a buzzword for these two brands, but informs their direction as a touchstone atop which they build product. “If you keep the core of what you make since that is your heritage, then you can focus on developing newer product for different markets,” explains Viberg’s Guy Ferguson. “My goal would be to grow out of this heritage brand concept, or workwear brand, and rather be just a boot company that makes beautiful product.”

Thus, with the language of functionality ingrained into the Canadian fashion consciousness by the old guard, the market was ripe for the introduction of the second wave of all-Canadian brands which combined form and function. Arc’teryx, founded in 1989, is certainly among the most visible with its strong international presence — products such as the Arro 22 backpack and minimalist Veilance line can be seen on the backs of nature-oriented trendsetters worldwide. Says Carl Moriarty, Arc’teryx’s design director, “Arc’teryx has always been based on the idea of building a strong visual identity and an understanding that creating an element of lust is the best way to sell new ideas … At the same time, careful attention to detail and quality of craftsmanship have generated an element of desire, which in turn has helped to convince people to adopt the many performance innovations that we’ve developed.” And as the brand has discovered, a minimalist approach to what sometimes can be a market of unwieldy-seeming product has played no small part in Arc’teryx’s worldwide success. “When Arc’teryx launched apparel it was a completely foreign expression of clean apparel design and that aesthetic can now be found around the world,” observes VP Marketing Adam Ketcheson. “More recently the fashion world has started to follow those same technical aesthetics as they follow consumers towards a more casual outdoor-influenced technical product. As a Canadian, I’m proud of the ripple effect Arc’teryx has had around the world.”

Indeed, that minimalist aesthetic has been incorporated along an increasingly lifestyle-oriented thread by younger Canadian brands, of which the more established of the crop is Vancouver’s wings+horns. Having celebrated its 10-year anniversary last year with 10 collaborations with the likes of New Balance, Viberg, Canada Goose and Vancouver-based leatherworker Ken Diamond, wings+horns strikes a decidedly spartan and monotone East-meets-West aesthetic, choosing to strip all extraneous elements to draw attention to its consistently superior materials and the Japanese-inspired construction of its products. Brand designer Tung Vo mentions, “We are putting a greater focus and effort into our outerwear in order to showcase our acute attention to fabric, fit and function. Five years from now, we’ll still be designing and creating deceivingly simple but highly considered products. Products that speak to our customer and are impactful without being loud.”

This new Canadian identity of quiet impact continues into the 2010s, most notably by Reigning Champ. Similarly founded by Craig Atkinson and the crew behind wings+horns, Reigning Champ unsurprisingly follows in the legacy of its sister brand with a restrained design language, but incorporates more of a sportswear slant with a focus on fabrics such as heavyweight fleece and ring-spun jersey. Again, Canadian sensibilities tending towards minimalism and functionality inspire and inform Reigning Champ’s products — as any Vancouver native will tell you, fashion will always take second place to functionality in a temperate rainforest. Marketing Director Doug Barber remarks, “I think Canadians have simple taste. We value quality, functionality and subtle design — characteristics in which we strive to factor into our product.”

Straying away from this minimalist, sportswear-inspired school of thought — 2,300 miles eastwards to Montreal, to be exact — is through-and-through streetwear label Raised by Wolves. As with all the brands mentioned thus far, Raised by Wolves’ products are unambiguously designed and manufactured within Canada, but it has no qualms about its strong visual identity within the world of streetwear. Founded in 2008 by Pete Williams, now editor-in-chief of street and fashion platform Highsnobiety, Raised by Wolves has found that – with the reputation of Canadian quality firmly established by its forerunners, there is indeed space within the Canadian fashion scene to negotiate worldwide trends — given the country’s entry to a certain extent on the world culture stage following the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. “Conceptually it’s about the idea of being raw, authentic, wild … Starting with what you have, where you are and not being afraid to ‘do you,’” says Williams. “At the same time, looking at other Canadian brands who really stick to the pure classics or are extremely performance-driven, I think we stand in a unique place by being a quality-driven label that still pushes the envelope out a bit visually.”