Canada Goose coats have quickly become the latest must-have clothing for the well-off at Cornell. The coats, designed for rugged outdoors men and city-slicking, coffee-sipping hipsters alike, are lined with coyote fur and packed with goose feathers. All of the company’s winter items—jackets, parkas, vests, gloves—have a distinctive bright white, red, and blue emblem that lets passers-by know they are sporting premium, expensive clothing.
Over the past decade the Canadian-based company has increased yearly revenues from $5 million to nearly $200 million, according to Businessweek. That’s no surprise considering their best-selling item is a female jacket that costs $695.
What is surprising is that Canada Goose is owned by Bain Capital, the vilified private equity and venture capital firm 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney helped co-found. In fact, Bain acquired a majority stake in the company for an undisclosed amount exactly one year and a day ago.
One issue that plagued the Romney campaign was his tenure as founding president and CEO of Bain Capital. For his impressive work there, Romney was vilified by know-nothing academics, the drive-by media, and even fellow Republicans as a “vulture capitalist.”
Just take a look at this excerpt from a July 2012 article on The Nation by John Nichols (linked above):
Romney was a robber baron. And he continues to profit—to the tune of $230 million and counting—from the “vulture capitalism” his Republican primary opponents decried.
He helped to create Bain Capital, a private equity firm that makes its money by buying functional US manufacturing and service firms and rendering them dysfunctional. Bain guts American companies, ripping out whatever parts are profitable and then tossing the workers aside.
Bain forces cuts in wages, benefits and pensions. It outsources work. And it offshores production—harming American workers and communities and undermining American industries.
Perhaps Mr. Nichols should exit his journalist bubble and learn a little about how the real world works. Productivity gains—whether by technological innovation, outsourcing, or cost-cutting—are the sole drivers of economic growth.
Back to the point: How many Cornell students who wear Canada Goose jackets are aware of this fact? Certainly, many of them are the same students who voted (or would have voted) for Obama particularly because of Romney’s affiliation with Bain. Back in 2012, The Cornell Review did a semi-scientific poll of Cornell students asking them who they would vote for in the upcoming presidential election. Unsurprisingly, 60% said Obama while only 14% were for Romney.
By my estimates, not yet 14% of Cornell students own Canada Goose jackets, but it is certainly getting there.
