ROOTS
Roots Corporationis a Canadian publicly traded brand that sells apparel, bags, small leather goods, footwear, sportswear and home furnishings. The company was founded in 1973 by Michael Budman and Don Green in Toronto, Ontario, and in 2015, Roots was sold by Searchlight Capital Partners LP, a U.S. investment firm.
The company’s design center and leather factory are located in Toronto, Ontario. Roots reportedly employs approximately 2,000 people in Canada. Roots factories are located worldwide, with undisclosed factories at the parent company. As of May 2013, Roots operated 210 stores in Canada.
Roots began using the beaver logo in 1985 with the launch of the sports brand. The logo was designed in the 1970s and featured an illustration of Heather Cooper with the company name set in Cooper font below it, and was created by Oswald Cooper in 1919.
History
Roots was founded in 1973 by Michael Angela and Don Green as a footwear company selling negative-heeled shoes, but later expanded its offerings. In August 1973, Roots opened its first store on Yonge St. near the Rosedale subway station in Toronto. A few months later, Roots acquired the Upin and Ipin companies and opened its own leather factory. By the end of 1973, Roots had stores in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and several locations in the United States
Roots’ negative-heeled shoes competed with Kalsø Earth Shoe’s similar shoes that first entered the North American market in 1970. Experts disagree on how good negative heel shoes are for the foot.
Olympic Games
Roots contributed to the 1976 Olympics by supplying 200 quilted “Puff” boots to the Canadian team at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. [In 1988, Roots provided custom jackets for Jamaica’s Olympic bobsled team. The story is made famous by the 1993 hit movie Cool Runnings, starring John Candy in a Roots jacket. Roots designed a jacket for Norwegian skier and Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen for the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
In 1998, Roots began its official involvement in the Olympics by outfitting the Canadian team for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The most popular item in the outfit was the red “poorboy” cap (or poor boy cap) worn on the back, which was seen on celebrities such as Prince William and P. Diddy. more than 500,000.