5 Canadian Indie Brands for Functional and Fashionable Puffer Coats
Whether you’re into cold-weather activities or not, be a good winter sport in a local label creating puffy parkas that are as cozy as they are stylish.
Luxton
Canadian winters are generally long, cold, and snowy. (All positives, if you partake in winter sports, of course. And if you don’t, perhaps you enjoy dressing up for après?) With the winter outerwear options available to us these days, there’s no reason to wear a coat you don’t love. If you have your go-to wool topper covered, it might be time to add a puffer to the mix—something well-insulated, down-filled, soft, waterproof, and ready to do the heavy lifting when winter really shows off.
Here, we round up the best Canadian brands to browse for puffer coats that offer both style and substance.
This burgeoning brand is the world’s only Canadian eiderdown outerwear label, which is pretty special. Eiderdown is a rare and highly prized down collected from the nests of wild eider ducks, and it’s considered some of the warmest and softest down in existence. It’s also some of the kindest insulation, as it’s hand-collected once a year from the nests of wild migrating birds. And if you think 100 per cent sustainably harvested down can’t also be chic, you’re wrong—these investment puffers are as fashionable as they are utilitarian. The Montreal-based atelier has countless stylish silhouettes to choose from, including two belted puffers, one short and the other long, and an ankle-grazing style finished with a dry-waxed canvas—ideal for enduring an urban winter.
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Founded in 1963 in one of Canada’s coldest cities, Montreal’s Pajar has more than 60 years of experience outfitting freezing folks in functional winter gear. The history of craftsmanship runs deep for this homegrown heritage brand—founder Paul Golbert’s family’s shoemaking tradition dates back to 1926 in Paris. Five generations later, the family business continues to produce trend-savvy footwear and outerwear made with waterproof leather, high-grade insulation, and finishings handcrafted in their Montreal factory. Many Pajar puffers are stuffed with duck down, while its more slim-cut styles are filled with 3M Thinsulate Featherless, a down alternative. It’s the puffers with interesting details that grab our attention: diamond quilting, sherpa panelling, and mixed materials in eye-catching colours.
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Founded by Dinah Luxton in Toronto in 2019, Luxton endeavoured to make winter enjoyable by creating what was essentially a superwarm quilted jumpsuit. In a semi-glossy black material with high-density down stuffing, it is stylish, too. Now, the brand has extended to silhouettes like a puffer blazer and a mixed-material cropped puffer insulated with 100 per cent plant-based fill with a shell that riffs off the original jumpsuit’s diamond quilting, not to mention fresh versions of the down snowsuit, like a sleek dove-grey version.
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Rudsak was founded in 1994 by Evik Asatoorian and is still headquartered and produced in Montreal’s garment district. And while the label became famous for its sleek leather apparel and accessories, it’s Rudsak’s fashionable puffers that have our attention now. They are filled with RDS-certified ethical down engineered for a variety of warmth levels down to -30°C and offer unusual styles, such as a vintage-inspired suede aviator style with a removable shearling collar.
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The Alpenhaus brand was built in Montreal but inspired by the time that founder Alan Pivovar spent in the German alps as a child (the former graphic designer and product engineer grew up in Strasbourg, France, near the German border). With an aesthetic that combines minimalism with European playfulness such as saturated colours like royal blue and cheeky details like an oversized puffer scarf or removable sleeves, Alpenhaus puffers are eye-catching and interesting, and they are available in three warmth levels, down to -30°C. They’re sustainably minded, too—Alpenhaus puffers have an Eco-puff filling that is featherless and animal-free.
