By now you have no doubt heard about Canada Goose’s decision to discontinue their use of ‘virgin’ coyote fur for their parka ruffs. CG was a huge player in the expedition parka fashion wave that drove the price of western heavy coyote pelts sky high. The company has decided to use only recycled fur ruffs in coats starting in 2022.
Trapping Today podcast listener Kevin from North Carolina put together these charts to help us understand the impact of CG on coyote prices in today’s fur market. The first chart shows the trend in interest in Canada Goose over the past several years, and the second shows the change in coyote pelt prices since CG entered the market. Some commentary from Kevin on the fur market is included below. Thanks to Kevin for putting this together, great work!
Here are two charts which you are welcome to share or post, one is the average price of Western heavy (and occasionally semi-heavy lumped in) and clearance for FHA. One technical note is I put “20%” when FHA said “minimal clearance” just as a guestimate. I put a blue arrow when the CG fad really started. I chose 2013 because that is when Bain Capital basically took over CG and, as you can see from the Google Trends search attached, you see the first seasonal spike in interest.
My take is that high quality coyote is not dependent on CG, but there is probably a 25%-30% average price boost that could go away. There are probably more knock-off parkas now than CG parkas and these aren’t going to switch to “recycled.” CG was always a fad and like beanie babies and pogs it was going to go away.
Long term, I’m bullish on fur though admit there is going to be a lot of short term pain. But fur use is going to look a lot different than from high fashion in NYC. Think more local, sustainable, DIY use.
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