Roots Canada Ltd. (commonly called Roots) is an apparel retailer that sells clothes and accessories for women, men and children.
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History
Roots was founded in 1973 by Michael Budman and Don Green, formerly of Detroit, Michigan. The store concept was based on their experiences at a summer camp called Camp Tamakwa in Ontario’s Algonquin Park during their childhood. The company originally sold footwear at a single location in Toronto. Its first product was the Roots Negative Heel Shoe (also called the Earth Shoe). It has since expanded its line of merchandise to include items such as jackets, bags, watches, luggage, sweatshirts and fashion accessories. Recently, it became the sponsor of Flick off.
Operations
Currently headed by co-founders Michael Budman and Don Green, Roots has expanded past its origins in clothing retail and now boasts multiple product lines, including:
- Roots Genuine Leather (shoes, jackets, bags and luggage);
- Roots Athletics (sportswear);
- Roots Time (watches),
- Roots Kids and Roots Baby (children's clothing);
- Roots Yoga and
- Roots Home (leather furniture, linens, towels and accessories).
Additional products such as fragrances and luggage are also available in various stores. However, much of the above product lines are offered in the flagship stores only and several lines, such as 'Roots Kids' have been phased out or reduced in size in many stores. Roots currently has more than 2,000 employees throughout Canada. The company has stores across the country, in every province except Newfoundland & Labrador. In recent years Roots had to close down several stores reducing its presence in the marketplace. Some stores in British Columbia which included the Guildford, Coquitlam, Willowbrook, Oakridge and Nanaimo locations were also shut down. The Company is based in Toronto, Ontario and had estimated sales of about $300 million in 2003. Roots stores are also located in the United States, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea. Roots also ships orders around the world from www.roots.com, Internet Retailer estimates Roots.com's 2006 revenue at approximately $5 million.
Olympic Games
Roots is perhaps best known as the official Olympic outfitter for several countries including Canada (from 1998 to 2004), Great Britain, USA and Barbados. The 1998 Nagano Olympics was a breakthrough event for the corporation, as the 'Poorboy' hats worn by the Canadian Olympic team became a marketing phenomenon. Over 500,000 were sold in Canada in 1998 alone.[1]. Roots followed up the success of the poorboy hats with Berets for the American Olympic team in 2002, selling over a million units. [2] Roots recently ended its partnership with the Canadian Olympic team in 2004; the Hudson's Bay Company signed a deal in 2005 to become the national outfitter through the 2012 Olympics. The controversial decision was because HBC was willing to contribute a large sum to win the bid. Unfortunately because Roots is a privately held company it was unable to match the offer. Roots does remain the official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic team.[3]
