*Yorkdale store. Rendering via Canada Goose*

Popular Canadian cold weather outerwear brand Canada Goose will open its first permanent freestanding store in October at Toronto's Yorkdale Shopping Centre. The Toronto store will be one of two initially for the brand, with another location set to open in New York City's Soho area in November.

Canada Goose will occupy almost 4,500 square feet at Yorkdale's new Nordstrom wing, which is scheduled to open on October 18 of this year. Nordstrom, itself, is scheduled to open on October 21, with an in-store charity gala to be held two days prior.

Canada Goose will be located next to Nordstrom's mall entrance in the expansion wing, as per the lease planS below, via Oxford Properties.

Yorkdale's Canada Goose store will join a number of other recently revealed retailers for the 300,000 square foot, $331 million expansion wing. Japanese retailer Uniqlo will occupy about 24,000 square feet at the north end of the new wing, alongside locations for Muji, Mackage, Strellson, Wolford and others.

Farla Efros, President of leading retail consultancy HRC Advisory, praised the new store location but cautioned about potential brand over-saturation. "Clearly Yorkdale continues to amaze with the lineup of new stores, and they keep coming" she said, noting that Canada Goose's location in the mall is strategic, given its proximity to Nordstrom which is expected to drive considerable traffic. She noted that Canada Goose owner Bain & Company has grown and differentiated the Canada Goose brand through capital investment, carving out a niche both in Canada as well as internationally. Ms Efros noted that the new store might best serve Canada Goose as a marketing and testing tool for the brand -- though unless product is somehow differentiated from wholesale accounts, Canada Goose could risk saturating/cannibalizing its own sales, particularly as it's also carried at nearby retailers such as Holt Renfrew, Harry Rosen and possibly Nordstrom when it opens at Yorkdale this fall.

Toronto-based Style Democracy first reported in February that according to one of its tipsters, Canada Goose will open at Toronto's Yorkdale Shopping Centre. They confirmed the tip via an application to the city of Toronto. We were asked not to report on the matter at the time, though it now appears to be public information as Canada Goose provided an interview to the Globe & Mail and Women's Wear Daily on the new Toronto store. According to the Globe article, more locations could follow in markets "where there are large concentrations of Canada Goose fans", according to CEO Dani Reiss.

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: May 26, 2016