written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . july 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message roots canada ltd. type private industry retail genre clothing founded toronto ontario canada 1973 1973 founders michael budman don green headquarters toronto ontario canada number of locations 120 canadian and american stores ; 65 locations in asia area served canada united states asia products apparel leather goods active athletic wear yoga wear accessories home furnishings owner searchlight capital partners lp majority stake michael budman and don green minority stake number of employees 2 000 in canada 1 website http www.roots.com roots canada ltd. or roots is a privately held canadian brand . it sells women s men s children s and baby s apparel ; leather bags ; footwear ; active athletic wear ; small leather goods ; and home furnishings . their design centre and leather factory are in toronto ontario . roots employs 1 600 people in canada . 2 as of may 2013 roots operated 210 stores in canada the united states and asia and ships to 50 countries online . contents 1 history 2 expansion 3 olympics 4 today 5 roots and canada 6 philanthropy environmental commitment 7 in popular culture 8 notes 9 external links history edit in 1973 don green and michael budman founded roots initially a footwear company that sold the negative heel shoes before expanding their product offering . the kowalewski family and their family business the boa shoe company were the first makers of negative heel shoes which became roots defining product . roots opened its first store on yonge st. near the rosedale subway station in toronto in august 1973 . a couple of months later roots bought the upin and ipin company and opened their first leather factory . 3 by the end of the year roots had stores in toronto vancouver montreal and a few locations in the u.s. 4 expansion edit store in promenade as the demand for the negative heel shoes continued the roots factory expanded and by the fall of 1975 the factory that was making only 30 pairs of shoes a day was making more than 2 000 . 5 later that year roots decided to experiment with casual apparel . 6 by 1977 roots had expanded to 65 retail outlets across north america and europe and 250 employees . 7 roots then began the transition from making negative heel shoes to making footwear with a wedge sole and introduced classic handbags . the company began wholesaling bags footwear belts and leather jackets to canadian retailers like eaton s and holt renfrew and major u.s. retailers such as saks fifth avenue bloomingdales and nordstrom . roots continued to expand its product line by introducing roots design in 1979 their first line of men s tailored clothing . by the end of 1980 with the closing of many stores in the u.s. and europe roots began to expand in canada . the expansion ushered in the manufacturing of t shirts and sweatshirts on a small scale and the creation of the brand s label beaver canoe a joint venture canoe building operation with camp tamakwa s co founder omer stringer . clothing and outdoor items were then created under the beaver canoe brand in 1983 . two years later roots launched roots beaver athletics rba with the beaver logo and by the early nineties the logo had appeared on more than a million garments . 8 roots began to expand in asia in 1993 starting with two stores in japan where the negative heel shoes had a second life and continued to expand throughout the 1990s and early 2000s . 9 although roots stores have closed in certain areas of asia roots in taiwan and china began to expand in the 2000s . over the last few years these stores have expanded their product offering to include apparel as well as leather goods kids apparel and home furnishings . roots taiwan launched a separate website in 2011 . as of may 2013 roots had 75 retail outlets in taiwan 10 and 16 in china with plans for continued expansion . in 2001 the company was involved with the creation of a new canadian discount airline roots air which operated airbus a320 and boeing 727 200 jetliners in scheduled passenger service . however the experiment was short lived and the airline was shut down the same year . olympics edit roots contributed to the olympic games in 1976 providing 200 quilted puff boots to the canadian team 11 at the winter games in innsbruck austria . 12 in 1988 roots provided jamaica s olympic bobsled team with custom made jackets . 13 the story is made famous by the 1993 hit movie cool runnings starring john candy wearing a roots jacket . roots created a special retail collection of clothes in honour of the 1994 canadian olympic team under the banner roots salutes the canadian olympic team . roots designed a jacket for the norwegian skier and olympic gold medalist stein eriksen for the olympic games in lillehammer in 1994 . in 1998 roots began its formal olympic involvement outfitting the canadian team at the winter games in nagano japan . the outfit s most popular item was the red poorboy cap or poor boy cap worn backwards which became undetectable and were seen on celebrities such as prince william and p. diddy . 14 roots at one point sold 100 000 of these berets a day at us 19.95 a piece eventually selling over half a million . 2 roots went on to be the official outfitter for members of the canadian olympic and paralympic teams from 2000 to 2004 and was the official outfitter for the canadian speed skating team in 2006 . roots outfitted the united states olympic and paralympic teams in 2002 2004 and 2006 . other teams that roots outfitted include the british olympic team 2002 2004 and the barbados olympic team 2004 . in 2005 roots was outbid on the canadian olympic contract by hudson s bay company sold through the bay and zellers and in 2008 the usoc replaced roots with polo ralph lauren . the usoc had a disagreement with roots over the direction of the athletes uniforms but it is also suggested that roots did not want its brand to be involved with the 2008 summer olympics which saw much political controversy over human rights . 3 4 today edit roots has 120 stores in north america including five flagship stores in canada in toronto bloor st. the eaton centre and yorkdale shopping centre vancouver on robson st. and montreal centreville . though the large two story bloor st. location which was known for holding many events recently downsized to a new location on the same street . other notable locations include rosedale in toronto beverly hills in california market mall in calgary all leather store . in 2013 roots opened locations in montreal westmount niagara falls spring garden . after years of running the business together in 2014 don green and michael budman hired a president and chief operating officer wendy bennison 15 who had previously employed as vice president of mark s work warehouse . 16 in 2015 roots was sold to searchlight capital lp which now holds majority stake with michael budman and don green retaining a minority stake . 17 roots and canada edit co founders don green and michael budman were inspired by their passion for ontario s algonquin park and everything it represented for them . their goal was to translate their fondness for the canadian wilderness and sports into a line of leather products and athletic wear . the roots logo featuring the cooper font and the quintessential canadian animal the beaver was designed by two of canada s graphic designers of the 1970s heather cooper and robert burns . it was a coincidence that they came up with the beaver without any prompting from green and budman as it was also used in the logo of camp tamakwa a place which strongly influenced the roots co founders in their youth . leather goods have been at the heart of roots since the company s inception in 1973 when they began making leather shoes in toronto . the roots factory was under the direction of jan kowalewski and his four sons richard stan henry and karl . they stressed quality and canadian craftsmanship which could be seen in roots ads from 1974 and early 1975 where roots launched a continent wide advertising campaign city feet need roots created by david parry . 18 these advertisements could be seen on the ttc magazines and newspapers in north america . today the kowalewski s continue to run the factory . philanthropy environmental commitment edit the company has an environmental commitment which includes using recycled reclaimed and non toxic materials in the building of stores ; making sustainable products ; supporting environmental organizations and related projects . roots has supported environmental organizations throughout its history including the rainforest foundation ecology house waterkeeper alliance toronto green awards david suzuki foundation stop global warming fund centre for environmental education antioch new england graduate school world wildlife fund canadian wildlife federation flick off earth hour and the jane goodall institute of canada . roots has a community support program that provides assistance to charitable organizations including rethink breast cancer canadian blood services aids conference right to play free the children war child canada world vision thinkfirst canada big brothers and big sisters of canada . over the years roots has supported canadian athletes such as razor ruddock kurt browning alexandre despatie catriona le may doan eric lamaze jamie sal david pelletier ross rebagliati elvis stojko the canadian speed skating team adam van koeverden tessa virtue and scott moir . in popular culture edit in 1984 roots launched its entertainment merchandising and wholesaling division and provided goods to cast and crew of days of thunder jurassic park spider man 007 die another day iron man and the bourne ultimatum . roots also custom made orders for tv shows like the x files friends the sopranos the office saturday night live jimmy kimmel live the amazing race as well as for music celebrities like drake the weeknd u2 madonna the rolling stones and snoop lion . characters matthew vincent spano and brad berman kevin pollak in the 1993 film indian summer are based on roots founders don green and michael budman who attended camp tamakwa the camp where the movie was filmed in ontario s algonquin park . most of the apparel and bags featured in the film were made by roots . in more recent films the roots village bag was featured in the hangover 2009 while the roots messenger bag was worn by ashton kutcher in no strings attached 2011 . roots was featured in season 12 of degrassi the next generation building a replica retail store for filming . notes edit company fact sheet shaw holly sinking roots in canada financial post june 10 2011 . retrieved may 15 2013 from http business.financialpost.com 2011 06 10 sinking roots in canada ryval michael roots firmly planted toronto life mar 1977 p. 113 p. 115 toronto life march 1977 p. 115 . posner michael . happy campers toronto life october 1993 . p. 53 pevere geoff . team spirit 1998 . p. 112 . ryval 54 . pevere 114 . montreal the gazette . spreading its roots in asia . canada.com . retrieved 2015 09 16 . roots canada celebrates their 40th anniversary book vancity buzz . retrieved 2015 09 16 . limited toronto standard media company . forty years of roots . toronto standard . retrieved 2015 09 16 . aoki naomi . canadian firm goes for the gold retailer roots is hoping to build