Maple Leaf making tracks in Sweden
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/01/2015 (3910 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
If you are alarmed by the yellow and blue symbols that seem everywhere since the arrival of IKEA in Winnipeg, you can take comfort in the fact that a similar invasion is happening on the other side of the ocean.
The maple leaf seems everywhere in Sweden, the land that gave birth to self-assembly furniture — on boots, hats and pretty much any article of clothing you can imagine.
My daughter now proudly wears a pair of winter boots with a red maple leaf stamped on the side of the sole, purchased on our recent trip to Sweden. It’s a model known as “Brandon,” though the store clerk had no idea the name refers to a city in western Manitoba.
My older daughter, who attends university in Sweden, was browsing in a local shop this week and found a throw pillow designed to look like a letter sent by “Canada Air Mail” from Winnipeg, dated 1930.
She says the maple leaf is one of the more common — and cool — symbols you see in the country.
A lot of this is due to the success of a company called Canada Snow.
Unheard of in Canada, this firm makes footwear and outdoor clothing accessories. It’s headquartered in the sleepy west coast Swedish city of Varberg, which is much better known as a summer holiday spot for Swedes who want to lie on the beach and swim in the ocean.
Canada Snow’s designers have made good use of a map to name their shoes after various Canadian cities, from Kenora, Wawa and Surrey to Ottawa, Toronto and Halifax.
Winnipeg has its own footwear as well, a yeti boot with a maple leaf attached to the side.
A cute toque with a red maple leaf on its front goes by the name of “Hamilton.”
Canada Snow also carries a line of what it calls “curling boots” that are thick-soled and lined with lamb fur.
As you guessed, they have nothing to do with the curling we do in Manitoba, and will not be making an appearance in a curling rink here any time soon.
Perhaps the “coolest” thing about some of the Canada Snow boots is that the tread on the bottom of the soles is in a pattern of maple leafs. So while Swedes trek through winter, they leave our national symbol stamped in the snow. Take that, IKEA!