Woods History
The Woods Canada story began in 1885, when James W. Woods began to supply Canadians with canvas products, tents, sleeping bags and clothing designed for Canada’s harshest regions.
For over a 123 years, explorers, pioneers, adventurers and outdoorsmen have relied on Woods.
1885 James W. Woods began to supply canvas and canvas products to lumbermen of the Ottawa Valley area. 1895 James Woods establishes his own manufacturing facility and begins to produce his own brand of tents, sleeping bags and clothing under the Woods label. |
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| 1885 - 1900 Woods Canada provided equipment and clothing for countless Canadian pioneers and prospectors. The discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek touched off the Klondike Gold Rush. Woods products climbed the Chilkoot Pass with the pioneers in 1896. |
| 1905 Woods products sailed with Amundsen on the tiny sloop Gjöa through the Northwest Passage. |
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| 1906 - 1915 In preparation for the First Canadian Arctic Expedition (1913 - 1915), Woods designed the Arctic parka, combining outer shells of their patented Canatite® canvas with down insulation and traditional fur hoods. |
| 1916 – 2008 A century of firsts - Woods was first up Mt. Logan in 1925, first to circumnavigate North America on the St Roch in 1940, and joined Laurie Skreslet as the first Canadian to summit Everest in 1982. |