I love mine but my daughter has one from Atrizia that is also super warm and about half the price, if you like the style.
I can only wear mine on the coldest days or I get too hot. But on even the coldest days, I can still walk to work comfortably.
There are fine equally warm alternatives that do not come with a 4 inch logo patch advertising status for the wearer, but as noted, it is all a personal preference.
I live in MN and have only heard of this brand on this site. Maybe it is an east coast thing? Anyway we are as cold as Vermont and around here we favor Lands’ End, Columbia, North Face and my current favorite, Eddie Bauer has some great, extremely warm coats. They will be on sale shortly!
Granted I am a parent not on trend with the youth, but my teens have never mentioned this brand.
Not a NE thing @chardon MN. The line at the Canada Goose store on Michigan Ave in Chicago is always out the door and I see them everywhere.
In the mountain west, typically the only people wearing CG would be tourists.
Do you NEED Canada Goose to be warm in Vermont? No, I agree that Columbia, LandsEnd and LLBean have been making quality products for many years.
I think those brands do have non-frumpy choices as well. If wanting to be warm is your first criteria. If wanting a trendy label, then maybe CG is the way to go.
Personally, I first saw the brand pop up in the NE exclusive boarding school crowd back around 2009.
Because most young people cannot afford the brand, and the few who can afford it may not want to walk around announcing “I am a plutocrat” to the rest who see mostly downward mobility compared to their parents in the future?
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/sum-small-things-inconspicuous-consumption-and-small-college-town reviews Currid-Halkett’s The Sum of Small Things which describes how the upper middle class has shifted away from conspicuous consumption to inconspicuous consumption (such as kids’ education and medical care).
More about the book:
https://elizabethcurridhalkett.com/books/sum-small-things/
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691183176/the-sum-of-small-things
https://priceschool.usc.edu/professor-currid-halketts-book-tackles-inconspicuous-consumption/
https://news.usc.edu/132926/is-conspicuous-consumption-dead-how-culture-is-becoming-the-new-commodity-to-flash/
For the most part, it isn’t the upper middle class but the top 5% spending $1K on these coats. I’m sure some seen in the wild are knock-offs.
I get cold easily and really love being able to be warm with the omni-heat feature without looking bulky. It allows to wear fewer layers.
Probably folks only know what works best for themselves by trying things in different situations, which is tough to do before purchasing.
It’s a statue symbol but tastes have moved beyond it. I looked at them out of curiousity at their nyc store and wasn’t impressed by the quality. It’s duck not goose down and relatively low fill. North Face etc makes higher quality warmer jackets. If you look at who is standing in the lines to get in to the stores that often indicates their current demographics. Go to REI for the best options.
I guess my point is that not everyone who buys CG is buying it as a status symbol. Iis that really what people think, it seems like a very snotty opinion to hold.
If you are style conscious options are limited - what you think it stylish I might think is very dowdy. If you do not have a typical american woman’s body type your options are even more limited (I personally have a lot of trouble buying eddie bauer, north face, patagonia because they fit me terribly).
My kid is in VT … No canada goose - just the warmest, mid-length northface and another puffer coat for warmer days. At certain schools. . . canadian goose is NOT popular due to feathers… and my daughter said most kids at UVM do not have them.
I’m in the country in MN and think pretty much any winter coat will do for most people that are just trying to keep warm from house to car and car to work or school. It’s January and my teen is still wearing shorts (although he does wear a winter coat as well).
When I’m outside for hours clearing the driveway and doing barn chores I put on my stylish Carhart coveralls. 
I was in Nordstrom yesterday and there was a young woman trying on the CG coats - they were locked up so a sales person had to help her by unlocking and locking each one as she tried it on! I glanced at the price tag $995!
My kids used to have multiple coats while in college and they always had one that they didn’t care if it got stolen (at parties and bars).
I have a cashmere coat that costs almost as much as a fur coat. It is completely waterproof. Most people would just think it is a simple blue dress coat, but hangs beautifully and very warm. I have never been into wearing clothes with logos, even when it comes to handbags I would just want a little logo.
CG makes nice jackets. It is a bit more expensive, but a lot of other coats cost just as much. I recently bought a S13 NYC jacket for myself for around $100 (after discount/sale). I have to say it feels just as warm with a lot of details as my more expensive down coat.
I work in an office building with lots of finance companies, and both the Canada Goose and Louis Vuitton stores are just a short walk away.
It’s usually the young professional women that have Louis Vuitton trademark color purses, and young men or women in Canada Goose. Considerably less common among the executives in these companies from what I see. Even the cashier at my favorite sandwich shop has a Canada Goose jacket and I shudder to think what she gave up to buy that.
For some reason my kids and I really like the movie National Treasure and after being at UChicago for a quarter my D was home watching it, and she burst out laughing because in his first scene Nick Cage was wearing - yep, you guessed it! How much did CG pay for that spot, I wonder.
@cshell2 we are in the Cities and the parking is so good that I don’t bother wearing a coat anymore when I go out unless it’s well below 0. Give me a comfy sweater, my Ugg slip ons and a pair of acrylic gloves and I’m set. However, in Hyde Park I drag along my Kohl’s quilted dress coat because it’s very light and can be crunched up and stuffed somewhere. If it’s super cold (say north shore) then I’ll bring along my 20 year old Land’s End down parka which is still in excellent shape. Hubby’s LLBean is even older. We’d never give those up for “fashion” but we come from the time when it was ok to look completely dorky in your winter wear when walking around campus.
I have a shearling but rarely use it. Perhaps if I lived in a windy area (such as Chicago) it’d be a different story.
Carhartt is actually a fashion choice in certain circles with $$.