3 Days in the Utah Desert With Haider Ackermann: ‘I Need This Calmness’

Ackermann acknowledges that his hiring was a surprise for Canada Goose as well. “It was quite extraordinary—the guts he had to do it,” he said of the brand’s CEO (and third-generation founding family member) Dani Reiss. Unlike Moncler and other upscale outerwear brands, Canada Goose had never made a significant fashion play, and amidst a wider luxury spending downturn, the company’s numbers have defied gravity. Investing in Ackermann was an audacious and potentially risky move. Says Reiss, “Haider brings a bold, visionary perspective to Canada Goose, one that honors our heritage and craftsmanship while authentically pushing creative boundaries.”

When I first opened my tent, I found Ackermann’s latest work hanging on a clothing rack: pieces from the Snow Goose spring-summer 2025 collection, which officially drops June 12. (He found the Snow Goose moniker in the brand’s archives from the ’70s.) There was a lightly-padded olive green down bomber with matching scanty short-shorts (leave it to Ackermann to make GORP look Antwerpian and sexy), as well as a set of oversized tees and thick sweats emblazoned with the question “can you hear the birds?” that are surely destined for Timmy’s closet. And lest you think Snow Goose would wither under high UVs, Ackermann created a lightweight parka shell, neon green and shaped with the sharpness you’d expect from the guy also helming the house of Ford. Reiss hails the sophomore collection a “striking expression of our past and our future: thoughtfully designed, globally resonant and tastefully provocative.”

Yee-haw!

Courtesy of Canada Goose

As we watched the sunset, Ackermann suggested that he’s just getting started. “I think it’s just the beginning of the story,” he said. “There’s so much we take from Canada Goose, and they have so much to take from me.” For one, there will be more trips. “Trust me, I’m not giving up on these moments. I can’t,” he said. (He’s already decided to come back to Utah at some point.)

What he’s not planning to do is turn Snow Goose into a fashion brand. “I want to respect and embrace the brand and make it wonderful,” Ackermann told me. “If it becomes a fashion brand, perhaps I’m less intrigued by it.” He has Tom Ford for that. His experience at his other job, he said, has only inspired him to make each brand “more extreme from each other.” Canada Goose, he noted with admiration, is “so functional. And when you do an evening gown for Tom Ford, it’s not functional. It’s celebrating beauty.”

Which is a long way from where he started, as an adventurist who had nonetheless eschewed Gore-Tex parkas for kaftans. What ultimately brought him to Canada Goose, he told me, was the familiar intoxicating force of the unknown: “I had never done outerwear, I had never even worn a parka before. But sometimes it’s nice to take roads that are not the most direct ones. The side roads are sometimes the most beautiful.”

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