NUNAVUT - The Northern Store in Pond Inlet was the place to be June 11 when seamstresses attacked the new Canada Goose Resource Centre with the energy of 14-year-old girls at a Backstreet Boys concert.

"The ladies ran to the back," laughed Kevin Spreekmeester, vice president of marketing for Canada Goose. "But the elders went first."

Elder Inuapik Sageetok cuts the ribbon at the Canada Goose Resource Centre in the Iqaluit NorthMart on June 12. - Kassina Ryder/NNSL photo

Northern Store in Pond Inlet and NorthMart in Iqaluit have each opened a Canada Goose Resource Centre where sewers can go and pick up free sewing materials provided by all four Canada Goose companies across the country.

"We went through half of the material in one day," Spreekmeester said.

The company partnered with the North West Company and First Air to ship leftover materials to Nunavut after two Nunavummiut women visited the company in Toronto in 2007 as part of its 50th anniversary celebration, according to Canada Goose president and CEO Dani Reiss.

"From that we learned that there aren't a lot of great materials for women like them to use in the construction of their parkas," he said.

The women were sent home with leftover materials and the company looked into the possibility of shipping more leftover material to the territory. Reiss said the project will not only benefit local sewers, but it also solved an environmental issue.

"We also solved a waste problem because we're recycling stuff that we would otherwise have disposed of, that’s something we were trying to find a solution for for a while," he said. "This is a great solution because now it gets used and turns into real products and people benefit from it."

Mary Wilman was one of the first in line at the centre in Iqaluit and said she thinks the centres are a great idea.

"Any support we can get is welcome, considering the high cost of materials up here," she said. "We've been buying parkas for many years. It's a nice way for them to give back."

Jennifer Roncadin, community support and events manager for the North West Company said the Resource Centres will be open every second Saturday and will be run by community volunteers.

"They'll receive all the goods and twice a month, every other Saturday, open a Resource Centre run by a volunteer group in the community where they'll hand out supplies to anybody who comes and asks for them," she said. "Once they run out, Canada Goose will send more."

She said people will have to sign for the materials, but everything is free of charge.

"All they have to do is sign out what they've taken, and that is to keep a logbook about who has been given materials," she said.

She said the centres will also provide buttons, zippers, Velcro and other sewing materials.

Roncadin also said the North West Company could also purchase the finished products from sewers to sell in Northern Stores.

"If the stores were looking to sell it, we would help them with that as well, buy the product off of them or whatever they may need," she said.

Spreekmeester said the sewers are encouraged to sew a patch with the Canada Goose, North West Company and First Air logos on it to the finished products. Sewers can then take a picture of their creation and enter it in a draw to win a round trip ticket from First Air.

Ed Picco, First Air sales director said First Air is a corporate client of Canada Goose and he is pleased to be involved with the centres.

"We're very proud to be a part of it," he said.

Reiss said the resource centres will be open for an indeterminate amount of time, but a long-term goal is to set up more centres in more Nunavut communities.

"There is no end date," he said. "The intention is we're setting up two test stores right now. Ideally we would hope to set up more of these."