The news: Ralph Lauren and Canada Goose defied the luxury downturn in Q1, a positive sign for an industry struggling with depressed consumer sentiment and tariffs.

• Ralph Lauren’s revenues rose 8% YoY to $1.7 billion, ahead of FactSet’s $1.65 billion estimate.
• Canada Goose’s revenues grew 7.4% to $384.6 million—a welcome surprise for analysts, who were expecting a slight drop.

How we got here: The companies’ strong performance reflects the steps both have taken to make their brand more appealing to consumers.

• Canada Goose has expanded its product range, improved the in-store experience, and invested in upper-funnel campaigns to build brand awareness.
• Ralph Lauren has been moving upmarket, which is attracting less cost-sensitive shoppers who are more likely to pay full price. At the same time, the company’s tiered brand structure allows shoppers who are priced out of its top-tier labels to still engage with its more affordable Polo and Lauren brands—or, at the very least, get a pick-me-up from Ralph’s Coffee.

That brand strength is giving both companies confidence to raise prices.

• Ralph Lauren could hike prices more than it initially planned to offset tariffs, even as it cuts back on discounts.
• Canada Goose is planning “modest increases” on carryover items as well as “more strategic pricing” on new releases.

The headwinds: Canada Goose and Ralph Lauren share another advantage: They are less exposed to tariffs than luxury peers. For Canada Goose, that’s because three-quarters of its products are made in Canada and comply with the USMCA—exempting them from tariffs. While most of Ralph Lauren’s supply chain is outside the US, no single country accounts for over 20% of production, while China represents a single-digit percentage of the products sold in the US.

Even so, both companies are taking a conservative approach to the year ahead.

• Canada Goose declined to provide guidance for the fiscal year, citing uncertainty and unpredictable shifts in consumer spending due to tariffs.
• Ralph Lauren expects low-single-digit growth this year, which would be a slowdown from the 7% it reported for its just-ended fiscal 2025.

Our take: While Ralph Lauren and Canada Goose are better positioned than many of their luxury peers, tariffs could cause them to lose some of their hard-won momentum.

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