'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
When Eric Claus took over as CEO of Mountain Equipment Co. in late 2020, it didn’t take long for the issue of the logo to come up. Seven years earlier, the company had changed its familiar mountain logo to a plainer green square with the MEC acronym.
“Everyone was like ‘can't you bring back the mountain, bring back the peaks’,” Claus told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Monday.
As of Tuesday, the square logo is officially history, as the company brings back the mountain peak logo, part of a current year-long repositioning effort aimed at returning MEC to its roots as a retailer of outdoor activity gear.
“We're really focused on the things that are the outdoors, for paddling, cycling, climbing, backcountry skiing, hiking,” said Claus.
The former Mountain Equipment Co-op filed for credit protection in September 2020, struggling with mounting debt and growing losses exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sold to U.S.-based private investment firm Kingswood Capital Management, MEC was reborn as a company, ditching its former co-op structure.
However, MEC had been losing its way long before the pandemic and the eventual sale, says Claus. Some of that involved behind-the-scenes inefficiencies in areas, such as warehousing and logistics, that damaged the retailer’s bottom line. But more visible was the shifting focus at the stores, where the outdoors gear gave way to casual clothing and other products.
“There was a move towards more lifestyle as opposed to technical gear,” said Claus. “Then there was also getting into certain categories that we had no business in, like we have no business in pet food. And yoga is a great thing, but we’re not a yoga store.”
The company is now refocusing its products on outdoor activities, and is bringing back once-popular products such as colourful nylon “Rad Pants” made for climbing.
Claus says the company is also redirecting its efforts on sustainability. It is developing a climate action plan and has set a goal to ensure 50 per cent of MEC label clothing is manufactured in certified fair trade factories by 2025.
The company has already finished the physical rebranding of its flagship Vancouver store and will roll out new signage and labels at its other stores through the rest of the year and into 2022.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.