The CA Number: What It Is and Whether You Need One
By The Velocity Wear Team
If you have looked closely at the label in a garment bought in Canada you have probably seen something like "CA 12345" and assumed it was an internal code. It is not. It is a CA identification number, issued by the Competition Bureau, and it is one of the two permitted ways to satisfy the dealer identification requirement under the Textile Labelling Act.
The requirement it satisfies
A consumer textile article sold in Canada has to identify the dealer responsible for it. You can do that with the dealer's full name and postal address, or with a CA number registered to that dealer. The Bureau maintains the register, so the number resolves to a real business without the business having to print its details on every garment.
That is the whole mechanism. It is not a licence, a certification or a quality mark — it is an identifier.
Why a small brand usually wants one
- Your legal entity name is often not your brand name, and a neck label reading "1234567 Ontario Inc." undermines a product you have spent months designing.
- The alternative requires a postal address, which for a founder working from home means a residential address woven into every garment you sell.
- It is compact. A five-digit code takes almost no space on a label, which matters when you also need bilingual fibre content on the same mark.
- It stays stable if you move, since the register is updated rather than the label.
How to get one
You apply to the Competition Bureau. It is an administrative process rather than an approval — you are registering an identity, not seeking permission — and the current forms, requirements and any fee are on the Bureau's own site, which is where you should check rather than relying on an article.
The timing point that matters: apply before you need the labels made, not while the production run is waiting. Labels are manufactured during the run, so the number has to exist at artwork approval.
Common misunderstandings
A CA number is not a substitute for the fibre content disclosure. Both are required, and the fibre content still has to appear in English and French. The CA number satisfies only the dealer identification half.
It is also not a certification of anything. Seeing a CA number on a competitor's label tells you they registered with the Bureau, and nothing whatsoever about the garment's quality, origin or compliance in any other respect.
And it is Canadian. It does not satisfy the US requirement to identify the company responsible — that is a separate system, where the equivalent shortcut is an FTC-issued RN number. A brand selling in both markets may end up carrying both, which is normal and takes very little label space.
Putting it on the garment
Most brands run the compliance content — bilingual fibre composition, the CA number, origin and care — on a side seam label, keeping the neck label for branding. It reads better and it gives you enough room to be legible, which is itself a requirement.
Send us the wording with your artwork, including the CA number, and it is produced as part of the run. Woven, printed or heat transfer to your design — the only real constraint is that the content has to be final at approval.
