Getting Quoted in Canadian Dollars, and Why It Matters
By The Velocity Wear Team
Currency is the component of a garment's landed cost that nobody budgets for and everybody pays. A Canadian brand quoted in US dollars is not being given a price — it is being given a number that will be converted at whatever rate applies on the day the payment leaves, plus whatever the bank takes for doing it.
Where the cost actually is
Two places, and the second is bigger than people think. First, the movement between quote and payment. On a production run with a deposit now and a balance in six weeks, the rate can shift meaningfully in between, and it moves against you as readily as for you.
Second, the spread. Consumer and small-business foreign exchange is rarely at the rate you see quoted publicly. The margin applied on conversion is a real cost on the whole invoice value, and on a four-figure production order it is not trivial.
Why it matters more for a small brand
A large importer hedges, holds balances in several currencies, and has negotiated rates. A brand placing its second production run has none of that, so it takes the retail spread on every payment and carries the full movement risk unhedged.
That is the asymmetry: the buyer least able to manage currency exposure is the one most likely to be quoted in a foreign currency and told it is standard.
What being invoiced in CAD changes
- The quote is directly comparable to your budget, your pricing model and your bank balance without a conversion step.
- The number you agree is the number you pay, so the movement between quote and settlement is not your problem.
- Comparing two suppliers becomes an actual comparison rather than an exercise in guessing which rate to apply to which.
- Your landed cost calculation has one fewer estimated component, which makes your margin arithmetic more reliable.
We invoice in seven currencies and CAD is one of them, specifically so a Canadian brand does not have to do this arithmetic. It is not a discount and it does not make the goods cheaper. It removes an uncertainty, which for a brand costing a collection is often worth more than a small difference in unit price.
The comparison to actually make
When you have two quotes in different currencies, convert both to landed cost per sellable unit in Canadian dollars before deciding anything. Include freight, duty, GST at the border, clearance and the conversion cost itself.
A quote that looks 8% cheaper in another currency can be more expensive by the time it is in your warehouse, and that reversal is common enough to be worth checking every time rather than assuming.
And then ask when the money leaves
The second question, which is separate from the price: what is the deposit, when is the balance due, and what happens to the timing if production or freight slips. A deposit paid months before delivery is a real cost even where it does not show up in the unit price, and for a young brand the timing of cash is frequently more constraining than its amount.
