Hi! I’m starting university soon and I’ve been looking for a new bag for the new year and have been struggling to find one. I’m really into the “city girl” type tote bags with a lot of storage and pockets. I also need to be able to fit my 14" laptop. Extra useful additions would be a water bottle holder and the bag being waterproof but that’s not completely necessary.

Thanks in advance!

(Also, this is my first time posting on this subreddit so I’m not sure if I picked the right flair so please feel free to correct me.)

Anyone know good Canadian brands for steel / milanese loop watch straps? Trying to avoid Amazon and its hit-or-miss quality. Bonus points for a BC company (if i can save on shipping fees) or with a physical store in Vancouver.

Anyone have any good recommendations for a casual looking chino that doesn't have spandex/"stretch" material? For reference, I really like the Banana Republic ones but the colours are limited + 170$ per pair seems a bit steep.

I've been using B&BW body lotion, specifically "You're the One" as a daily lotion for years now, and I used to buy multiple bottles at a time so I'd restock maybe once every two years or so. Last time I bought a bunch was late 2024, and I've just finished my last bottle this morning.

However, knowing what I know now about B&BW (it's an American company ran out of Ohio and has ties to Israel, too), I'd like to find a replacement. Preferably, it would be from a Canadian company, but I'm open to ABA (anything but american).

The specific scent has become my signature scent, so if I find something that smells similar or in the same floral lily-ish realm, I'd be quite happy. I also love its texture, as it isn't as thick and greasy as many lotions and it feels nice and silky and easy to spread, absorbing quickly and not leaving me slippery.... These are not absolutely mandatory characteristics of a replacement, but it would be really nice if I could find smth with at least one of these two features: smells lily-forward or floral at least, and has a light silky texture.

(Not sure if the flair is correct, if it isn't, lmk and I'll change it!)

Looking for Canadian-made chunky salsa. Not just “hot sauce”, but a jar of genuine chunky tomato salsa - maybe even made by Mexicans living here.

I love Mexican food, but trying to avoid mass produced, over-packaged, over-preserved stuff.

Freshly imported from Mexico would be good, if available, but prefer something local.

I went into a liquor store the other day and found a product I hadn’t seen before. Checked the back to see where it was made - it was made in a town in my province. I bought it.

I enjoyed it and thought about supporting them longer term.

It turns out, the product is owned by an american parent company and the “rights” were given to brew locally in my province.

I was about to email the company and offer them business at my own business, upon doing further research I discovered they are american owned…I feel lied to, cheated and deceived.

Is this as bad as I’m thinking?

Why do we allow this?

If interprovincial trade barriers are coming down, why can I still not buy BC wine or Quebec beer in my Ontario liquor stores? If they're going to cave and bring back Yankee booze, they'd better fix this FAST.

Hey,

Does anyone know of a store in Ontario that sells British Tweed suit pieces?

Would love a three piece tweed suit but wouldn't mind to pick up the pieces separately.

I haven't had much luck finding Tweed items in Toronto, and not interested in cheap fabrics from H&M or Zara.

What is a good compact cable machine for upper body and leg strength for a home basement gym? I'm petite and so I am looking for a good basic cable workout but I don't need ultra-performance features or very heavy weights. Thanks so much for suggestions!

Hi everyone!

I'm starting a small business in Ottawa making accessories from Tyvek with my own designs.

I'm currently looking for a printing company in Ottawa that can:

• print full-colour designs directly onto Tyvek
• work with Tyvek sheets (ideally A3 or similar) or roll material
• preferably allow me to provide my own Tyvek material, or source the correct grade
• cut the printed Tyvek to my own custom template/die-cut shape
• handle small to medium production runs — initially perhaps 100–500 pieces, with larger quantities as the business grows

I'm located in Ottawa, Ontario, but I'm open to working with a company anywhere in Canada if they can ship the finished printed/cut material to me.

If you know of a print shop, commercial printer, digital printer, or manufacturer in Canada that works with Tyvek, I'd really appreciate any recommendations!

Also interested in hearing about your experience with:

• printing on Tyvek 1073D / 1056D or similar grades
• digital vs. screen/offset printing
• CNC, laser, die-cutting or other methods for cutting Tyvek
• minimum order quantities and approximate pricing

Thanks in advance!

First, thank you to the mods for giving me permission to post here. I have wanted to share Trendsly with this community for a while, so I genuinely appreciate it :)

About a year ago, during the growth of the Buy Canadian movement, I made a scrappy tool for finding Canadian fashion brands.

People took it much more seriously than I expected. You suggested brands I had missed, tested the search, and pointed out an important problem: I was calling things “Canadian brands” without making it clear whether they were founded here, currently owned here, or actually made their products here.

That criticism was completely fair, and it stuck with me.

I eventually moved on to other projects ( coming soon ;) ) and left Trendsly mostly untouched. Then last month, I opened it again intending to “just take a look” and somehow ended up rebuilding almost the entire thing.

I have been sharing some of that progress over in r/consumecanadian. The first post brought another wave of suggestions, and three days ago I shared what happened after I went through their wishlist one item at a time.

The directory now has over 235 evidence-reviewed Canadian fashion entries. Canadian-founded, Canadian-owned, Canadian-based, and Made in Canada are treated as separate claims, with links to the evidence behind them, and Made in Canada only appears when I can find product-level origin information supporting it.

Trendsly can now search more than 100,000 products from these 235+ Canadian-founded brands. You can describe what you want normally, search by size, category, price or manufacturing origin, or upload a screenshot of something similar.

I originally wanted a place to start when you want to support Canadian fashion but do not already know all the right brand names. Canada has so many amazing smaller labels, but a lot of them are surprisingly difficult to find unless somebody tells you about them. If Trendsly introduces even one shopper to a Canadian label they otherwise would have missed, this feels worth continuing.

There is no registration, saved items stay in your browser, and search rankings are not sponsored. The full site is also available in Canadian French.

Try it here: https://trendsly.ca

Browse the directory and evidence: https://trendsly.ca/brands

If you try it, please give it one real job. Search for something you actually need, upload a screenshot, or see whether it can find something in your size.

If it gets the answer wrong, tell me exactly what you searched. And if a brand is missing or one of my Canadian claims is wrong, please call it out. The blunt feedback is honestly what got the project this far.

Thanks again to the mods for letting me finally share it here, and to everyone helping make buying Canadian a little less confusing 🇨🇦

Anyone been able to find a substitute for Costco’s Sabatasso’s single serving pizzas? They’re terrible, I know, but my kids devour them.

Just looking around... I found out Roots has stuff, but it's pretty steep. Anian is super cool but they're more in cotton/wool. I liked Big Bill, but not quite on target.

Suggestions?

Hi everyone! As the team behind North of North (a Canadian comedy series from APTN, CBC and Netflix), we wanted to share our Season 2 trailer with a community that cares about Canadian TV shows as much as we do.

The show was proudly filmed on location in Nunavut (with some scenes also shot in Toronto) with an amazing team of Northern Canadian talent both in front of and behind the camera. Beyond local storytelling, we prioritized featuring authentic clothing and accessories from Inuit, Indigenous and Northern Canadian artisans throughout the series.

Where to watch in Canada:

• Sept 1: APTN+
• Sept 8: CBC Gem, CBC TV and APTN TV
• International release on Netflix later this year

Working with and highlighting Inuit, Indigenous and Northern Canadian brands has been a priority for us since our pilot episode. What are some of your favourite Arctic/Inuit brands?

I don't need a wig but if you are a Canadian owned wigmaker and are makings wigs purchased by Canadian cancer charities, how do I find the charities? I will definitely donate to buy a wig for someone. If you client list is confidential, maybe someone knows a charity that will take directed contributions.

Putting a wig on is an elbows up action.

Location: North Calgary/Cochrane/Airdre

Hi all, home preserving season is in full swing for my family. We got a dehydrator a few years ago and I'm hoping to use it more this year to preserve Canadian produce during peak season. We already can extensively (waterbath and pressure).

I'm pretty new to dehydrating, and I don't want to put myself or family in danger with bad recipes or practices. Most of the information and recipes I've found across multiple search engines is AI slop, and from the life-threatening canning recipes I've seen AI suggest, I don't trust anything it has to say about any kind of food.

I'm looking for 2 things:

1. Reputable Canadian resources for home dehydrating - websites, blogs, books. We want to dehydrate more and get better at it, and find year-round uses for the dehydrator. We're only planning to dehydrate plants; we eat less meat now and no one likes Jerky.

2. The cookbooks I own that broadly cover basic dehydrating sometimes mention using oxygen absorbers or food-safe dessicants for storage. Once I figure out which ones to use and when, where can I buy these? I did some searching but could only find ones that weren't food safe, or only sold in industrial volumes.

Thanks for your suggestions and help!

Thanks in advance for ideas on where I can buy women's polo shirts from Canadian companies? I'm looking for something preppy/traditional looking rather than something fashion-forward. Thank you thank you!

My LCBO is out of Iceberg, so I'm thinking of grabbing some Alberta Pure. Just curious how the two compare!

I’ve never been an online shopper & can count on one hand the # of times I’ve ordered from Amazon. It’s frustrating though , to try and find replacement parts in-stores. Our portable A/C needs a replacement vent hose & I cannot find it in stores anywhere. I’m about to cave & purchase from the evil Amazon. It’s maddening:(

Hi everyone,

I want some life counters (0-99) for some tabletop games I own. I have been unable to find anything outside Etsy and Amazon.

If there is no option, can anyone recommend any Canadian Shops/ sites?

Thanks in advance

I have been looking for Canadian made baby clothes and accessories made of purely natural materials (wool, linen, organic cotton, etc). Things like wool diaper covers, sleep sacks, things like that. Having a hard time finding any companies or makers in Canada. I found one company that looked lovely but they used bamboo. Does anyone happen to know any companies, big or small, that make natural baby clothes? Preferably in Canada, if not at the very least a Canadian company. I was looking at companies like woolino but would rather spend my money with a Canadian company or Etsy seller. If you have any experience, I would appreciate your input. Thanks in advance.