Winter clothes for Toronto

[costamum]

Hi there..I have just moved to Toronto with my 2 ds's to study for a year and despite the heat at the moment I wonder where you buy winter clothes and boots/shoes for your dc and how do you dress them? Mine are 10 and 14 now and both will be walking to school. I've been told layers are a good way to go. I know this is perhaps a bit early but my dh is here till the end of September with a rental car but once he goes I will be without and reliant on public transport so I was hoping to sort this out before he leaves! Thanks for any advice! I tried posting in Chat but no luck so re-posting here :)

Walmart, Sears, The Bay just to name a few. It may be a bit early in the season (I've just begun to see ladies winter jackets at the bay). Mountain Eguipment Co-op has excellent gear for all age groups.
Do a google search there should be a mall near you with possibly both a Bay and Sears. MEC is most often a stand along store in an obscure but worthwhile location.

I'm on the west coast so can't help too much, but we tend to buy our winter gear from Atmosphere. You'll need snow pants, boots and a good jacket for outdoors (plus really good gloves and hats). Boots need to be Sorrel or the equivalent, nothing fashionable!

Good gear should keep you all warm and the school will be heated so normal stuff in school should be fine. Where we live it gets pretty cold for a short while (maybe -25 for a fortnight or so), but it's also very dry so it's never too bad. I've not been to Toronto in full on winter, but I've been to Ottawa twice in February and it was absolutely horribly freezing!

It's worth keeping an eye out for the sales that usually seem to happen at the beginning of the winter season when they clear the end of last year's stocks, you can often get some really good bargains. dd and me have some nice 686 ski gear that was less than half price.

Focus on a really good coat, gloves, hat and boots. It doesn't rain much during the winter months, its more snow. Get yourself to winners (I always find loads of great things in there!) for a proper just below the knee length winter coat. I use a down coat for NYC most of the time.

For boots the Sorrell ones are good and last for years. You can get the $400 canadian ones (can't remember the brand now but they have ice clips in the bottom of them) but I don't think they are necessary. Gloves, I get two layer gloves as the wind goes right through others.

I've had success at Old Navy in the past (there is a big store at Eaton Centre if you are near public transit once your car is no longer an option). I often had good boots and just layers of other things.

A coat like this is what I wear. I got mine from Macy's. It's DKNY and was reduced from $400 to $50.

Zero need to spend $800 on a Canada Goose coat.

Hi again..yes from what I have seen so far its still a bit early for winter gear but thank you all ever so much for the suggestions. I'll try and see what I can get now :)

costa Costco here in New Jersey had the kids winter gloves in this weekend. I got 3 pairs for each kid. They have $10 a pair and excellent.

ohh I will try and get to a Costco this weekend and have a look around. Thanks Want2bSupermum!

Dc wear normal winter clothes; jeans, long sleeve tshirts, sweatshirts or fleece. For being outside they need warm snowboarding type jacket and pants (the 10 yo will be expected to wear this at school for recess) the 14 yo will choose to freeze and look cool in a hoodie probably! They will also need gloves, hat and boots. Agree that Atmosphere is a good place to kit them out also Sport Chek have good deals. North Face, Columbia, Burton are good makes.

A toque (wooly hat) is great

Yeah, mine moved from MEC to Costco at around 7/8.

Hopefully Costco still has the kids ski gear in - usually it is in at the end of August and disappears in some sizes pretty quickly (at least here - hopefully you will be lucky). My 15yo switched out of Costco last year for jackets and pants (we picked up cheaper Columbia stuff in a factory outlet store) it's always worth checking places like Winners as they often have labelled snow gear. Sport check, sports experts etc all stock decent snow gear.

Costco is great for mitts and thermal layers though. Mine don't wear their thermal layers to school, just put their outer gear on over their regular clothes.
Don't forget faces! Let them choose their own buffs, nothing worse than frozen nostrils and eyelashes frozen together. And decent boots that are easy to get on and off are a must. Nothing worse than the one legged struggle in the boot room trying to dodge swinging backpacks.

Thank you all once again for the great tips! Yes, my 14 yo ds was being a bit resistant to the idea of more practical clothing until now... with the temperatures coming down here he's suddenly become a bit more reasonable :D

HI - Sail (sail.ca) has some great deals on last season's stuff. It has one in Burlington. I would actually disagree with the layering thing - central heating is usually turned up high so I usually have one down coat and snow boots. Snow pants will also give you an extra 40 mins outside with your kids at their age they are likely to enjoy some tobogganing, ice skating and skiing so make sure you are comfortable.
Agree with others that Costco has probably run down their stuff (I have seen poor kids being made to try on the stuff in July).

My kids (under 5 ) have hat, snood (scarfs are not that practical) gloves, snow coat and pants and snow boots. The schools are hot on making sure everyone is well prepared and I at the slightest sign of something not fitting anymore they will tell you. The school policy I believe is to restrict time outside to 20 mins when the windchill falls below something like -25 so make sure they are covered as frostbite can be very serious.
It can be expensive but in my experience the uk stuff doesn't translate to working here - I got my kids canadian coats midway through the first winter and it transformed an awful school one into one that was bearable! Agree with others too - plenty of good coats without spending a fortune. Look out for brilliant second hand deals at once upon a child.

Native Canadian here. MEC is your best bet, buy online for ease. I watch what the other (good parents) dress their kids in, lol. New immigrants can go a bit overboard, scarves in September, but if everyone is wearing snow pants, then my kids do, too. As I mentioned, I was born here but find it tricky to dress for the weather.

Thanks for all the advice! I've bought a few bits and pieces and we have the coats now.. though today I've seen quite a few people wearing their thick winter parkas!!