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Episode Description:

When Tanya Golesic took the helm of Mackage in July 2021, she inherited a Canadian brand with extraordinary product and almost no story. "The minute you put the product on, you wouldn't want to take the product off," Golesic tells Ken, recalling what drew her to the role. "But it was lacking a brand story. It was lacking storytelling." Four years and a record-breaking 2025 later, the former Jimmy Choo president has transformed a down-outerwear specialist into a global luxury lifestyle brand—stretching price points to $3,500, balancing the men's-women's split, and betting on the Croatia national team at the World Cup. This is a masterclass in brand building from someone who learned the craft at Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, Canada Goose, and LVMH.

In this episode of The Retail Pilot, Ken sits down with Tanya Golesic, CEO of Mackage, to trace her journey from a Croatian immigrant family in Canada to the top of global luxury fashion, and to unpack exactly how she's scaling Mackage beyond its outerwear roots. They explore the "aesthetics that protect" philosophy that filters every product and campaign, why she pulled back wholesale doors to focus on the top-tier 20%, and how she's opening flagships from Madison Avenue to Paris to Japan and China. Tanya is refreshingly candid about taking risks on a limited marketing budget – from a Lil' Kim campaign that sold out shiny puffers to the strategic, relationship-driven athlete partnerships that let a small brand "punch above its weight." This is a conversation about craftsmanship, curation, the realities of building a brand inside a private-equity-backed startup, and why fashion has more in common with sports than most people think.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Tanya went from a Croatian immigrant family in Canada to leadership at Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, LVMH, Canada Goose, and Jimmy Choo
Why she turned down Mackage the first time—and how a "six-and-a-half-year interview" led her to the CEO role
The "aesthetics that protect" brand ethos: why Mackage product must be fashionable, functional, and technical all at once
How Mackage shifted from 50% heavyweight down to a 12-month lifestyle business spanning leather, cashmere, ready-to-wear, and rainwear
Why 2025 was a record year with double-digit growth—and how launching a real spring collection unlocked it
The logo strategy: segmenting between a "quiet luxury" customer and a streetwear customer with flexible branding
How she stretched price points from $850–$1,200 up to $3,500 without raising prices across the board
The wholesale discipline: applying the 80/20 rule and pulling back doors to focus on top-tier accounts
Mackage's global retail expansion across Canada, the US, Paris, Japan, China, and Korea—and when to use partners vs. going in-house