Team Spirit: Roots Canada Book Review

Detroit natives Michael Budman and Don Green became Canadian sensations when they opened the first Roots store in Toronto in 1973 and had a stroke of luck (or was it genius) in the form of the negative heel shoe.

Because they had spent summers at a camp in Ontario’s magnificent Algonquin Park, they decided to use a beaver and other Canadian references in their business. Their story, therefore, is about Canada and Canadian culture. That is, camp culture and wilderness culture. Those themes helped Budman and Green build an empire that today includes fashion and so much more.

Written by Geoff Pevere, this Team Spirit takes a peek into the lives of these two men and how they built a business based on “integrity and quality.” It shares information about the celebrities from the worlds of music, film, fashion, art, literature and sports and it shares how they built a business promoting “Canadian culture to Canadians” that is now worth more than $121 million dollars and recognized around the world.

Published on October 20, 1998 by Doubleday Canada, it contains 152 pages of text and pictures. The Toronto Sun said, "Without question, this is the funniest book of the year and the last word on Canadian pop culture."

Quill & Quire said, the book tells “the story of Roots, the company that brought funny shoes, branded sweatshirts, and doofy Olympic hats to millions of Canadians.” However, they go on to say, “It’s full of wordy, pretentious fawning, and it’s tough to sit through.”

The charming origin story has been told over and over again so a book about how they actually built their business would have been welcome. This one does not do that. Nor does it tell their story from a biographical view point. Instead, it shares, according to Quill & Quire, “little pieces of the Roots story.” That seems fair.

CBRA Online says that the Roots story in this book “gets to be a bit much, especially when Roots’ essentially capitalistic nature and purpose is kept in mind.” They are, after all, a business that wanted to and does make money, lots of money. Like Quill & Quire, CBRA reminds us that this is not a business history nor a biography. They elaborate by saying, “It is a colorful, impressively illustrated presentation of Roots products in various settings accompanied by a pop culture text …that does not do justice to the subject.”

Reviewers seem to agree that this book is perhaps more of a coffee table book than it might have been. It is light with text and it is heavy with photographs of celebrities.

If you love Roots products and you want to read more about the back story of Roots Canada Ltd., Team Spirit will share that with you. Just don’t expect it to be really deep. It will do a better job of giving you a look back through the world of Roots and the celebrities associated with it during the last 50 years. Note that the book is out of print but that Team Spirit: A Field Guide To Roots Culture can still be found on Amazon by clicking here. 

A reminder that this book was published in 1998, which means that it is no longer up to date. There has been at least one very significant change to the company since then. In 2015, the majority interest in the company was sold to Searchlight Capital LP though the founders continue to hold a small interest.

See you
At the bookstore!
Brenda

MORE READING:

Roots items in my eBay store.

Roots Canada Leather Products.

The Roots Canada Story: A Brief History.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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