Great Pretenders

Great Pretenders is the brand of Creative Education of Canada Inc., which the vendor describes as a family owned and operated toy company started in 1989 by founder and CEO Joyce Keelan, whose children are now active in the business. Corporations Canada's and the Ontario Business Registry's public search tools could not be completed through available tools, so this rests on the vendor's own statements and a company history reproduced on its site, with no acquisition, parent company, or outside investor found in searches.

• Our Values vendor_statement “family owned & operated toy company started in 1989.”
• About Us vendor_statement “Founder & CEO Joyce Keelan”
• Made in Canada Production press “founded Creative Education of Canada, Inc.”

The vendor states it manufactures over 80 of its products at its own facility in Point Edward, Ontario, against a catalogue the vendor's own reproduced company profile puts at 780 unique items and its current Made in Canada collection lists at 38 pieces. Third-party retailer listings mark other Great Pretenders costumes as made in China, so the rest is assumed to be manufactured there; the Canadian share is an estimate by product line count, not revenue.

• Our Values vendor_statement “We manufacture over 80 of our products at our manufacturing facility in Ontario, Canada.”
• Made in Canada Production press “Today the inventory lists 780 unique items”
• Made In Canada vendor_statement “Proudly Made in Canada”
• Great Pretenders - Deer Costume | Smallable other “Made in China”

A company profile the vendor reproduces on its own site describes design, cutting, sewing, HR, IT, inventory, payroll, warehousing, and safety-testing staff all based at the Point Edward, Ontario manufacturing and distribution centre, and LinkedIn lists the company's headquarters there with 11 to 50 employees. The vendor also says it has offices in five countries and four global warehouses, including in the US and Europe, so a minority of its stated 60-plus employees are assumed to work outside Canada; this split is an estimate since no per-country headcount is published.

• Made in Canada Production press “cutters and sewers, a graphic designer, HR and IT people, and staff to oversee inventory, payroll, warehousing and safety testing”
• Our Values vendor_statement “offices in 5 countries and 4 global warehouses”
• Shipping vendor_statement “warehouses in Canada, the USA, and Europe”
• Creative Education of Canada | LinkedIn other “11-50 employees”

The vendor does not say where its fabrics, trims, or other materials come from beyond calling them hand-selected. With roughly nine in ten products manufactured in China, the inputs for those items are assumed to be sourced regionally there, and the Ontario-made share is assumed to draw on a similar mix that the vendor does not break out, so the split mirrors the manufacturing estimate rather than a published figure.

• Our Values vendor_statement “Hand made with quality fabrics, trims, flowers and accessories.”