Baffin is proud to announce its partnership with Canada Ocean Racing’s Tour of Canada 2022. The new Canadian offshore sailing team, led by Scott Shawyer will compete in the IMOCA Globe Series, a series of offshore races including solo and double handed transatlantic crossings, leading to the pinnacle event, the Vendée Globe in 2028.

Baffin is an industry leading, Canadian footwear brand – with its core focus and expertise being technically advanced outerwear. Baffin engineers, tests, and manufactures some of the world’s best-performing footwear for the outdoors and industrial jobsites alike. Taken to the ends of the Earth and to the most extreme environments on the planet, Baffin provides extreme outdoor protection that allows customers to challenge themselves in their coldest adventures.

This partnership merges two Canadian organizations who share a passion for adventure and tenacity. Canada Ocean Racing’s Scott Shawyer aims to become the first Canadian to complete the pinnacle event in offshore sailing, widely regarded as the toughest sporting challenge on the planet. The Vendée Globe challenges solo sailors to race 24 hours a day for eighty days straight. Sailing in the most remote oceans on the planet, the route is 42,000 kilometres circumnavigating four oceans, around the world, non-stop and without assistance. Backed by renowned British sailor Alex Thomson, the Canada Ocean Racing team will compete in a series of races and hope to inspire the development of offshore sailing in Canada.

“At Baffin, we make products for individuals who are seeking to achieve the extraordinary and that is why we are honoured to support Scott and Canada Ocean Racing as they begin their extraordinary journeys,” says Paul Hubner, President at Baffin. “As someone who has trekked to the most remote places on Earth, I understand the dedication and mental toughness their team will require to succeed and am excited to be along for the ride, providing them with the products they need to feel confident and stay warm when they reach the most extreme environments along the way.”

Baffin believes in real-world testing, bringing products to the most extreme environments on Earth themselves, so they know the product will succeed for end-users. This philosophy has found Baffin and a global team of product testers wearing the products all around the globe, including to The North and South Poles, Baffin Island, Mt. Everest, mountain ranges in the United States and Canada and around the Great Lakes. These expeditions have inspired Baffin’s Real-World Testing™ (RWT™) level evolution, a system which helps to recommend comfort levels associated with Baffin footwear.

During this partnership the Canada Ocean Racing team will become members of this global testing team and will be able to give first-person feedback and insights into the products they wear and how they lived up to the expectations set forth in these obscure areas and extreme conditions. The diversity of climates the team will experience on these long sailing journeys provides them an opportunity to test all the different levels of the RWT™ system, from Polar Rated products, made for the coldest moments on Earth to Elemental Rated products, made for foundational and functional performance.