About Us

Our team is here to serve you

The Leading Edge team is made up of 4 amazing and knowledgeable women, who are truly interested in your marketing objectives. We will always respond in a timely manner and keep you informed on the development of your project.

Your campaign will get the attention and professionalism it deserves and if your proposed deadline cannot be met, we will tell you ahead of time. Once we understand your budget and objectives, we are confident that we will meet or exceed your expectations in creativity, quality, and service.

We are a company founded by a settler but we are proud and active allies of our Indigenous friends and neighbors. We are motivated and inspired to travel this path together with ReconciliACTIONs. In 2016 we joined the Orange Shirt Day movement towards Reconciliation, and since then we have grown to include our Indigenous Pink Campaign, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2-Spirit People and most recently our Pride Campaign.

According to the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, reconciliation is about establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. In order for that to happen, there must be awareness of the past, an acknowledgement of harm, and action to change behaviour.  A reconciliACTION is a meaningful action that moves reconciliation forward. ReconciliACTIONs aim to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together in the spirit of reconciliation to create awareness, share, and learn. 

‘Do Something’; do something to raise further awareness, do something that improves the lives of Indigenous people, do something that improves the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. ReconciliACTIONs act as the catalyst for important conversations and meaningful change, recognizing that change starts with every one of us and each person can make an impact. “Gord Downie”

Chantelle Trainor-Matties, Dip.VA

Chantelle is an artist specializing in illustration, graphic design and acrylic painting. She works for herself and does freelance and contract work for other businesses and projects. Her main inspirations are her late ferret children who live on in her artwork. Other favourite subjects are flora and fauna, pop culture, the macabre, and North West art inspired by her Nisga’a and Metis heritage.

Chantelle’s artist is featured in our Indigenous Pink Shirt Campaign, 2022 Orange Shirt Campaign and MMIWG Campaign.

Pink Shirt Day

Our take on Pink Shirt Day is our Indigenous Pink Shirt that we first launched in 2021. With this campaign we donate funds with each purchase to Indigenous Youth at Risk.

Our donation is split between two wonderful organizations, Urban Native Youth Association and Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth. Both offer some amazing programs and came recommended by our indigenous artist Chantelle Trainor-Matties. I have included links to both of their websites below for you.

The Urban Native Youth Association offers many resources to indigenous youth such as counselling, workouts and access to a nurse practitioner. They have many more amazing programs as well if you go to their website and take an in-depth look.

Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth focuses on combining social innovation and traditional indigenous culture. They offer lunch programs to indigenous youth in schools throughout Calgary as well as backpack giveaways from pre-school to post-secondary full of supplies and a back-to-school celebration and health fair to all indigenous children and youth who register for this. They also provide Covid-19 relief to indigenous youth and their families with food supports, social activities and other opportunities.

As you can see these are both wonderful organizations and directly help to support indigenous youth.

Pink Shirt Day falls on the last Wednesday in February each year with the next one coming up on Wednesday February 22nd, 2023.

Orange Shirt Day

Patricia Lessard, settler and owner of Leading Edge Promo in Langley, BC learned the story of residential schools from her friend Cecelia Reekie, a member of the Haisla Nation and  former a Langley School Board Trustee, who’s father is a residential school survivor. Cecelia, asked if Leading Edge Promo would help her and her school district to assist in her passion to promote the Journey to Reconciliation by partnering up to create Orange T-shirts.

With Cecelia’s help, they reached out to the originators of the Orange Shirt Day. Phyllis Jack-Webstad graciously granted her permission and blessings for this project in 2016. The next year Leading Edge was honoured to be asked by the Orange Shirt Society to help them sell Orange Shirts. Between 2016 and 2022 the Orange Shirt Society and Leading Edge Promo partnered together to grow the Orange Shirt initiative. Leading Edge was able to donate over $500,000 in that time. As a company created by a settler, it was Leading Edge Promo and Patricia Lessard’s great honour to partner with the Orange Shirt Society each year in this continued “Journey Towards Reconciliation”.

We have watched the awareness grow and a nation wake with the discovery of the 215 innocent children’s remains found in unmarked graves. A country grieved and demanded action, finally. Now that awareness is significant and the Society has many others financially supporting them, we would like to turn our efforts and partial proceeds towards initiatives for survivors of residential schools. It’s time to help with the healing for us.

Starting in February of 2022 Leading Edge Promo is promoting a custom designed Orange Shirt created by Chantelle Trainor-Matties featuring a cub paw within an adult bear paw as if they are holding hands. This design symbolizes protection, support and love. For each sale we will be donating partial proceeds to the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR).

MMIWG2s

May 5th every year is the National Day of Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2-Spirit People (MMIWG2s) in Canada. Also known as Red Dress Day. On this day in a typical year, you might notice some red dresses hanging near a church, on campus, or from someone’s balcony, and you have probably wondered what it means.

This day began as “an aesthetic response to more than 1000 missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada” by Jaime Black (Métis). It started in 2010, and also includes Trans and Two-Spirit individuals who have gone missing or have been murdered. The red dresses act as a visual reminder all of the missing women, girls, and Two-Spirit people.

2022 is the first year that Leading Edge Promo has joined this cause with a custom design created by Chantelle Trainor-Matties. Chantelle did her own take on the red handprint, a symbol for MMIWG. Within the handprint is a human face; the face could be anyone, crying for their grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters, nieces, their family who have gone missing, who have been murdered, who are not forgotten, who need justice.

For each sale we will be donating funds to the Native Women’s Association of Canada.

NWAC is a national Indigenous organization representing the voice of Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people in Canada, inclusive of Métis, Inuit and First Nations, both status and non-status, on and off reserve.  NWAC is an aggregate of thirteen Indigenous women’s organizations from across Canada, and was founded on the collective goal to enhance, promote and foster the social, economic, cultural and political well-being of Indigenous women within their respective communities and in Canadian society. With forty-eight years of programming experience, NWAC works to preserve Indigenous culture and advance the well-being of all Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people, their families and their communities.

Leading Edge is pleased to reveal our long awaited Pride Campaign.

Contest winner Jil-leesa George-Walkers design; Spirit of Many Colours is used on our Leading Edge Pride Campaign merchandise.

Jil-leesa George-Walker is a Sarnia, Ontario based Artist. A Canadian hailing from Aamjiwnaang First Nations Chippawa reserve. She has been able to experience the joy of creating Art for over 13 years. She is self-taught, honing most of her skills herself, and additionally through studying practical experiences.

Emotions are the driving force behind her art, bringing a greater depth to her works, in hopes of inspiring others. The elements presented are derived from Nature, which is influenced by animals and the weather, as well as the symbolism of the connection between them and modern-day topics

She experiments with many mediums including sketching, painting, ceramics, foliage arranging and more. She primarily works in mediums that mix between Wacom One tablet, various computer art programs, pencil and paper.

When asked to talk about her design she stated:

“At first the guidelines for this certainly had me thinking deeply about what sort of shapes or symbols I could give it without creating an overly clustered look. Leading with interpretation and reflecting back, I knew I wanted to have the designs or colours—once finalized, come ‘shining’ from the inside out. A lot of my good memories radiant a warmth. It is like the beat of a drum echoing in your chest. It feels soft and strong at the same time. The feathers within the mane helped to mimic a dreamcatcher-like look. While the overall design also needed to speak to a broad range of individuals—which I hope it does, both sun and moon on the cheek of the Lions face and much of the inspiration was from my dearly departed Aunt Gail.”

Partial proceeds from each pride product  purchased are donated to programs and organizations designed to help LGBTQ+ youth.

We will be donating to the Chews Project and The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity (CCGSD).

A number of days each year are dedicated to issues that are important to the LGBTQ community. You can find a list of some notable dates here.

These days are great opportunities to help spread awareness, education, and to showcase your support with our Leading Edge Pride Merchandise.

Branded Promotional Apparel

At Leading Edge, there are years of experience, and fine-tuned systems and procedures in place. We use our skills to help you find exactly what you are looking for, even if you do not know what it is yet.

You may want to attract more clients, do more business with existing clients, develop your brand to differentiate yourself from your competition, develop a program for employee recognition, run an eco-friendly promotion, plan a special event, or attend and stand out at trade shows.

We care about finding you what you want, how you want it, when you want it. We will find the product that best fits YOU.

LET’S GET STARTED »