Hudson Bay Blanket: Canada's Iconic Wool Blanket and Modern Wool Bedding

There is something about a Hudson Bay blanket that goes beyond warmth. The white wool with those four coloured stripes, green, red, yellow, and indigo, is one of the most recognized designs in Canadian history. First traded by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1779, these point blankets have survived nearly 250 years because wool does what synthetic materials still cannot quite match.

The History Behind the Stripes

The Hudson's Bay Company began trading point blankets in 1779, sourcing them from weavers in Witney, Oxfordshire, England. They became central to the North American fur trade, exchanged with First Nations peoples for beaver pelts. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, the "points" are short black lines, about 10 centimetres long, woven into the blanket's edge near the bottom stripes. They indicate the finished size of the blanket, not its trade value, though that myth persists.

The iconic multistripe pattern, white background with green, red, yellow, and indigo bands, became so synonymous with Canadian identity that HBC adopted the colours as its corporate emblem. By the late 1800s, blanket coats made from point blankets were considered something close to national dress among European-descended Canadians.

In 2020, when the Hudson's Bay Company celebrated 350 years of operations, it released limited-edition reissues of point blankets from its archives. These sold out quickly. It is one of those rare products where age adds value rather than diminishing it. Vintage HBC point blankets in good condition regularly sell for hundreds of dollars at estate sales across Ontario. Five years later the story turned: Hudson's Bay closed all its stores in 2025, and the brand is now owned by Canadian Tire.

What the Points Actually Mean

This is one of the most misunderstood details about Hudson Bay blankets. The points do not indicate how many beaver pelts the blanket was worth. That is a persistent myth. The points indicate the blanket's finished size. A four-point blanket is the largest standard size, roughly equivalent to a modern queen or king. A one-point blanket is small enough for a child or use as a lap throw.

Half-points also exist, shown as shorter 5-centimetre marks. A three-and-a-half point blanket falls between a double and queen in coverage. The system predates standardized bed sizing, so the correlation is approximate.

Wool in Modern Sleep

You do not need a $600 heritage blanket to get the benefits of wool in your bed. Wool appears throughout modern mattress construction, and for good reason. Several of our Restonic mattresses incorporate wool specifically for its temperature regulation and moisture management.

The Revive Reflections ET at $2,395 for a queen uses Joma Wool in its comfort layers, providing the same natural thermoregulation that makes wool blankets so effective. The Revive Tiffany Rose at $2,995 includes a wool blend quilt layer with 1,188 pocket coils beneath it. The Revive St Charles, our flagship at $3,150 for a queen, combines natural wool quilting with Talalay copper latex for a sleep surface that breathes the way a good wool blanket does.

It is difficult to say whether a wool blanket on top or wool layers inside the mattress makes a bigger difference. Honestly, both matter. Brad has been in the mattress industry for over 38 years and he will tell you that what touches your skin (sheets, blankets) and what supports your body (mattress) work as a system. A good wool blanket on a bad mattress is still a bad night's sleep.

Frequently Asked Questions