VC Blue Line | Production Factory Tour

When VC acquired the Lookfly brand in 2014, we gained fantastic new teammates in the UK and started helping to grow one of ultimate's oldest (and best!) brands. This meant being introduced to their amazing manufacturer! Our partner in Europe is a family-owned factory that is innovative, produces high-quality apparel (on time and as-ordered), really cares about us as a customer, and all of you as ours. It's a very valued relationship.

The VC Blue Line Explained

The products manufactured in Europe are identified with a blue/grey VC rubber label, which is why we call them The Blue Line. 

Back to Basics... 

Most VC jerseys have a grey rubber label, right? Yes, they do - which means they are made in Canada, and here's why:

It has always been very important to us to be transparent about apparel provenance. We're proud of the fact that most VC gear is manufactured in Canada, a short drive away from our Toronto headquarters; local manufacturing fundamentally aligns with our values.

Producing most of our jerseys locally, from scratch, is a huge competitive advantage. We are able to define the cut, fit and quality of our jerseys from start to finish, and ensure we have complete control over the quality of materials - like our new recycled FlexLight!

We want to know the people who manufacture our apparel. Our Canadian production factory is run by Pan American silver medalist Mark Peros, who has been a friend of VC's owner, Adriana, since grade 9. If your apparel has a grey VC label on it, it's made in Toronto in a collaborative effort between Mark's team and the VCHQ team.

Expanding Production

We made the decision to manufacture some products in Europe under our Blue Line simply because our Canadian production was rapidly approaching capacity in the spring/summer when we usually produce over 70% of our annual volume. We reviewed all of our products to see which could be made more effectively in Europe, and shifted volume accordingly.

Over time, we discovered that our European team of pattern makers and sewers was extremely talented, and we've since worked together to produce an entirely new line of technical performance apparel, such as jackets, training pants and the ever-essential fanny packs.

We wanted to share with our VC Card Members the magic of VC production close up! Please enjoy this video of the VC Blue Line production facility.

Click to Play

Why Does this Matter?

For us, it comes back to our philosophy of walking-the-walk and living our values, such as our commitment to removing gender classifications associated with our apparel.

Making apparel from scratch is hard. It involves pattern design and construction, fabric determination and branding decisions, which we'll talk more about in future posts. If a piece of apparel has VC's rubber label on it, it means we have been involved with, and in control of, every step of the process.

You might have seen a VC woven patch on apparel we offer, such as the reversible mesh tank. That's because these aren't made in-house; we purchase them from outside trusted suppliers as it would simply be too expensive to produce ourselves, and still be able to offer them at a competitive price. As we still want to get exposure for our brand, and we stand behind them as a quality product offered to our customers, we adhere a woven label to them (they will never have a rubber label).

Several of our competitors in the ultimate market do purchase reasonable-quality jerseys manufactured in huge quantities from the same suppliers where we buy our reversibles, and re-brand them. It's a much easier - and much less costly - way to offer performance jerseys, but we will never put our signature rubber label on any apparel that we haven't invested in and manufactured ourselves.

This said - if you're looking for a jersey of good quality, inexpensive, and produced quickly, we do offer them through our Pivot line and as part of our volunteer kit offering to leagues and events.

What Would You Like to Read About?

Do you have a question about our production process? Comment below and we'll do our best to answer it in a future post!