VANS

Vans is a popular American brand known for its footwear, apparel, and accessories, particularly in skateboarding, BMX, and street culture. Founded in 1966, Vans has become iconic for its durable, stylish shoes, including slip-ons and skate shoes, and its deep connection to youth subcultures and extreme sports. The brand is also recognized for its distinctive checkered patterns and collaborations with artists, athletes, and designers.

After VF Corporation acquired Vans, they approached us to help address a fabric stability challenge with the growing popularity of lightweight fabrics. Unlike heavier fabrics, these lighter materials had a major issue: excessive shrinkage and torque. Our engineers took on the challenge and exceeded expectations by discovering a revolutionary technology to control stability. This technology has evolved over the years and is now used on all our most delicate fabrics.

The VF/Vans team has been an amazing collaborative partner. We leveraged innovations we developed with other brands to reduce lead times, liability, and costs while providing flexibility and capacity for global scalability. We developed a Read & React model using our proprietary blank for DTC retail stores, Out of Sequence (OOS) replenishments, and Special Make Ups (SMUs) for key retail customers.

Their experienced teams enhanced our systems and Quality Assurance by adding the VF PRIDE methodology, which follows the Lean Six Sigma format for problem-solving: Prevention by recognizing the problem, followed by Investigation, Driving solutions, and Evaluating results. They also onboarded us into their proprietary CHEM-IQSM program, which helps us prevent the use of unwanted chemical substances across our value chain.

This ongoing collaboration with Vans and VF has led to significant advancements in fabric stability, efficiency, and sustainability, strengthening our ability to deliver high-quality products while reducing waste and enhancing global scalability.