Arc’teryx HQ Visit

Arc’teryx is, if you’re a fan, heaven on earth. Seriously. The joint is deadset amazing. Walking in, I was kinda reserved with my assumptions. I was thinking: It’s an office, how good can it be? This ain’t Silicon Valley and I can’t see any slippery dips anywhere…

But.

How wrong I was. HOW WRONG I WAS.

Granted, there’s no slippery dips inside the building, but there is so much more.

The reception area is cute. Should I say that? Cute… It is though. White jazzed with black hits, but what your eyes catch are the historical pieces that pepper the area: historical imagery and machinery from way back when – it sets an amazing mood for what’s to come if you have Wonka’s golden ticket for a tour…

“…what your eyes catch are the historical pieces that pepper the area…”

From the foyer, we’re shepherded through the first set of sliding doors – Maxwell Smart style – straight into the halls and we’re met with a long stretch of wall chock-full of employee headshots. If you’ve ever worked here at Arc’teryx then your photo is up on the wall. It’s fairly amazing to see how many people are still there, not many have end dates. Proof of how awesome it must be to work at Arc’teryx.

From there we legged it through a bunch of different corners and wings. Highlights included the bike room attired with kits for running repairs, a hot shower and plenty of space for storage.

Also of note is the warranty replacement center/area – they have a roll of pretty much every fabric color (or close to it) they run. This helps with being able to repair any damaged product that comes through. Arc’teryx are very strong proponents of repairing versus replacing. If they do replace damaged goods, where possible they get re-used in other areas. The environmental side of things here runs deep, something I was unaware of but impressed with.

“If you’ve ever worked here at Arc’teryx then your photo is up on the wall.”

This was all the main building; from here we went over to fairy land where whispers and dreams became reality. If there’s a carry labs dream, it’s probably here in this building. So many toys, so many options to build, create and dream. Seriously awesome stuff. I’m going to be super transparent here, me as a carry geek – my level probably isn’t at yours, so a lot of this stuff while super impressive, went a little over my head. There’s heat presses, sewing machines, advanced Gore-Tex materials, other materials in rolls upon rolls, cool rooms, heat rooms. Pretty much anything you can imagine you might need when constructing the type of product Arc’teryx make, it’s here, in this design lab and it’s getting made, created, tested, re-built and finished.

“Arc’teryx are very strong proponents of repairing versus replacing. If they do replace damaged goods, where possible they get re-used in other areas.”

One of the most surprising (and inspiring) elements of the tour was learning that Arc’teryx build all of their samples in Vancouver. Think about that, creating your samples in-house, and getting them to the point of being market ready, then sending them off to the factories to get built. To me, it was a brilliant example of their dedication towards quality…

“If there’s a carry labs dream, it’s probably here in this building.”

One of the other really impressive, amazing, somewhat blow-you-away type things that Arc’teryx have are colorists. A team of colorists who work on creating colors – just colors! I’ve always been fascinated with color, even though I rarely venture past black/white combos (hence my love for the reception layout), but talking to the colorists about color and how they develop was really educating and intriguing. The team even have a set of lights that shine down onto a table varying shades of light (day, night, stormy, etc.). It can reproduce light at a certain point, so the color team can see how it appears in real life versus their screen.

“…Arc’teryx build all of their samples in Vancouver.”

So I should pull it up, huh? Conclusion? Put it this way, if you’re in Vancouver (which you should visit, it’s seriously an amazing city) you should try for a visit to the Arc’teryx offices. Say we sent you and you want a Wonka golden ticket office tour. Not saying you’ll make it past reception, but it’s worth a try though, right?