Design and Product Integrity
Arc'teryx is a Canadian company, and all of our product design, R&D, and production development is done in-house at our head office in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We are unusual in the outdoor softgoods industry; we choose to design, perform our own patternmaking and develop all of our products in-house, and we have our own 30,000 square foot state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Vancouver. This allows us to readily explore unorthodox design concepts and gives us complete control over the development of new products. As more North American brands move their design and production overseas, Arc'teryx remains a member of an ever-shrinking group of manufacturers that employs a full complement of vertically-capable in-house designers and product developers.
Arc'teryx is one of only a few major outdoor industry outerwear brands in North America to have its own domestic North American manufacturing facility, and we proudly employ highly skilled workers in our Vancouver, Canada factory. Our factory is only ten minutes from our design studios, which allows us to test proprietary production techniques and fully develop and commercialize our innovative products. Major brands often use outside design contractors, and usually conduct product development through independent manufacturing facilities. We prefer to have control at every stage of our products' design and development.
We also have product assembled in nine other countries around the world by high quality, experienced manufacturers. We have one quality standard and it applies to all of our products regardless of location of manufacture. We do not make substitutions or alterations to our products based on manufacturing location or facility. Arc'teryx refuses to compromise quality or performance for any reason, and all of our products are backed by our product lifetime warranty.
Design Philosophy
We adhere to these simple rules:
- Design: our dedicated in-house R&D team designs, tests and oversees the development of our products. Patterns are finalized and graded in Canada and the same patterns are used in all manufacturing facilities.
- Materials: our in-house design and development teams carefully select all of our materials and components. Our philosophy has always been to source the best quality materials available globally. We consistently use the same materials and components in every factory; material substitutions are not permitted.
- Construction: all products are constructed precisely as designed, using our advanced construction techniques—Thermoforming, Lamination, Micro Seams, TinyTape, etc.
- Quality Control: our quality standards are the highest in the industry. Every product produced at every factory must pass the same rigid standards. Our QC processes are conducted on-site to encourage accountability, and a global QC Manager in our Vancouver head office oversees all of our QC processes worldwide.
Where We Manufacture
Our commitment to building the best product means sourcing premium materials globally, pioneering new designs and manufacturing techniques, and enforcing the highest standards of quality.
Currently, Arc'teryx products are also manufactured in nine other countries besides Canada: USA, China, El Salvador, Italy, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Bangladesh and Vietnam. In all of these countries, including Canada and the United States, it is very possible to manufacture very high or very low quality product. Arc'teryx chooses the highest standards in all of our manufacturing locations, and helps train skilled and motivated workers to maintain the highest possible quality levels.
There are many factors that contributed to the decision to manufacture in various parts of the world: internal production capacity, cost margins that affect retail pricing, availability and origin of high quality raw materials, protective duties & tariffs that vary by region, global shipping of finished product and its environmental impact. With ever-increasing technology, our partner contractors have the technical ability and quality controls to meet our demanding standards of excellence. We have one world-wide quality standard and it applies to all of our products regardless of where they are made.
Social Responsibility
Every manufacturing facility is selected for its technical ability and elevated social responsibility practices. We only work with socially responsible third party contractors who ensure a verifiably safe and fair working environment for their employees. Our production team maintains a very significant presence at our factories to keep a close working relationship with them, and we employ third party independent auditors to monitor and report upon our contractor's facilities. This includes our own Vancouver factory. If a facility is found to be in non-compliance, we work diligently with the facility and the auditors to ensure compliance. If efforts are unsuccessful we will cease doing business with the facility. We feel it is in the best interest of the employees, and the industry as a whole, to help contractors realize the value of operating at the highest levels of social responsibility. By enforcing and raising these workplace standards we are directly and positively changing the international manufacturing industry.