BTS: VC Merch Tent

Are we addicted to merchandising tournaments? Probably. Here’s why... 

The Good

First, let's talk about how it's one of the best parts of what we do.

We love designing gear

Creating tournament logos and design concepts for events never gets old. The mountains of British Columbia, California coast line, European cityscapes, Japanese beaches, South American flowers, or Australian wildlife…

We are lucky enough to have endless inspiration, and it’s a LOT of fun to actualize these concepts into the merchandise worn by players around the world.

Connecting with our community

Thanks to the good ol’ interweb, the VC Team is lucky to get to know all sorts of folks from around the world while working on custom uniform and apparel projects, but nothing beats chatting with organizers and our customers face-to-face. 

Spreading the "Everyone Is Welcome Here" message

Our favourite part of seeing players and supporters at tournaments, however, is when a parent of a queer kid comes to talk to us about our Everyone is Welcome Here banners, or the dad of a trans player thanks us for trying to create an inclusive space for their kid, with tears in his eyes. 

THIS is why we do this.

The Bad

This said... it's not all fun and sunshine. Here's some insight as to the less-than-glamorous and not-so-good-times with regards to our tournament merchandising activities.

Weather

Working in an enclosed tent for 10+ hours, in 90+ degree heat, with the scent of sweat and wet grass around you is one thing we can easily handle. It might not be pretty, but tournament life is almost always fun when the sun is shining. 

And the sun shines maybe 60% of the time... but let's talk about the other 40%:

• Wind so strong your racks, or even your tent, blows over and clothes/discs/hats go flying... into the mud.
• Rain so fierce everything ends up wet and you get to spend your evening in a laundromat drying everything on delicate low heat for 3 hours.
• Snow... you know we're based in Canada, right? Come check out the Canadian University Ultimate Championships in October when the ground is almost always frozen (and so are we!)

All in all, a day's work outside is generally a good day... some are just better than others.

Theft

We hate to say it, but our community steals from us. At pretty much every large event, a VC staffer, event volunteer, co-sponsor, or concerned parent stops a player from stuffing a pair of shorts into their hoodie pocket or throwing their jersey over top of a merchandise piece.

It's disheartening and awful to have to deal with, and we appreciate every community member at events that helps us encourage players not to do this.

It's pretty much impossible to keep an eye on all these shoppers!

If you're wondering why we ask you to keep your bags out of the tent, the reason is that a) it's a nicer shopping environment for everyone around you without accidentally being hit by a backpack and b) people stuff stolen merchandise into bags. Sad but true!

Shipping

We just merchandised our first ever event without the official discs thanks to a lost shipment and a frustrating logistics company; we can't believe it took 26 years for that to happen!

Best laid plans and all the buffer time in the world can't compete with the mess of the global logistics supply chain sometimes, and the stress involved in checking a tracking number every 10 minutes or waiting for a truck to show up is enough to make your hair go grey.

Hangers

IYKYK... dealing with 1000+ hangers at the end of a rush is one of the universe's greatest tests of patience. 

Power & Adaptors

The Tricky

There are often a few "hot" items at each tournament. Whether the design is great or they just become a crowd favourite that causes a swell of demand, we'll sell out of one or two designs quickly. 

Inevitably, shortly after that hot item sells out, a player walks into the tent and says, "there's nothing left"... which can sometimes make us laugh as there is very likely hundreds if not thousands of awesome items left in the tent. But it brings up a very important question that many players ask, "Why did you run out of stuff so fast"?

Historical Data

Generally speaking, it's not that we "run out of stuff fast", it's that it's really hard to know what designs will be the most popular, and we create a number of design "lines" in hopes of ensuring a selection for a variety of tastes, so it's more that we "run out of some stuff fast".

The overall number of items and size scale for each event is based on hard data collected over the years, adjusted for each event's annual size, location and potential weather factors.

That said, sometimes we do miss - like this year's USAU Masters sold out of Fitted apparel too quickly for our liking. The explanation for this is twofold: first, calculation/planning errors and, second, the popularity of our new Fitted fit has surged over the last year as folks become more familiar with it. 

We created an online store called the VC Merch Tent - so we can try to make up for misses in planning or popularity of designs.

Risk

Who's kidding who, we don't want to sell out of event merchandise early in an event. When the weather is good and merch is sold quickly, there's an opportunity cost to us as a business and there's also an air of disappointment in the onsite merch tent.

But what happens when the weather is bad (College Nationals was 40-50% rained out this year), or an entire tournament is cancelled (it's happened!). We can be left with thousands of branded tournament merchandise items which, just like when you drive a new car off a lot, loses half its value right there on the spot.

This is all to say that we have to take a balanced approach to merchandising, considering the experience of the players at the event, our historical understanding of the opportunity, and the risk of unsold inventory.

We think that VC does the best in our sport at balancing these factors, and we're happy to be able to offer merchandise online after events to offer every player all the biggest hits from their tournament, in every size we make. 

If you have suggestions on how we can do better, we always want to hear from you! Get in touch anytime - and we hope to see you at the fields!

VC at the Douglas Hospital field site in Montreal, circa 1999... perhaps one of the first tournaments we ever merchandised!