Gender-free Fits
In December 2018, the VC Team published The Future (of VC Gear) is Non-Binary. Two years later, we are both in and looking to the future, and we are excited to give you an update on our fit and sizing evolution.
The Future (of VC Gear) is Gender-Free
After lots of reading, reflection, conversations and soul-searching, we realized that labeling our fits "non-binary" still associates gender with something that has nothing to do with gender. It's also important to note that within any gender there are so many different body types; therefore evolving to gender-free fits and sizing labels will benefit everyone.
The true way to ensure that all folks can find a piece of VC apparel they are comfortable wearing is to simply remove all mentions of gender from how we describe them.
This is a risk. Will people know what size to order? How will athletes figure out where to start? Will this stop customers ordering from us?
We feel that it's important to take this risk, and the answer to mitigating this is communication. So, here's our 2021 pledge to you, our community.
2021 Commitments
We will be removing any reference to gender on any new piece of clothing manufactured, starting January 1st, 2022 (or sooner if we can!).
We will heavily invest time and resources in ensuring clear and concise communication regarding the best way to choose the piece of VC apparel which fits you best (through charts, images, videos; and as always, free fit samples).
We will share our progress and reasoning with you as we evolve to offer truly gender-free fits and sizing; how, what, and why.
We will engage our community during the product fit and sizing test process.
More to Come...
In the coming weeks, you'll hear from our production team about the steps we've been taking over the last two years, and the master project we launched in January 2021.
We'll explain how and why we're adjusting our Classic cuts to better suit feedback we've received over the years, what we're doing to make our fits "gender-free" – it's not just relabeling, and how we're approaching our brand new Relaxed cut (featuring larger width measurements than before, and multiple lengths available).
As always, if you have challenges for us to consider or feedback/ideas that could help us along the way, we appreciate it all – get in touch anytime.
Stay tuned...
The VC Team
Is the concept of “Gender-free” or “Gender Neutrality” new to you? Here is an article that may be of interest. We will continue to share resources in each of our relevant blog posts.