Since we moved from New Orleans, its been a constant nightmare to secure a connection with a high quality factory to have our gear produced in. Unfortunately, we can honestly say its been a difficult challenge. We finally got into the cut & sew game by having our gear produced abroad; moreover, we’ve had to learn how to communicate with these factories to make sure attention to detail is their number 1 priority. From long nights on Skype, confusing phone calls with people who hardly speak English, all the way from being scammed out of thousands of dollars… we decided it was time to go DIRECTLY to China and find a factory that can produce the exquisite tailoring and attention to quality that we pride ourselves on.
It all started off in our headquarters: Las Vegas. We flew out our Creative Director & Founder Ross Heffner (@rossheffner) all the way from New Orleans to Las Vegas, and thats where our story began. The Veritas Apparel team was on our first trip abroad. Ross and I have never been outside the country(except for a 1 day stop in mexico on a cruise) so this was a pretty nerve racking experience. Ross, myself, and our business associate Andrew jumped on a plane and started our 21 hour flight from Las Vegas all the way to Guangzhou, China… Our first impression was breathe taking; growing up in The States, we hear all of these stories of how underdeveloped china is: this was simply untrue. It is one of the biggest, most beautiful/advanced cities we had ever seen.
So day one began on march 21st, Ross and I went and visited a fabric factory about having some custom fabrics produced for hats and garments. We were greeted with nothing but gratitude; these people were so happy to meet us in person. Contrary to the notion we were under, not many designers come out to the factory to meet personally with these people. I had my first “Team Time” experience! We sat and talked about China and the many things we were expecting from our three week visit to China.
After this we went and met up with our hat factory in Shenzhen… little did we know(because I didn’t google map it before we got in a taxi) we had to drive 2 and half hours with no translator. We made it out there and met up with our representative “Sunshine”, her name perfectly reflected her personality. We went over almost 30 designs on the first day, and we left with a great feeling of satisfaction! Unfortunately, we when we left we didn’t bring our passports so we were unable to board a train back to Guangzhou; we had to find a taxi. We couldn’t find ANYONE to bring us back on a 2 and half hour trip back. Finally after hours of walking aimlessly trying to find someone to speak English, a taxi cab driver stopped and picked us up for 1000 RMB(180 USD) and we made it back at 11pm at night.
Next day went and met with our friend Ted Chan, who is the representative at our garment factory. He spoke PERFECT english and was sooo nice. Of course we started our off our initial meeting with tea time; these people love tea lol. We went over almost 60 designs and talked about long term business. The owners of the factory came and met with us and were very excited to hear about our journey, vision, and how young & ambitious we are. They said that they thoroughly believe in our designs, and our mission.
We met with a tag factory, belt factory, packaging factory, Vaporizer factory, and many more connections to help us with future plans! Overall it was very successful trip, and we are very sad to have to leave all our new friends! The people are so kind and generous and I can’t wait to come back in October.
After 3 weeks of continuous hardwork, we are tired and ready to finally return to the states. After this trip, we know our new pieces will put us on top of the game. Ross literally pieced together over 100 pieces for our present and future lines! At Veritas, we remember… Remain humble, count your blessings, and NEVER forget where you came from.
-Eric
