Located just a short drive from our North Vancouver Headquarters and Design Centre, ARC’One is where we test our designs, prove our concepts and continue the evolution of our products. Having a manufacturing facility in close proximity to our Design Centre gives us hands-on knowledge of what we make and how it should be made. It allows Arc'teryx to innovate at the highest level.

In addition to our outdoor collection, ARC’One produces items for Veilance, a highly technical urban collection, and LEAF, our Law Enforcement and Armed Forces line.

The Arc'teryx Design Centre is a think tank where innovative ideas are developed. When we realized that zipper teeth were the weak link in a waterproof jacket, we decided to put them on the inside – now known as the WaterTight™ zipper, an industry standard. We also began removing horizontal weft from straps, leaving the warp threads to distribute a harness’ swami pressure from edge to edge - our revolutionary Warp Strength Technology™.

No matter how innovative an idea is at the Design Centre, it will not be incorporated into a product if it cannot be perfectly recreated during manufacturing. At ARC’One, we don’t just test the product: we test the process. We identify and fix glitches. We find new efficiencies. We figure out what equipment works best, the order of construction and how to harness the talent of the people at each stage, enhancing their abilities as craftsmen and women.

The ARC’One mindset is a mixture of applied creativity and rigour without rigidity. What comes to ARC’One as an idea is allowed to be flexible and fallible. What leaves here as a product meets our perfectionist standards. We inspect for quality at multiple points during the making of a product, including rigorous testing for waterproofness with pressurized methods beyond most industry standards.

What we learn and perfect in our own facility we then take to our facilities overseas. The process iterates: our global manufacturing partners adapt our specifications to their environments and provide us with feedback that helps us get even better.

This is the definition of evolution. ARC’One is a key part of what makes it possible.