Brand Bio: Vivo Headwear
Vivo Headwear.
Vivo headwear is rider driven, rider owned, and artist inspired. Born from the streets of Vancouver BC in 2009 Vivo headwear has quickly been making a name for itself across the globe. Anthony Leffelaar (pro snowboarder) founded the company in 2009 and quickly teamed up with Canadian pro skater Corey Sheppard who now is the companies’ creative director. The two have since kicked it off and created a brand based around premium fabrics along with one of the worlds most exclusive skate and snow team’s that have ever walked the face of this globe. Making a statement in quality in this industry is by far something that all start up companies strive for and Vivo has done just that. We caught up with Anthony to get his take and outlook on the progress of Vivo headwear.
Anthony can you give us a little bit of a run down on the brands history and the reason you decided to enter into the headwear market?:
I’ve spent the past 10 years involved in the industry as a pro rider and have watched many companies come and go during those times. I have always been interested in the business side of things so in 2009 I decided to make the move to Vancouver and focus on my new passion. I built a business plan based around something I thought was a successful product and aligned myself with Corey Sheppard our creative director. We brain stormed and came out the gates with Vivo headwear- a product focused on team input along with quality. Corey and I grew up snowboarding and skating next to our pro team which are all our best friends; each one of our riders are heavy involved in our companies progress and we have been very lucky to have their support from day one. The reason we deiced to venture into the headwear industry is simple- we all love wearing hats- second, I feel like headwear is more then just an accessory, it’s a fashion statement and is prime real estate on your head from a marketing perspective.
Who are you working with team wise and what is their involvement in Vivo?:
We are lucky to have such a great crew involved that really believes in what we are doing, we make it a priority to run design ideas through all our team members. We have a range of team inspired products including pro model caps with team rider’s such as Mark Appleyard and Tadashi Fuse. We believe it’s important to involve our team whenever we can in the design process, currently they are all backing some of our new eco friendly fabric soon to hit the market. We also have a video project featuring our team and artists on a monthly basis which gives you a great insight to who we work with. You can check our snow and skate teams on our site as well as the artists we work with.
Would you consider Vivo headwear more of a fashion forward company rather than you typically skate /snow brand?:
Vivo headwear is a lifestyle brand offering all walks of life some type of product to suit their trend. I would consider Vivo as more of a fashion forward headwear label due to the fact that we work with a lot of premium fabrics such as 100% pure Cashmere, Merino wool, Angora, and echo fabric blends. If you take an artist like Corey with a spice of fashion, a premium product is born. For Corey, designing hats is not a job it’s a way of life and a passion.
What is your up and coming collection consist off?:
Our Spring/Summer collection consists of a range of snap back hats and fabrics such as Melton wool, Atami weaves, and printed silk linings to the YVR music series inspired by our music artist Matt Brevner. Our winter 2011 collection is currently in the sampling process; we’re testing new unique fabrics and are expanding the line to at least 3 times bigger than our last line. We recently started working on some exclusive colab projects with companies like Red Bull and The Source, which is super exciting and I cant wait for the new samples to arrive.
What is some company highlights that really stand out for you guys?:
Wow that’s a hard question because there seems to be highlights on a weekly base. I would have to say a huge highlight was traveling with Corey to Japan for our first tradeshow and watching our brand really grow. That’s when reality kicked in, we actually got to a point of growth with the brand in such a short time period. I mean we still have a lot of hard work and a long way to go but to me that was a huge turning point. All we do is work day and night and if we stick to that mentality I am sure great things will continue to happen. Another huge highlight would be working with pro skater’s like Mark Appleyard and Ronnie Creager and hearing how stoked they are to be apart of what we are doing.
What does Vivo headwear stand for?:
Vivo is from the Spanish vocabulary and stands for I LIVE
David Bestwick
Meridian Distribution
604-985-6569 x 250
dave@meridiandist.ca
