Oooph! Inside the Vermarc clothing factory

Vermarc founder — and former pro racer — Frans Verbeeck. Photo: Jason Sumner

By Jason Sumner

It’s an unmistakably Belgian gesture, a combination of shrugged shoulders, pursed lips and forced air resulting in a sound that’s akin to getting hit in the stomach with a basketball.

But this is no expression of pain. Instead it’s Umberto Ottolina’s way of saying a lot — as in “a lot” of Quick Step jerseys come to life in the small manufacturing building that’s adjacent to the world headquarters of Vermarc, a Belgian clothing company that specializes in cycling apparel.

Ottolina is Vermarc’s import and export manager, plus part-time tour guide when the likes of VeloNews comes calling to the company’s main offices in the small town of Rotseelar, about 45 minutes east of Brussels.

After a little more thought, Ottolina throws out the number 5000. But, he says, “That’s just the first run we do after we get final sign off on exactly what the jersey is going to look like. We always have to make more. It’s very popular here in Belgium.”

Indeed, making Quick Step jerseys in Belgium is like cranking out L.A. Lakers jerseys in Southern California. Demand is exceptionally high. And that says nothing of the commitment to the team. Ottolina says the total shipment to each of the four ProTour teams Vermarc outfits runs in the neighborhood of 1400 pieces.

“To avoid any confusion, or anyone saying we did not ship everything agreed on, each rider gets his own box,” explains Ottolina of the process to clothe riders from Quick Step, Milram, Omega Pharma-Lotto and Ag2r.

The company also supplies several Pro Continental teams, including BKCP-Power Plus and its top star, recently dethroned world cyclocross champion Niels Albert. Up until last Sunday, all of Albert’s jersey were of the rainbow stripe variety. For small batch runs like that, designs are printed on heat transfer paper using what amounts to a gigantic computer printer with a wide array of color options.

Some new jerseys for Quick Step and Sven Nys. Photo: Jason Sumner

First, though, designs are finalized in digital form, then transmitted to the printer. The ensuing output is a large sheet of milky colored transfer paper with the jersey graphics printed on it. This paper is then cataloged, stacked and shipped to Italy. There, the other half of the Vermarc operation takes over, using heat to transfer to the graphics to the textile cut-outs that will be sewn into the clothes that wind up on Tom Boonen’s back.

The output from the printer is near perfect, with no visible bleed between bordering colors. The only downfall is its capacity: a pedestrian 12 jerseys per hour. Ottolina says soon-to-arrive new printers will double that output, but larger orders will still be prepped using more traditional means.

Don't you just want to dip your fingers into it? Photo: Jason Sumner

That means silk-screening, a process that starts by printing negatives of the desired jersey design. The number of negatives required depends of the number of colors in the jersey, as this process is done one color at a time. These films are then separately illuminated onto transfer paper using a powerful UV lamp. A special paste is hardened onto the paper by the UV light on places where film is clear and no ink is needed.

Next inks are matched and mixed, and then transferred to the paper via a giant silkscreen machine. Here again the number of passes through the silkscreen press is determined by the number of colors in the jersey. Finally, just like with the computer-printed designs, the transfer paper is stacked and then shipped to Italy to complete the process.

When stock garments are complete they’re shipped back to Belgium, then stored in a giant warehouse in the basement below the company’s administrative offices. And how big is the variety of items down there awaiting sale?

“Oooph,” says Ottolina. “A lot.”

Click here to view the full Vermarc factory gallery.