Nouvelles

  It could be you!

  What we really mean when we say #OnlyTheBest.

  Team growth is the name of the game.

  Read about Jacob's amazing experience sharing ultimate in India.

  Not just women!

  If you don't know about her already, here's a good place to start!

As the discussions around Gender Equity in ultimate continue to be so prevalent in our community, we feel as though it's our responsibility to contribute.  First, it's important that our community knows where VC stands: We respect all people and believe that all people should be treated equally and fairly. We believe that there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done around gender equality in both sport and the world at large.  We will work with you, our community, to help promote the values of equality and equity as best we can, in everything we do. In 2017, we put all of our online advertising partnership dollars in one basket: Exclusively supporting Ultiworld's coverage of the women's division, which allowed for more division-specific coverage than ever before. We checked in with Ultiworld on the effects of more women's coverage: There was a 2% increase in overall female viewers from October 2015-August 2016 to October 2016-August 2017. That's truly great when you are looking at over 2MM pageviews.  For new entrances to the site, we are tracking at 24.71% increase in the female category! This means that of the total females that go to Ultiworld each day, 25% are first time visitors! VC will continue to work with Ultiworld on this initiative for the 2017-2018 season, and share more effects/stats as available. VC Women's Development Sponsorship This past spring, we connected with a number of women's club teams and offered them a no-obligations sponsorship discount on their uniforms. This offer helped us to get to know a number of awesome women's teams that we hadn't worked with in the past and helped the teams get great gear while saving funds to be able to put them in to what matters most - tournament fees, travel, etc. Given the success of our trial run, we want to go bigger with this idea of a Women's Development Sponsorship. So here we go... For the 2017-2018 season, VC will offer all women's college teams a 20% no-obligations sponsorship discount on their team uniform orders, world-wide.  If your team has a coach, VC will also offset a small part of that investment for you and add a no-charge coach jersey to your order. What's more, if you're an open or mixed team actively working towards promoting equity at your school and in your community, we want to hear about what you're doing and help share your success. You will also be eligible to receive a Women's Development Sponsorship if your actions are tangibly making a difference in the support of female athletes in your area. How does it work? It's really quite simple. We'll ask you to tell us a bit about your team in this form and we'll be in touch to follow up within 1-2 business days. You can also drop us a line any time to get more information. Here is our contact info. A 20% discount will be added to any estimates we send you for your team uniforms and we'll walk you through the order process from start to finish. Other benefits: Free professional design help (up to 3 hours per team) if you submit your requests by December 1st. Individual team and player direct online ordering - check out our current system here, with a new and improved version launching by the end of August 2017! That's it, unless you want more... What more can VC do for your team? We are committed to working every day to be the best we can be, and that includes supporting the initiatives and values of our community. Some examples of what else we can do are: Promote your team and its initiatives via our wide-reaching social media channels Share your success stories and the successes of other teams to help learn from each other and inspire our community Offer your team Discs for Development, which allows us to offer Discraft practice discs for as low as US$5.50 / CA$6.91 per disc Most importantly, we'll continue to stand up and speak out for what's right and do our best to support and promote equity in ultimate through our actions, investments and our partnerships.  Here's that "application" form again, or drop us a line to hear more at info@vcultimate.com - Thank you!    

This statement has been modified from it's original version to reflect VC Ultimate's on going position on Gender Equity, as opposed to the situation-specific statement that was originally made July 7, 2017. For the original version, please contact us. Statement on Gender Equity It is essential that our community know where VC Ultimate stands on issues of equity and equality. As VC's leader, it is an issue I am passionate about and work very hard to promote in a positive way.  The voices representing our company must be united. We respect all people and believe that all people should be treated equally and fairly. There is still a tremendous amount of work to be done around gender equality in both sport and the world at large.   Adriana Withers Founding Partner & CEOVC Ultimate Inc. For more of our views on gender equity in ultimate, specifically with regards to media coverage, please visit this Ultiworld article. For any questions, comments or concerns, please contact us at info@vcultimate.com at any time. For more about VC Ultimate, please visit our About VC page.

We love travelling around the world and meeting players from so many different countries at ultimate events, as well as awesome individuals contributing from the sideline! In Poland last summer, we met a photographer so talented that we asked him to join our team for our next WFDF event. Please meet Andraž Kramberger... VC: Hey Andraž! We're really excited to have you as part of the VC Lookfly team heading to WCBU this summer. How did this all come about for you? AB: I met with VC and its crew at WJUC last year, where I was part of the Slovenian team as their photographer. While taking some photos from the finals I got into conversation with Adriana, got her contact and she told me to send her any "good ones" from the matches. So when I got back to Slovenia, I immediately edited the photos, send Adriana an email, she liked them and we remained in touch since. Earlier this year I was invited to be a part of the VC team at WCBU this June.    VC: What was WJUC like for you? AB: It was an incredible experience to be at such a big ultimate event with thousands of people from across the globe. It was very exhausting as well because I was at the fields from morning till late afternoon and then I edited the photos and videos of the day and uploaded them, which was a tiny bit frustrating with the speed and consistency of the internet at the dorm where we stayed. But all in all a really great adventure, 10/10 would go again. VC: What's your Ultimate background? How did you get in to the sport? AB: I played hockey for about 14 years and when I got to college I quit and since we were always playing ultimate at recess at high school, I though I would give it a try. So I joined the local team. I got a lot of new friends and connections over it (as one does in Ultimate) but with going to college in another town, I kind of faded out of actively playing and began to take photos at local tournaments. My former teammates then asked me to take photos of their tryouts and tournaments more often and I still go when I have time. VC: We've been using some of your photos - which are AWESOME - in our social media feeds lately. How does it feel to see your photos out there for more ultimate players to see? AB: It's an incredible feeling whenever I see one of my pics being used anywhere else other than my own social media. I never would've thought that Ultimate would be the one thing in life that propelled my photography out into the world. VC: What would be your dream with regards to ultimate and/or photography? AB: I'm not quite sure yet. Of course it would be incredible if I could do photography full time but it is a hard business to get a grip on and to make a living out of, especially if you don't really want to do wedding photography (not that there is anything wrong with it, it's just not my kind of style). VC: Slovenia is a beautiful country. Any tournaments that we should all keep in mind, or must-do's for visitors? AB: Slovenia is a very special place in the sense that you can cross it in about a 4-hour drive and on the way you can visit some really old cities (from roman times), the mountains and the Mediterranean shore. With its position on the edges of Italy, Austria and the Balcan there was a lot going on here over the centuries. So as a tourist definitely visit Bled with its castle and its lake; Piran, which is a tiny town on the shore; Postojna cave, which is one of one of our biggest tourist attractions, but really anywhere you'll go you could find something to see.  As a Ultimate player you'll hear more and more about our teams in the future because the players here are really working hard on the next generation with a nation wide high school league. As for the tournaments I would say Woodchuck is getting bigger every year. It's an international tournament on high intermediate level. If you're more a fan of an indoor Ultimate maybe take a look at Free As A Bee (FAAB for short). Slovenia is still getting of ground with its Ultimate scene but it is getting there slowly but surely. Follow Andraž Kramberger on social media to continuously be inspired by his beautiful work: https://www.instagram.com/krambergera/