"North Face Left Co. With $2.2M In Unsold Garments, Suit Says", 3 March 2026

A Vietnamese garment supplier has sued The North Face's parent companies in Colorado federal court, alleging they refused to accept and pay for more than 200,000 finished North Face-branded garments worth about $2.23 million after the supplier completed production under purchase orders.

Elite Apparatech LLC says in its complaint...that VF Outdoor LLC, VF Services LLC and VF Corp. ordered more than 200,000 garments manufactured in Vietnam to The North Face's specifications and then declined to accept delivery or pay for them, while also asserting brand and intellectual property rights that prevented Elite from reselling the inventory...

The North Face entities placed a series of purchase orders between 2022 and 2023 for jackets and other apparel to be produced at Elite's factories in Vietnam and shipped to VF distribution centers in the United States, according to the complaint.

Elite says it purchased materials, scheduled factory production, and finished the garments to The North Face's design and labeling requirements, with the completed products packaged and ready for shipment before VF's refusal in August 2023 to accept delivery.

VF declined to accept the garments after raising concerns that the cotton supply chain could be linked to Xinjiang, China — a region subject to U.S. forced-labor import restrictions — under its internal sourcing and traceability policies, the complaint says.

Elite disputed those concerns, maintaining that the garments were made with cotton sourced from India and supported by documentation showing no links to Xinjiang or other prohibited suppliers, according to the complaint...

Elite also says VF's sourcing and traceability requirements shifted during the transaction, expanding beyond the parties' original commercial terms to farm-level cotton tracing that the supplier said was impracticable.

"Defendants' demands continued to evolve beyond the parties' agreed commercial terms and beyond what is practicable at the farm level in the relevant supply chain," the complaint said.

Elite says VF later asserted trademark and brand rights in The North Face-labeled garments, preventing the supplier from selling or redirecting the branded goods to other customers despite declining to accept or pay for them.

Elite says it has been left holding 206,002 finished North Face-branded garments with a contract value of about $2.23 million that it cannot commercially resell...

Elite seeks damages of more than $2.23 million for the unpaid garments along with consequential losses and other relief, the complaint says.

Counsel for Elite and representatives of VF Corp. did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.