Paula White
Northern News Services

INUVIK (July 16/99) - They're calling it the Northern version of the No Fear designer clothing line.

But Thea Veldhouse and Charles Gordon think eventually they're going to whup No Fear's butt with Arctic Extreme -- a line of sportswear exclusively their own.

Veldhouse and Gordon, who are not only business partners but plan to marry in the fall, recently put out the first Arctic Extreme products -- about 150 T-shirts and sweatshirts available at Arctic Nature Tours. The designs on the shirts all have Northern content, varying from ravens and inukshuks to bears. They all carry the Arctic Extreme logo and many of them feature bear paw prints. All the designs, to date, are Veldhouse's.

"I love bears. I'm a bear fanatic," Veldhouse said. "Bears and inukshuks."

Veldhouse added she wanted people who wear the clothes to be able to get an idea of what it's like in the North.

"I have a lot of respect for the North and the way things are and I thought it would be nice to get something (that would reflect that)," she said. "We have a lot of really good ideas that haven't been printed yet."

The shirts also feature different sayings that Veldhouse and Gordon came up with, including I Stand Tall, Inuvik -- Everyone Has Their Own Story and Bite Me.

"That was a bad day," Veldhouse joked, but then added that most of the sayings will be positive and spiritual.

"Bite me will probably be the rudest we get."

Some of Veldhouse's designs were done on computer and some, including the bear paw print, were simply doodles put to good use. Once she has the designs made up she phones her manufacturer, Sosa Original (the owners are friends of hers), in Calgary and places an order. Aside from choosing the design, Veldhouse also chooses the material.

"It's the best quality stuff I've been able to find."

Gordon and Veldhouse said they are only testing the line at the moment to see if there is any interest in it. If there is, they plan to pursue the business full-time. Eventually they would like to set up their own silk screen printer and have Northern artists do some of the designs.

"I want the equipment to print our stuff...I think we'll be quite busy with it," Veldhouse said.

Gordon added they have already had artists expressing an interest in doing some designs.

Only T-shirts and sweatshirts are offered right now, but eventually Veldhouse and Gordon hope to produce both an entire line of summer and winter clothing.

If it does go well, the two would like to open up a store to sell their clothing, as well as sporting goods such as fishing and camping gear. Gordon also pointed out that businesses around town can hire Arctic Extreme to design their T-shirts and sweatshirts.

"Instead of going down south, they could just do it locally," he said.

But the key is to design clothes to make people look good -- fashionable bush clothes, as Veldhouse put it.

"Just because you're in the bush doesn't mean you can't look good," she laughed. "It'll just appeal to everybody. It will be good-quality, practical stuff."

The first shirts were, in fact, printed in 1997, but there were very few of them and Veldhouse didn't have a chance to pursue her dream of creating her own line until this year. She first moved to Inuvik in 1995 from Alberta, but returned south a year later. She moved back to Inuvik last fall, mainly because she couldn't get the idea for the line out of her head.

"I just think it's heaven sent," she explained. "It was driving me insane. I just couldn't stop thinking about it."

As for Veldhouse, it was out of the question to start the line from anywhere but Inuvik.

"It was really important to come back here and start it from here."

Veldhouse said she has received a lot of help from others to get her business off the ground, including town economic development officer Dennis Zimmerman.

"It's going well," she said. "It looks like it's going to be really incredible, actually. Everybody seems to really like it."