By Jeff Todd

DENVER (CBS4) — Local experts lauded the announcement VF Corporation decided to move its global headquarters to Denver on Monday.

VF Corp, with a plethora of outdoor brands and nearly $12 billion in revenue, will move its executive team and hire around 800 new employees.

“This is a big deal, this is a big deal not in terms of total jobs but just in terms of visibility,” said Metropolitan State University of Denver Marketing professor Darrin Duber-Smith.

Related: VF Corp, Company Behind The North Face, Brings Global Headquarters To Denver

VF said it wanted to start fresh with outdoor brands like The North Face, Smartwool and JanSport with the second most educated workforce in the country and a state that has put an importance on outdoor recreation.

“This company represents a large number of recognized consumer brands that all have to do with the outdoors. And since Denver has developed a pretty good reputation for an outdoorsy type of place they’re certainly a good fit,” said Duber-Smith.

VF’s move is the latest achievement for the three-year-old Colorado Outdoor Recreation Office. The office was also heavily involved in luring the lucrative Outdoor Retailer show that pumps money into the Denver economy three times a year. The office has placed an importance on protecting Colorado’s Public lands and pushed for climate accords with other states.

“What is happening is that the outdoor industry is starting to look at Colorado as a base of operations. Things are very vibrant here especially in their sector,” said Duber-Smith.

The marketing expert thinks the new company has a perfect opportunity to make an even bigger name in Colorado, buying the naming rights on Mile High Stadium.

“We don’t’ have a lot of headquarters here, we don’t have a lot of large companies to afford what really amounts to $20 million a year (for naming rights to be successful),” said Duber-Smith. “The company is just moving here. They’re in it for the long haul. This would be a perfect fit.”

Duber-Smith thinks any brand could adorn the stadium or even rotate throughout the years.

“We’re going to see this outdoor sector grow even more. We’ve always had recreation, we’ve always had tourism, but one of the things we haven’t had are the major consumer brands associated with the outdoors,” he said.

Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he’s been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.