A significant increase in the critical current density of Nb₃Sn is required for both medium and high field VLHC options. In order for this to be achieved we must understand the present limitations to the critical current density at the microstructural level. A comprehensive study of the local material properties by combined use of advanced physical property measurements and micro-chemical/structural quantification is providing a much more complete picture of the condition of commercial Nb₃Sn superconductor (both internal Sn and PIT) in terms of peak flux pinning performance and local non-uniformity of composition and superconducting properties. We observe gradients in properties, composition, and microstructure in all conductor designs and conclude that even the new generation of high critical current strand is far from optimized compared with SSC generation Nb-Ti.