diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/amd64/sdk/make.defaults b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/amd64/sdk/make.defaults
index 254f8753a5..3d3db02e02 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/amd64/sdk/make.defaults
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/amd64/sdk/make.defaults
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 # Enable optimizations for common x86_64 CPUs
 CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -mtune=generic"
 CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
+
+# add cros_host to bootstrapping USE flags so SDK / toolchains bootstrapping
+# will use vim's vimrc instead of baselayouts',
+BOOTSTRAP_USE="$BOOTSTRAP_USE cros_host"