Today I write with a quick update. It is a busy season. Where did November go?! You may have seen that our Founder’s Circle letters went out last week. If you were expecting to receive one and have not yet, please contact me at hello@reidmiller.us. We opened the sign-up on Friday and have 30% of our Founders signed up! Woohoo!
For us this is not just a chance to sell blouses and get the financial support we need to produce a small batch of ten custom blouses as a team – customizing each blouse for the unique shape of our Founders. It is a chance for us to open up the hard work we’ve put forth with years of research, training, preparation and partnership building that brought us to Princeton, West Virginia working with a whole team of collaborators including a Manufacturing Technology incubator in Princeton, WV – CART Inc., the Robert C. Bird Center for Manufacturing Technology at Marshall University, West Virginia’s Innova Commercialization Group, and West Virginia Development Office’s Governor’s Guaranteed Work Force Training. Together the passionate individuals that make up these groups contributed manufacturing and technology expertise, software assistance, apprenticeship training supplies, sewing equipment, business coaching, training support and more.
And then our training was underway, we had the supplies, the space, the digital Boss Blouse pattern was all programmed to receive client measurements, and last week the gorgeous, super soft and durable organic cotton hemp shirting fabric arrived. We were ready to welcome our Founders and start making custom blouses.
What we are building together is a vision for a modern, fine sewing workshop and tailoring lab dedicated to improving the fit of women’s garments, while creating quality job opportunities in small-town America. This work has the potential to bring 15-20 such jobs to Princeton, West Virginia – a town of 35,000 people that has been losing young people for years due to the lack of quality career opportunities. Princeton is not alone with this challenge so we are building a model – a custom fit womenswear workshop, that can be recreated by feisty designers and entrepreneurs in any small town, in any corner of America.
The Founder’s Circle sign-up closes on Saturday, December 18th. Please contact me if you are interested in signing up or have any questions: hello@reidmiller.us.
Go, fight, win.
Reid