As a business owner it is a wonderful thing when you can point to examples of other people succeeding doing what you’ve set out to do. Perhaps custom womenswear sewn up in a small town and shipped out to women across the country – is a very specific example so I tend to look at other groups – namely those that courageously built operations to make high quality USA made apparel that creates jobs and beautiful clothing. For example – Elizabeth Suzanne, Alabama Chenin and others like them. And yet I’ve watched these groups close their doors or go bankrupt – my shining lights to find my footing over the years.
This happened again recently as I was in search of a company to collaborate with on a fun high quality sweatshirt that ladies can wear and think of the work we are doing together. I google Entireworld – a company that was making beautiful sweatsuits and saw that they were closed. When I got this news I had to beat back a flood of emotions. Is what we are doing financially viable? Will it work? Are high quality U.S. made apparel operations doomed to failure? This sounds all very dramatic but when you are investing so much in something and you have to move forward as best you can with no clear path to follow – these doubts do show up.
So I asked for examples and had a funny bit of serendipity over the week. I found an article on the podcast app Audm about the workwear company Carhartt “When the Heart Belongs to Carhartt” by Jasper Craven that provided a bit on the history and evolution of Carhartt. Early on in the article the author talks about how Carhartt got started. In 1899, in a Detroit loft, Hamilton Carhartt manufactured overalls for railroad workers on two sewing machines with five employees. The employees got generous benefits and a novel (at the time) 40 hour work week. I jumped up and down in the kitchen and repeated that little segment a few times. That’s us! That’s us! WE have 2 sewing machines and four people :). And we know that Carhartt has made it – incidentally turning their attention to WOMEN; their line of women’s work wear is their fastest growing.
And so inspiration, trust and faith come from unlikely places. We imagine that one day someone will find faith and inspiration from the path we have laid down for others to follow.
Thank you so much for your support.
Go, fight, win.
Reid