I want to announce the following additions to the company in the sportswear and the heavy bags pods:

• Khalid has over 20 years experience in the luxury menswear sector. He will work with me in technical design & samplemaking for all tailored, outerwear and stretch-knit sewing projects.
• Gene will work in sportswear, stretch-knits and streetwear sewing. Because of his experience managing Nordstrom’s and Saks’ in-house alterations departments, he will also help me implement quality standards for the company that meet (or, exceed) Nordstrom’s and Saks’ product standards.
• Eliseo will be my principle person in heavy bags. He has worked for several premium tactical brands (I’m not one to namedrop…) and the custom-crafted leather goods industry for over 15 years.

Also:

• Mark will be celebrating his first anniversary with Studio 9 Apparel in October.
• Because of Mark, I’ve been able to cover a lot of ground developing the logistics and infrastructure of the production aspect of the company.
• Mark will float in each of the production areas. His experience with parachute repair and military-issue products has prepared him to be a true jack-of-all-trades.

We’re also adding equipment. Several customers have expressed interest in doing cut & sew of raw denim products. I have two machines waiting to be added to the production pod. One does the tightly rolled hems you find on jeans and workwear. And, the other does the lapped seam finish you’ll find on Levi and Carhartt products. These machines need some work before they’re ready for production. But, my mechanic tells me we are the only shop in Colorado with these machines.

I also have a few other service ideas in development I can’t quite talk about, yet. I need a few more months to work the bugs out and wrap up on training before I can announce these new services. But, I think you’ll be pleased.

Over the next 3 to 5 weeks, the turn times for development projects will shorten significantly. Currently, we run about 3-5 weeks to create patterns, samples and full technical packages. I’d like to get that down to 2-3 weeks by January 2011.

And, with the addition of my newest rock stars (above), our capacity for cut & sew production can (finally!) increase. We will always do micro-lots of 12-25 units because this crew thrives on change and craftsmanship. But, we will likely cap production at 100 units due to space and time constraints for the next few months.

Stay tuned… there’s even pictures!