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ruby_woo · 07-14-2012, 01:53 PM

I'm not saying this to be snarky, but it's a genuine question- is there really that large of a labour pool of sewers, cutters, patternmakers, etc., in the US these days that would make setting up a garment production facility an easy enough thing to do?

Reason I'm asking-

I head up the recruiting for a company here in Vancouver that designs and produces outdoor clothing and equipment, and roughly 30% (I believe) of our manufacturing is done in Canada. Finding people who have experience working on a production sewing floor, cutting floor, etc., isn't easy. To be blunt, these aren't really jobs that Americans and Canadians are being trained for anymore. The average person working in our factory is a 50-year female Chinese immigrant.

I don't even want to tell you how I feel when I saw the Patternmaking Manager rounding the corner with a personnel requisition form.

I frequently have to source patternmakers from the US, and even then there aren't many to choose from.

And there's cost. Our 200+ factory employees mostly make above minimum wage, have health care benefits for their families, we maintain the factory to comply with all safety standards, we have lots of parties, start all employees with 3 weeks vacation, and we just renovated the lunch room and it looks fierce. We're happy to do these things for our employees because we want to be a good company to work for- and we have the awards to prove it. But these things cost money, and in order to maintain a bottom line that our parent company is happy with, our products cost more. And boy do we get complaints about the cost (along with compliments about the quality).

I can completely understand the sentiment behind wanting the US Olympic clothing to be made in the US, and I would hope that they at least tried to source a factory that would be willing to do a special production run for them. However, in my experience as an employer, running a garment factory in Canada isn't an easy thing to do- the labour pool isn't there, and consumers really do complain about the costs, even if the quality is there. And not to brag, but again we do have the awards to prove the quality.

I don't really know where I'm going with this to be honest, other than to offer the perspective of an employer that does manufacture outside of Asia, South America, etc. Sorry, I don't feel comfortable posting the name of the company because if anyone is LinkedIn savvy you could find me a minute lol.

07-14-2012, 01:53 PM	#23
ruby_woo Member How Do You Identify?: queer femme Preferred Pronoun?: her/she Relationship Status: single Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 427 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,848 Thanked 1,941 Times in 376 Posts Rep Power: 17615392	an employer's perspective I'm not saying this to be snarky, but it's a genuine question- is there really that large of a labour pool of sewers, cutters, patternmakers, etc., in the US these days that would make setting up a garment production facility an easy enough thing to do? Reason I'm asking- I head up the recruiting for a company here in Vancouver that designs and produces outdoor clothing and equipment, and roughly 30% (I believe) of our manufacturing is done in Canada. Finding people who have experience working on a production sewing floor, cutting floor, etc., isn't easy. To be blunt, these aren't really jobs that Americans and Canadians are being trained for anymore. The average person working in our factory is a 50-year female Chinese immigrant. I don't even want to tell you how I feel when I saw the Patternmaking Manager rounding the corner with a personnel requisition form. I frequently have to source patternmakers from the US, and even then there aren't many to choose from. And there's cost. Our 200+ factory employees mostly make above minimum wage, have health care benefits for their families, we maintain the factory to comply with all safety standards, we have lots of parties, start all employees with 3 weeks vacation, and we just renovated the lunch room and it looks fierce. We're happy to do these things for our employees because we want to be a good company to work for- and we have the awards to prove it. But these things cost money, and in order to maintain a bottom line that our parent company is happy with, our products cost more. And boy do we get complaints about the cost (along with compliments about the quality). I can completely understand the sentiment behind wanting the US Olympic clothing to be made in the US, and I would hope that they at least tried to source a factory that would be willing to do a special production run for them. However, in my experience as an employer, running a garment factory in Canada isn't an easy thing to do- the labour pool isn't there, and consumers really do complain about the costs, even if the quality is there. And not to brag, but again we do have the awards to prove the quality. I don't really know where I'm going with this to be honest, other than to offer the perspective of an employer that does manufacture outside of Asia, South America, etc. Sorry, I don't feel comfortable posting the name of the company because if anyone is LinkedIn savvy you could find me a minute lol.