Things are moving right along as planned!
We made a visit to our production facility in NC last week where we met with the great folks who will be sewing our skirts. It is important for us to keep production close to home so that we can visit regularly and develop a strong relationship with the people who will be making our products. Our foremost goal was to create a great product, but it's of the utmost importance to make sure our products are made as sustainably and ethically as possible.
While we were in NC, we learned some great things about our production partners that make me appreciate them even more! One thing that stood out to me is that they recycle everything that comes into their facility including all of the shipping packaging (think of the plastic that fabric rolls arrive in and cardboard boxes). They have tons of shipments coming and going from their facility everyday - that's a lot of packaging! I can control the packaging that I use to ship my products to customers, but other companies and warehouses are not necessarily so eco-minded (yet).
Hopefully as businesses in the apparel industry become more transparent and sustainable practices become more prevalent, the whole industry will start to shift. We want to be part of that change and our first steps are to cut back on waste - to be conscious of the materials we are using in all aspects of production and fulfillment. The industry is changing, but very slowly, and we are excited to be part of this movement and to have the peace-of-mind that the companies we work with do, too.
And another bit of big news: yesterday I finished placing my orders for all of our materials! Some of the items will be shipping to our production partners immediately and the others will go into manufacturing and will ship out in another two weeks. We are on the production calendar for mid-Aug production and have been told that once production begins it will go quickly. In the meantime, we'll be working out our girls' and plus size measurements and testing out samples with our dye house in Charleston, SC.
After a weekend in the mountains of western NC, I feel rejuvenated. It's important to spend some quality time outdoors, so we managed to spend some time taking in the fresh air and soaking up the cool river water of the mountains on top of getting in our production visit and participating in the Big Crafty market in Asheville on Sunday. As always it's so wonderful to meet new people and see their faces light up when I tell them about the Bicycle Wrap Skirt.
I hope you are all as excited about production as we are - it's really coming together!