Textile Insight

TEXTILE TALK | EMILY WALZER here is a huge trend right now in manu- facturing, and it's benefiting American production because companies here can do this well," said Tanya Menendez. And she should know; Menendez co-founded Maker's Row, the go-to online directory for emerging and established designers looking to source from American factories. Since 2013 more than 150,000 businesses have used the platform. Menendez recited consumer behavior shifts from mass market to personalization, highlighted cultural changes such as the rise of the maker movement, and noted industry advances in automation, machine learning, and robotics during a presentation that asked the ques- tion, "As technology and innovation disrupts industry, and with ever-growing global options for sourcing, how can America keep up and support a new generation of businesses?" She spoke of her Dad, a worker in a plastics factory in California, and challenges a friend faced producing a line of leather goods, as influences that set her on a path to launch a small business that problem solved how to con- nect domestic manufacturers with customers. Building a company also nurtured her tendency to "nerd-out" on manufacturing topics like the Containers podcast and a new book titled What's The Future and Why it's Up to Us. As a young, successful entrepreneur Menendez held the audience rapt. Yes, her experiences were interesting – firms using Maker's Row have produced over 3 million products in the U.S. – and her fun personality was engag- ing, but Menendez was also speaking to her peers. You see except for my Baby Boomer self, the room was filled with graduate students, 20-somethings eager to soak up Menendez's every word so they, too, could start busi- nesses founded on new ways of making things. These days entrepreneurship goes hand in hand with manufacturing. This can-do spirit is energizing the industry and encouraging the next generation to re-think manufacturing. Whether that's programing bots or writ- ing mission statements with a strong stance on social responsibility, developing the future factory now comes with a certain cache of change makers bringing disrup- tive innovation to domestic make. I thought it was pretty cool that Yale's School of Management Program of Entrepreneurship hosted Menendez to speak on the topic of "The Future of Manufacturing In America," and even cooler that the Q&A session lasted longer than her presentation. Menendez was peppered with students' queries that ranged from sophisticated sourcing cost comparisons to basic con- cerns about starting a company. (Menendez responded that she Googled "how to start a tech company.") The fully loaded, tech-enabled classroom, complete with indi- vidual microphones stationed at individual works spaces, was pretty cool, too. The subject of manufacturing runs from cover to cover in this issue of Textile Insight. It is a hot topic from corner offices at major corporations to backrooms at regional workshops as business and individuals strive to trans- form ideas into commercial product consumers will want to buy. O Emily The Factory as an Entrepreneurial Enterprise 4 • Textile Insight ~ March/April 2018 These days entrepreneurship goes hand in hand with manufacturing. This can-do spirit is energizing the industry. T CELEBRATING ANNIVERSARY T e x t i l e - B a s e d P r o d u c t S o l u t i o n s TEXTILE INNOVATION MEANS GLOBAL INVOLVEMENT Based in the U.S., Concept III partners with leading textile labs and innovators located all across the globe. Today, just as we've done for the past four decades, we source, develop, and produce the best fabric-based solutions for tomorrow. www.conceptiii.com

• Cover