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We are starting our first day without our graphic artist, Steve Deland, who is taking a well-deserved vacation along the Oregon Coast. Steve has over 35 years of experience and is our foundation for creating incredible artwork for our customers. Walking into work this Monday morning, I felt helpless, like our company would crash and burn this week without an artist. The stress of customers calling asking about t-shirt artwork and needing it done quickly is a nightmare. We don't have anybody to replace Steve, so I am looking for a local artist to step in and help us on this week's art projects. I will take retired, current, and even kid artists so we can keep our business printing t-shirts. A 5-year-old helps us with the artwork. |
 Operations Manager, Erik Mickelson, shows off his Mr. Rags Hoodie. | AuthorErik Mickelson is a contributing co-author for Northwest Custom Apparel and has over 25 years in the embroidery industry. Questions on how to start an embroidery company, please reach out to Erik at erik@nwcustomapparel.com |
Northwest Custom Apparel
Little Known History of Carhartt Jackets
While you are on a construction site wearing a Carhartt hoodie or jacket and looking down at the Carhartt logo, you wonder what Carhartt's history was? You may think Carhartt is a brand for 20-30 years of age. Nope, you are almost 100 years off that guess. In 1889 Carhartt was founded by Hamilton Carhartt in Detroit, Michigan. Carhartt's started with two embroidery machines and six employees and was similar to Northwest Custom's beginning, but 100 years earlier. Old man Carhartt had a saying, "Honest value for an honest dollar." that resonated with many laborers in the Detroit area.
The 1890s were booming for Carhartt, with the Trans Northern Railroad laying track only 2 miles from Carhartt's original manufacturing site. The site was perfect for Carhartt to sell jackets to the railway workers. Plus, being so close to the rail tracks, he could ship his jackets to the West Coast. Carhartt's expansion grew to 8 facilities around the country and continued growing until the Great Depression hit.
The 1890s were booming for Carhartt, with the Trans Northern Railroad laying track only 2 miles from Carhartt's original manufacturing site. The site was perfect for Carhartt to sell jackets to the railway workers. Plus, being so close to the rail tracks, he could ship his jackets to the West Coast. Carhartt's expansion grew to 8 facilities around the country and continued growing until the Great Depression hit.
The railroad opens up the West for Carhartt
Carhartt in the Great Depression
The Great Depression did thousands of businesses to close down and send their workers packing. Carhartt wasn't immune to this either; however, they pivoted and refocused on new customers and products. Carhartt closed down its jacket manufacturing facilities and started to make canvas tents from the same fabric as their jackets. The tents were for the workers of Roosevelt's "New Deal" program, the WPA (Works Progress Administration). President Roosevelt executed the WPA in May of 1935 to lift the bludgeoned economy out of the Depression. The Carhartt and the "New Deal" put thousands of workers back into Carhartt's factories, weaving canvas and sewing together tents for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp). The CCC would cut trails in the newly formed National Park System. The CCC workers would again wear the Carhartt jacket and camp in the tents manufactured by Carhartt. It was a boom for Carhartt and its employees, who remained employed before leaving to fight in World War 2 in the early 1940s.
World War II and Carhartt
The boom of the Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal had Carhartt riding on cloud nine financially before World War II started and drafting many male employees. Luckily, Carhartt could retain many female seamstresses and hire additional "Sally the Seamstresses" to work while the men were fighting off Adolph Hitler. World War II was even a better deal for Carhartt than the Great Depression by sewing military uniforms, such as cold weather jackets for European battles in winter. The soldiers liked the Carhartt jacket for its warmth and durability during the battles. One soldier even claimed that the jacket was so durable that a German round bounced off the jacket, saving his life. When World Two was over, Hamilton Carhartt was in his mid-90s and resigned from the day-to-day operations by turning the reigns of Carhartt over to his eldest son, Vinny.
Carhartt Custom Embroidery
The completion of the Alaskan Pipeline in 1977 Custom embroidery on the Carhartt jacket craze started in 1977 when constructing the Trans Atlantic Pipeline in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Nearly every pipeline worker demanded Carhartt embroidered jackets for employee identification and, more notably, staying warm in the sub-zero temperatures of Alaska. Northwest Custom Apparels founder, Jim Mickelson, started his company also in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Jim initially worked for the Atlantic Richfield company as a project manager based out of Tacoma and worked two weeks per month in Prudhoe Bay. Jim would sell embroidered trucker caps to coworkers and other oil companies up north. Like Carhartt, the pipeline workers wanted a warm sturdy baseball cap to keep their heads warm in the arctic.
Carhartt in the 2020s and beyond
Carhartt is known for its industrial embroidered work jackets that construction workers find a necessity to wear on the job sites. The popular colors of Carhartt jackets are the muted earth tone brown canvas jacket. The jackets are stiff, durable, and long-lasting but difficult to hoop and embroider. Embroidery companies must use special heavy-duty locking frames that are extremely expensive and only trained operators can use. Northwest Custom Apparel's staff is trained in using the Carhartt embroidery frames and is able to frame the stiffest jacket or bag.
Author
Erik Mickelson is a 2nd generation embroider and has been in the industry since 1997. Northwest Custom Apparel is a supplier of Embroidered Carhartt Jackets, t-shirts and caps.
Erik Mickelson is a 2nd generation embroider and has been with his family's embroidery shop since 1997. Erik's favorite jacket is an embroidered Carhartt Detroit Jacket.
Carhartt embroidery is a necessity for my HVAC employees during service calls to identify our company and address any safety concerns.
Factory Tour, Embroidery, Thread, Caps, and Showroom.
In my inaugural episode of "Embroidery Adventures," I haven't laid out a roadmap to how I will create embroidery adventure videos to keep the audience entertained. I started by giving a factory tour of our embroidery and cap departments and ending with an overview of our showroom. I hope you enjoy the video and I would love to hear more comments about what you would like to see in upcoming "Embroidery Adventures". Stitching is in my blood and I am excited to share my embroidery adventure with you. You can reach me at erik@nwcustomapparel.com
Embroidery Machines
Our embroidery factory has commercial, industrial machines that can stitch 8 items in synchronization, which allows us to keep the embroidery costs down. You can see why embroidering one thing is costly because you aren't utilizing the other 7 embroidery heads.
The Japanese company, Tajima, manufactured our embroidery machines, and we have used this brand for nearly 40 years. The embroidery machines hold up to 10 different thread colors, giving you a pleasant color palette to make your design pop. The speed of the embroidery machines, on average, runs at about 550 stitches per minute to ensure quality and productivity. We ran the machines at nearly 900 stitches per minute, and they still produced crisp embroidery. The embroidery machine you see in the video is stitching polo shirts and fleece pullovers that are excellent choices for outfitting your employees.
The Japanese company, Tajima, manufactured our embroidery machines, and we have used this brand for nearly 40 years. The embroidery machines hold up to 10 different thread colors, giving you a pleasant color palette to make your design pop. The speed of the embroidery machines, on average, runs at about 550 stitches per minute to ensure quality and productivity. We ran the machines at nearly 900 stitches per minute, and they still produced crisp embroidery. The embroidery machine you see in the video is stitching polo shirts and fleece pullovers that are excellent choices for outfitting your employees.
Cap Embroidery
The difference between a baseball cap and garment embroidery is the frame used to mount the cap. The cap frame is circular, sits inside the cap, and then clicks into the embroidery machine. The machines are Tajima and can stitch 8 baseball caps at a time. Caps are a little trickier to get crisp embroidery due to the spherical layout of a cap crown. You are limited to the size of your embroidery logo to 4" wide by 2" tall. Anything more significant, the embroidery needle would strike the cap bill, causing damage to the cap and machine.
Showroom Tour
As you can see in the video, we have a fully stocked showroom with sample caps, promo items, workwear, t-shirts, polos, and much more. We specialize in workwear such as safety hoodies, vests, Carhartt jackets, and t-shirts.
Notable Customers
The video hits a panoramic shot featuring some of our notable customers over our 45-year history. The embroidered logos collages include football teams, fire departments, tribal, plumbing, Starbucks, and city and municipalities. Suppose you are familiar with the Discovery Channel and the show "Deadliest Catch." In that case, you will notice Captain Phil Harris and his son in front of our employee group photo. We stitched Phil's jackets for his boat, the Cornelia Marie.
Production Crew hits 20,000 caps embroidered.
On June 5th, 2008, our embroidery production crew hit a production record by stitching 20,000 caps within 7 days. This embroider feat hasn't been broken since then and may stay in the Northwest Custom Apparel record books for many more years. The order was for the release of Microsoft's "Halo" video game that year. Microsoft gave out a Halo cap to the first 20,000 customers who purchased the game. Our production manager at the time, Mongkon Ham, worked the crew for 12 hours per day, 7 days per week, to complete this order on time.
What's the next "Embroidery Adventure"?
In the following embroidery adventure, only time will tell what we will have in store for the audience. We are flying by the seat of our pants when creating these adventures. We would appreciate your comment and give us ideas on what you would like to see for the next adventure. I see embroidery daily and need your comments to keep the videos going.
Author
Erik Mickelson is a 2nd generation embroider, with over 25 years in the embroidery industry.
Embroidery is the bond between employees and their boss"