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Industry Opinion
As Bob Dylan observed over 60 years ago, “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”
While I doubt he was considering the North American Sewing Industry, this sentiment has held for this industry since its very beginnings, and any reasonable observer can be assured that it will continue for as long as we can see into the future.
Bob Dylan wrote and performed "The Times They Are a-Changin’." It was released as the title track of his 1964 album and became one of his most iconic protest songs. The song reflects the social and political upheaval of the time and is often associated with the civil rights and anti-war movements.
As I travel the country, working in sewing factories and talking to the concerns of everyone from business owners to sewers, one change rises above all others, and that is the changing workforce. The need to train new workers is acknowledged, but where and how to start is often seen as mysterious.
In 2025, a successful Sewing Manufacturing Operation needs to take a hard look at the labor pool available to them and re-evaluate their existing policies. Aside from a very few local areas, across most of North America, there simply is no opportunity to hire the sort of skilled labor that is essential to continued operations. You simply will not find anyone who already knows how to run industrial cloth cutters, how to sew a collar on a jacket, how to hem a sail, or how to maintain an industrial sewing machine. Yet, those tasks must still be done. For many plants, these tasks are done by the same workers who have been doing them for decades, and when those workers choose to retire, enormous drops in capability and production occur overnight.
In the early spring of 2022, I sat down with my senior tech to discuss this issue for my own company. As a vendor of sewing machines, I relied on my senior tech for nearly everything, and I was anxious to train more Technicians to supplement him and allow us to expand our operations.
Soon, we hired a promising candidate who was working closely with my Senior Tech to learn the trade. Even as that process was occurring, however, my talks with customers convinced me that was not a viable solution for most. Training mechanics is a particularly challenging task, as you need an instructor to do it, and most senior sewing mechanics are extremely inexperienced in teaching.
Furthermore, many smaller plants don’t have a Sewing Mechanic at all, and thus no potential instructor. While I was fortunate to have a mechanic who both excelled and was able to teach others, many places were not. So by the summer of that year, I was deep in conversations to develop a Sewing Mechanic Training program.
There were many key problems to face, the first hurdle being class sizes. As I spoke with Technical Colleges and other professional education systems, they invariably wanted class sizes of 15 or more. This may be appropriate for some things, but training mechanics is extremely hands-on and complex. My instructor wanted to do no more than two students at a time, I wanted five, and we compromised on three. With three students and one instructor, each student was constantly involved, and constantly personally working on a machine, learning both mentally and with muscle memory.
Much of a mechanics job is tactile, and the focus on hands-on work paid dividends. Those early classes overemphasized the hands-on portion, however, and as time went on, we broadened the curriculum. Fundamental knowledge, like understanding stitch formation, basic troubleshooting techniques, and learning to talk with and interact with operators was added. The curriculum we developed wasn’t simply developed and set in stone; we adjusted it in class after class. In late 2023, we launched it to the public, and in 2024, it grew explosively. A Key lessonWe learned from all this that effective training must be flexible. A single curriculum is incapable of handling the diversity of skills required, across the entire sewing industry. In Rural Montana, we worked with a company exclusively using Flatlock machines, in the Middle of Chicago we focused on automated machines and the entire range of machines used by an Apparel company.
There were many key problems to face, the first hurdle being class sizes. As I spoke with Technical Colleges and other professional education systems, they invariably wanted class sizes of 15 or more. This may be appropriate for some things, but training mechanics is extremely hands-on and complex. My instructor wanted to do no more than two students at a time, I wanted five, and we compromised on three. With three students and one instructor, each student was constantly involved, and constantly personally working on a machine, learning both mentally and with muscle memory.
Much of a mechanics job is tactile, and the focus on hands-on work paid dividends. Those early classes overemphasized the hands-on portion, however, and as time went on, we broadened the curriculum. Fundamental knowledge, like understanding stitch formation, basic troubleshooting techniques, and learning to talk with and interact with operators was added. The curriculum we developed wasn’t simply developed and set in stone; we adjusted it in class after class. In late 2023, we launched it to the public, and in 2024, it grew explosively. A Key lessonWe learned from all this that effective training must be flexible. A single curriculum is incapable of handling the diversity of skills required, across the entire sewing industry. In Rural Montana, we worked with a company exclusively using Flatlock machines, in the Middle of Chicago we focused on automated machines and the entire range of machines used by an Apparel company.
A small Wisconsin shop that made only specialty dog collars sent the owner’s daughter to learn to maintain the few machines they had. The specifics of each training were different, but the success of the program depends on remaining focused on the fundamentals. Each trainee left not with just a full understanding of exactly what they needed to do but with the toolkit they needed to help figure out the next step on their own.
We are far from alone in this endeavor, although working with mechanics specifically is still rare. In Detroit, an organization called ISAIC has established itself, working to develop industry standards and training programs for operators, with a program called FISP. In West Virginia, state funding recently authorized another organization called PATTERN, with a mission statement to assist Sewing Manufacturers in their region. In dozens of sewing operations across the continent, both large and small, companies work to create their internal programs to train on extremely specific skill sets. We have worked with dozens of them to train their subject matter experts to teach.
We are far from alone in this endeavor, although working with mechanics specifically is still rare. In Detroit, an organization called ISAIC has established itself, working to develop industry standards and training programs for operators, with a program called FISP. In West Virginia, state funding recently authorized another organization called PATTERN, with a mission statement to assist Sewing Manufacturers in their region. In dozens of sewing operations across the continent, both large and small, companies work to create their internal programs to train on extremely specific skill sets. We have worked with dozens of them to train their subject matter experts to teach.
As our industry faces the waves of retirement that are coming in the next few years, training has already become an existential requirement. Employee training once determined which organizations excelled, but in the coming years, it will determine which companies survive. The enormous opportunities of automation are locked away for companies that do not have the technicians to keep them running, as each automation machine added may decrease the complexity of the operators’ jobs but skyrocket the demands on the technicians.
Changing trade conditions and shifting supply chains will offer opportunities for growth and new contracts for those with the flexibility to pivot, but those without the ability to retrain their workers will struggle. The era where we can expect to hire those with prior industry experience is over. It is time to invest in our workers.
Changing trade conditions and shifting supply chains will offer opportunities for growth and new contracts for those with the flexibility to pivot, but those without the ability to retrain their workers will struggle. The era where we can expect to hire those with prior industry experience is over. It is time to invest in our workers.