People Behind the Product Series: Jewan Price

ISAIC in a Nutshell: “Communicative, explorative, eager”  

ISAIC’s employees have a wide range of interests beyond our innovation and training programs—outside these walls, they’re business owners, creatives, designers, and nonprofit leaders who are multitalented. In honor of Black History Month, we are highlighting the epitome of Black excellence, Jewan Price, for ISAIC’s “People Behind the Product” blog series.  

Jewan started his journey at ISAIC in the Fundamentals of Industrial Sewing and Production program, where he learned to strengthen his sewing skills and understand industry standards and industrial sewing vocabulary. In addition to his fashion interests, Jewan is a community leader and advocate for social change.  

He is the CEO of Eastside Mutual Aid, a nonprofit organization that is “trying to build an educated and empathetic community in the Detroit area.” Jewan explains, “we deal with direct on the ground resources to facilitate and lead with other groups in communal spaces and provide direct action for the disenfranchised.” Notably, he is completing his graduate degree while working at ISAIC and driving community change through business.  

Currently, Jewan is completing ISAIC’s one-year apprenticeship program with the hopes to further his “connections with different individuals and exposure to new technologies.” In addition, Jewan has collaborated with  ISAIC to donate second hand Carhartt beanies to those in need on the Eastside of Detroit through his nonprofit. He looks forward to learning more about the 3D Knit technology and mixed reality tools ISAIC will be piloting in 2023.  

Jewan recognizes the historical relevance of his time at ISAIC, as he states—“what ISAIC is trying to do in metro Detroit will be talked about for years to come, and I can say I was there.” Since participating in the apprenticeship program, Jewan has been working on the Carhartt beanie where he has learned to “do a box stitch, serge, dart, quality control and crown." 

Most recently, Jewan was chosen to participate in the inaugural worker-owned factory founding group—based on his excellent performance. He, alongside five other operators, will be the first to take part in intimate education sessions with Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI). These sessions will prepare the founding group to make educated decisions as future worker owners and represent the ideas and desires of other operators on the production floor, as well as report their learnings back to their co-workers.  

This is the perfect leadership opportunity for Jewan as he explains the best part of his job “is the people, just how it should be any place; Outside of that, it’s the opportunity to support new technology.” His favorite innovation (coming soon) is Variant’s 3D Knitting, but in real time you can see there are tangible actions on the floor to make the processes easier, like Lionel (Production Manager) and Fidel (Mechanical Engineer) talking about how to make it more efficient, how we move the tables, pulling tags out... consistently seeking improvement.”