ISAIC's medical gown production jump-starts plan to create sewn goods hub in Detroit

Original story here: Crain’s Detroit Business, April 19, 2020

PDF of Crain’s article available here

• Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center was working with local, state leaders on plan to attract apparel business

• Training and manufacturing nonprofit pivoted from apparel to isolation gowns to meet need

• PE production could spur growth of sewn goods sector in region

The pandemic and resulting need for personal protection equipment has jump-started a yearlong effort to establish a sewn goods training and production hub in Detroit to attract reshored and other production for apparel manufacturers.

The fledgling Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center will begin sewing isolation gowns this week from a 12,000-square-foot factory on the third floor of work apparel outfitter Carhartt Inc.'s Midtown Detroit building, rather than the T-shirts and other apparel initially planned to launch the site.

The gowns nonprofit ISAIC will produce and others sewn by subcontractors including the Empowerment Plan — known for its sleeping bags for the homeless — will help to fill orders for a combined 99,000 isolation gowns and contracts totaling $600,000 from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and Detroit Medical Center.

For the most part, isolation gowns are produced in countries like China and Mexico, ISAIC CEO Jen Guarino said."Making PPE certainly wasn't how we planned to launch our training and apprenticeship programs at our factory, but the urgency of the need and our ability to create a scalable local model was certainly motivational," Guarino said.

At the center of everything is the need for training to ready a workforce in apparel manufacturing and other types of sewing, she said, something ISAIC has been providing in Detroit and other states over the past year.

"The pandemic has shined a spotlight on how critical it is to have the infrastructure in place to produce domestically," Guarino said.

Local suppliers of sewn PPE products have been getting to know each other over the past several weeks, and those relationships are going to help ISAIC and others grow the industry more quickly, she said.

The launch of isolation gown production will enable ISAIC to train and hire more employees than it initially envisioned out of the gate. Those apprentices will gain experience that will enable them to jump right in when U.S. apparel retailers look to locate production in Detroit after the pandemic subsides, ISAIC said.

While build-out of its Detroit factory was underway, courtesy of Carhartt, ISAIC launched industrial sewing training and instruction locally through partnerships with Henry Ford College and the Empowerment Plan in Detroit as an apprentice training site and in Asheville, N.C., and Nashville, Tenn., working with textile consortiums and colleges.

At the same time it was working with a number of organizations to develop plans for expanding the sewn goods industry in Detroit, Guarino said. They included Carhartt, the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's office, the Detroit Regional Partnership and the MEDC.

ISAIC's initial production was set to begin with three U.S. apparel retailers, two of them looking to reshore production, and with Carhartt for an undisclosed product, Guarino said.

When the pandemic hit and apparel retailers paused production, ISAIC made the decision to pivot, launching production of isolation gowns instead of apparel.

The shift is enabling it to continue with a planned production launch in a factory above Carhartt as an apprenticeship and teaching site, while also providing a revenue stream. Production of masks will also begin in May, through an automated line Quicken Loans Community Fund purchased.

Beginning next week, ISAIC will have a staff of 12, including three formerly homeless women, who are joining ISAIC after training with the Empowerment Plan, Guarino said.

It expects to hire more temporary sewers to bring it up to about 20 employees, she said.

It's installing a cutting machine and 30 sewing machines, half new and half donated by Carhartt and Juki, a Japanese company.

Investments to ramp up gown production include about a $500,000 investment out of pocket in materials and equipment and technicians in addition to in-kind donations.

Funded with support including a $150,000 grant from the MEDC, a $25,000 grant and $100,000 line of credit from Quicken Loans and $100,000 from Autodesk, ISAIC will oversee material procurement, standardized product specifications, inventory, distribution and coordination with partner sites as well as delivery to the state and DMC.

Cutting material for the massive effort is being handled by 3CON Corp., whose North American headquarters for automotive interior technologies is located in Wixom, and Acme Mills in Hillsdale. ISAIC is sending kits with precut material to subcontractors including Empowerment Plan, Detroit Denim, Deviate, Refuge for Nations, Saint Clair Systems, William & Bonnie, Public Thread, York Project and Pingree.

Guarino is projecting ISAIC will see $6 million or more in total revenue for fiscal 2020 ending Sept. 30, triple the revenue projected before the pandemic, with direct and subcontracted production of gowns and mass production of masks.

As a provider of industrial sewing training, ISAIC has been part of some proposals that the Detroit Regional partnership has been working on to bring apparel manufacturing to Detroit, said Ann Fitzpatrick, communications consultant to ISAIC.

"These companies aren't going to come if we don't have the workforce," she said.

"We've got other cities that are looking to us to help because we're building this training and curriculum. We were the model for how other cities can do this, even before we had our own factory."

The pandemic is accelerating reshoring conversations that were already underway, Barry Matherly, CEO, Detroit Regional Partnership, said.

"Companies are rethinking their supply chains and there will be changes," he said. "What we are currently hearing is that there will be duplication added to the supply chain, meaning they won't just pick it up and move it — most likely they will create a secondary and third source, depending on the product."

He said the Detroit regional partnership is assessing the new opportunities created by supply chain disruptions.

"It's too soon to tell, but there will be some that work for us and some that will not," he said.

The Detroit Regional Partnership identified customizable manufacturing as a workforce development opportunity for Southeast Michigan even before the pandemic, said Matherly.

It's an area that could show even more promise for the region as it emerges from the pandemic, he said.