Out of the Rubble

April 23, 2008

Shown is a rendering of Mississippi Embroidery's new facility, which will be 17,000 square feet of eco-friendly materials. The shop will occupy 9,200 square feet, and owner Gary Parker plans to rent the rest of the space.

Gary Parker, owner of Mississippi Embroidery, Hattiesburg, Miss., can credit Hurricane Katrina with pushing him into a new facility. The devastating storm took the roof off his old embroidery and screen printing shop, damaging machinery and eliminating his inventory. "We were shut down for six weeks," he says. The company moved from a 3,800-square-foot facility into the only space they could find, 1,500 square feet in a shopping center. Because of the space constraints, he was forced to get rid of some of his bigger machines. He purchased a Brother printer that was smaller than his old machinery but still able to accommodate the workload.

Ironically, the lease on Mississippi Embroidery's pre-Katrina building was up the day after the storm hit. Parker had decided to stay there one more year and use that time to look for a new location. The storm changed all that. After searching for a new place to set up shop permanently, he found an empty lot on the retail side of Hattiesburg, within a mile of a major mall and other large retail stores such as Wal-Mart and Lowe's. With all of the reconstruction going on around the Gulf Coast, however, it took a year for him to find a contractor.

Parker is building a brand-new, 9,200-square-foot facility for his embroidery business that he intends to open in June 2008. That's not all. The entire building will be 17,000-square-feet — he plans to rent out the additional space. The new facility will also be green, made from environmentally friendly materials and using energy-efficient power. The Mississippi Embroidery part has been designed to be very customer-friendly, says Parker. Customers will walk into the showroom and be able to see the embroidery machines through a glass window. They can then go upstairs to a conference room to look through another window and view the screen printing. Parker designed the space to offer field trips to school-age children, as well as enabling customers to see their garments being decorated. "I want kids to be able to learn the artwork and embroidery on a small-scale and be in a safe environment to see the big machinery," he says. "When we had a kiosk in the mall, people loved to stop and watch." He wants to bring that people-friendly set-up back to his company.

Mississippi Embroidery currently runs three machines — an eight-head, a two-head and a single-head Baradan and Parker recently purchased a ten-station, eight-color Anatol screen printing machine which is being stored until the new facility is available, which should be in June. The company has three full-time employees right now, and Parker expects that he'll double that number within the next year. His main goal, after getting into the new facility, is to build up his Internet sales. "That's what I was in the middle of doing when Katrina hit." Unfortunately, the Internet aspect of the business had to move to the back burner after the storm.

Business has actually increased since Katrina. "Our biggest year was the year after Katrina. People in town needed shirts and other items for their businesses, and they had insurance money they had to spend. Even last year, our numbers were within 3% of 2006," he says. — Liz Aull

Outerwear Breaks the Mold
Soft-shell construction, year-round usability and high-tech features top 2008 trends for jackets and outerwear.
Technological advancements are flourishing across many industries. Apple just released its second-generation iPhone, and Philips recently demonstrated a 3-D television that doesn't require viewers to wear plastic anaglyphic glasses. Even apparel is becoming more and more futuristic. Workout gear featuring heart rate monitoring and motion sensors is now in stores, and "smart clothes" that fend off insects and mask cigarette smoke are in the pipeline.
September 01, 2008

You Can't Win If You Don't Enter
Follow this guide to enter your best work in embroidery contests.
I confess, I'm a competition junkie. I loved winning the 2007 Impressions Awards Grand Championship. The First Place, Second Place, Best of Show and Grand Championship ribbons, along with plaques and awards from various magazines, other organizations and EMB magazine, proudly adorn my office walls.
September 01, 2008

How to Create Easy Embroidery Effects, Part 1: Appliqué & Tasseling
Follow these simple steps to add pizzazz to basic embroidery designs.
Several processes in embroidery are a little outside of the norm and are used to give different looks or effects to designs. Many people avoid anything unfamiliar because they think it requires some great skill they do not possess. But often, they are just intimidated because they know nothing about these techniques.
September 01, 2008

Patch-Making Made Simple
Thanks to the introduction of two products from Gunold USA Inc., Kennesaw, Ga., small embroidery shops now have an efficient two-step method for producing small quantities of patches.
September 01, 2008

Fashion Fleece Takes Centerstage
What comes to mind when you hear the word "fleece?" In today's fleecewear market, you should be picturing sleek, full-zip hoodies instead of bulky, oversized sweat shirts. The fashion-forward looks that infiltrated the T-shirt market a couple of years ago have overtaken the fleecewear niche. Now, manufacturers are producing fleece collections to target fashion-conscious consumers who not only want to stay warm, but look good doing so.
August 01, 2008