Cut-and-sew plan boosting Douglas bid to apparel firms

With an eye on landing apparel-manufacturing operations that are headed back to the United States from overseas locations, Douglas County officials are moving closer to the launch of a cut-and-sew facility.

The cut-and-sew operation would serve as a contractor to makers of sports-oriented apparel, and several manufacturers have told economic development officials that they are ready to move work to Northern Nevada.

Sportswear is one of the industries targeted by Ascent Douglas County, an effort to create a better economic base for the county, says Lisa Granahan, the county's economic vitality manager.

Northern Nevada Development Authority won a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to buy equipment to start up a cut-and-sew operation, and Bill Miles of Miles Construction in Carson City has donated space to get it started.

The apparel factory could be ready to handle its first contracts within six months to a year, says Rob Hooper, executive director of the development authority.

Ascent Douglas and NNDA were a strong presence at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City this month.

The event draws manufacturers and retailers alike, and a team of ambassadors from Ascent Douglas worked the trade show to pitch manufacturers on the attractive business climate in Nevada.

Ascent Douglas was sponsor of a seminar about on-shoring trends in manufacturing that drew several hundred participants who crowded around Hooper afterward to learn more about the Douglas County plan.

And Ascent Douglas sponsored a competition dubbed "Project OR" in which six top design students from schools across the country were given 48 hours to develop sportswear from concept to prototype. The students' progress was followed closely by retailers and manufacturers.

Hooper says that sports apparel manufacturers are clearly hungry to begin the return of their manufacturing to American locations.

Offshore manufacturing - particularly in China - is proving increasingly costly as labor and transportation costs rise, the NDNA executive says. Some manufacturers are unhappy with the quality of foreign-made merchandise, and others are weary of the travel and time-zone hassles involved with offshore manufacturing.

And the biggest push to return manufacturing to America comes from companies that want to get fashion-sensitive apparel to market as quickly as possible.

"Clearly, the world has changed," Hooper says. "There's a real demand to bring manufacturing back to the States." Representatives of three major brands have indicated strong interest in contracting with the cut-and-sew operation in Douglas County, and several others want more information.

Ascent Douglas will work closely with schools in the area to develop the skills needed by workers in the apparel industry, and the program initially is likely to seek contracts for relatively simple apparel manufacturing at first.

"We've hit on something here - something huge," says Hooper. "The pressure to get this done is greater than we ever thought it would be."

Douglas County and NNDA executives particularly like the idea because it creates entirely new jobs in the U.S. economy. Much economic development work, Hooper says, involves movement of companies from one state to another, a process that doesn't bring any net gain in employment to the nation.

The cut-and-sew operation and the bid to attract returning manufacturers is only one element of the Douglas County initiative to build recreation manufacturing as an economic cornerstone, says Granahan.

"We want to be the first place that recreation and lifestyle businesses think of when looking to expand, grow or bring their manufacturing back to America," she says.

Companies such as Aviso Surfboards and North Sails, a growing sailmaking manufacturer, have located operations in Douglas County.