Talking Textiles

Kyle VanDamme sits down with Keith Purves, Jeff Newkirk, and Johannes Lombard at the Marine Fabricators Conference. The guests share from different backgrounds—from what it was like growing up in the family business to being recruited by a sail maker and coming into the business after a career in the yachting industry. They cover the trades and hiring for character and teaching the skills, to learning a craft, and managing a multi-generational staff. They also touch on building an environment of belonging and end with succession planning and how to prepare for selling your business.

Listen in as Justine Decaens, Director of Research and Development from CTT Group in Quebec, Canada, discusses how her company supports industrial development. CTT Group’s research and development teams help take innovations from development all the way to the testing phase to ensure products meet certain criteria and specifications. Tune in as Justine discusses the products and materials her company is working on and any challenges they may face.

Listen in as Natalie Cormier, Owner of Able Canvas in New Brunswick, Canada, discusses how she took on the challenge of becoming the owner in 2011. Cormier loves a challenge, so becoming an owner of a business in an industry she had no knowledge of was something she wanted to take on.

She further discusses the challenges of hiring skilled workers in the New Brunswick area. She does her due diligence in teaching customers and clients that buying quality canvas from companies like hers will last longer than buying from large chain stores. Another challenge she faces is when she retires, who would she sell her company to or who would even want to buy the business. Tune in to hear her story!

Listen in as Erin Parker Tillery, Ph.D. Student and Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant at North Carolina State University’s Wilson College of Textiles, interviews Prateeti Ugale, Ph.D. Student in Fiber and Polymer Science at North Carolina State University. Prateeti discusses her current research of working on integrating technology into textile structures with a particular emphasis on wearable applications. She also discusses why she chose electronic textiles (e-textiles) and how it is an interdisciplinary field that involves a research and intersection of textiles, electronics, material science, design, and product development.

Listen in as Michael Woody, Rachal McCarthy and Bill Ackerley share about the challenges of training and recruitment in the textile product industry. They discuss attracting people to the industry while facing competition with the Instagram-worthy phenomenon and offer solutions to overcome it through explaining the why and what of their products. They also touch on the attraction to CAD and automation, along with tiered training and other strategies they are implementing to help retain the workforce.