Shailah Maynard - Sew Much More Than Fashion

[00:00:10] Dominique: Hello. Welcome to another episode of Green Champions.

[00:00:13] Adam: Thanks for joining us in a conversation with real people sharing sustainability success stories.

[00:00:18] Dominique: From entrepreneurs to artists, scientists to activists. This podcast is a platform for green champions to share their stories and plant some new ideas. I'm Dominique.

[00:00:28] Adam: And I am Adam. This episode is part of a miniseries in partnership with the Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit, which celebrates collaborative climate solutions in the Midwest region and the United States.

[00:00:38] Dominique: In this miniseries, you're gonna join us in virtually attending the annual summit and meeting a few of the over 100 speakers and key storytellers from this year's event. 

Today we're joined by Shailah Maynard.

She's the co-founder and CEO of Sew Valley, which is a nonprofit reshaping the fashion industry by supporting ethical manufacturing, innovative reuse, and circular design based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sew Valley is proving that the Midwest can lead in sustainable fashion by rethinking the garment lifecycle locally and collaboratively.

Thanks for being here with us, Shailah.

[00:01:10] Shaila: Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

[00:01:12] Dominique: what sparked your journey into sustainable fashion and what led you to start Sew Valley.

[00:01:16] Shaila: Sure. We started Sew Valley in 2017. Myself and my partner, Rosie Kovac we are a nonprofit, so we were very lucky to receive a seed grant from a local foundation, the Hale Foundation. We both, Rosie and I believed that there was a extreme void of resources, space, equipment for apparel entrepreneurs and brands looking to build their products here locally and sustainably.

So, we were very lucky to receive the support and CFR suspicions were correct. Do people, if they recently graduated from UC's debt program, for instance, or somebody, an avid home sewer who wants to learn more, somebody looking to build a brand. Do they need resources? Is that service truly needed here in Cincinnati?

And we quickly realized that once we made the announcement, we were starting in 2017, that we were very correct. I should also say that what Sew Valley offers is we offer cut and sew services. So that means, sample development services. So creating a pattern or creating a sample and all of the steps in between to making a sample of your product as well as small batch production services.

We consider small batch 10 to 100 units per style, which is extremely low for the apparel industry. So we truly exist to be that first step or that stepping stone for a small brand or entrepreneur looking to build their apparel product. 

[00:02:43] Adam: Can you just paint a picture of like who that person is that's coming to you?

[00:02:46] Shaila: Absolutely. I would say that our client base is extremely diverse. We work with people who have never worked in the industry at all, and they are not familiar with industry standard terminologies or any or the way that any of it works, and we are more than willing to help you and hold your hand and walk you through the process.

We also work with seasoned companies who need help with developing their sample or need just a 10 units of whatever run they're looking to have made, but they might have some experience and have their ducks in a row. So, a good example would be we worked with a designer who was still in college, but received an incubation grant in Louisville to launch her first line.

And we were lucky to be her production partner for that. But we also work with large performing arts organizations such as the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. We partnered with them for five years. To design, develop, and produce the Cincinnati Pops Musician's new red jackets to elevate and update the look to be a more contemporary look and feel.

But also function well for a musician playing an instrument on stage for several hours under hot stage lighting. So both ends of the spectrum.

But I should also say, so we also offer semi-private studio spaces for rent and we offer hourly rentals on our equipment. So like a makerspace model, but for apparel in particular. And we also offer educational workshops.

[00:04:11] Adam: Now, sustainability is sewn into the fabric of your, your company. Can you explain exactly how that came about and what that looks like?

[00:04:19] Shaila: Sure. You are exactly right. It's a huge part of our ethics and our values here pretty much since the get go. I would say that as I am sure that you know, the apparel industry has a dark side to it and it's quite problematic. We're the second largest pollutant on earth. 

 So a hundred billion garments are produced annually. Garment workers are subjected to extremely unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, and are paid pennies on the dollar. Oceans are literally filling up with garments. You can view the Atacama Desert in Chile from space, which is a huge landfill filled with fast fashion. So, once you open your eyes in the apparel industry and you see those negative impacts that we're all creating, it's kind of hard to look away. So what we do most importantly is we aim to walk the talk. We aim to prove that responsible apparel manufacturing is possible and it can be done right here in our backyards. So what we do is we do have a safe and healthy working environment for all of our employees. We pay living wages to all of our garment workers.

We work with our clients to think about the end use of the products that they're making. We weigh all of the fabric scrapsand give those statistics to our clients and give them the option to take their excess scrap material with them and use it on their own or give it to us to reuse how we see fit.

mainly promoting the responsible side of the industry as best we can with anyone and everyone that we work with. And that could include only creating the certain amount of garments that you need and you know that you can sell rather than producing hundreds or thousands of garments and then having excess stock. And also thinking about extending the lifecycle of your garment. So making a jacket, for instance, the Cincinnati Pops jacket that we worked with them to design, we made them easy to alter. So if somebody 's body and their weight changes, you can alter it and have it for a longer period of time. That's a really great example of keeping your garments in circulation and wearing them longer. And similar things that you could do, we just like to spread the word. 

We have little postcards that are a little infographic on how to sew on a button. Most people in the United States don't even know how to replace a button on their shirt or their pants anymore, and a lot of times that means that person's going to take it to Goodwill or throw it away. And even just learning how to replace a button on your shirt, it can be a very radical act in circularity, in keeping your garments in circulation for longer.

[00:07:02] Dominique: That's amazing. The way Sew Valley is championing sustainable fashion is like across the board. I think it's really cool how you're touching with the individual and empowering them to have the skills they need, but also building something to support entrepreneurs to rebuild this very broken system. And I know we've done a lot of episodes, actually, we've done quite a few episodes about sustainable fashion. And often it's interesting and it lands on a lot of, just like less, we need to just do less, have less. But I, I also love that you're building a way for us to do this differently.

And before getting more into what Sew Valley is doing, why do you care about this? Like how in your journey did you learn about this massive problem? What just led you to be the champion of this effort?

[00:07:44] Shaila: I should say I have extensive experience in the fashion industry, but not in sustainable fashion my entire career. I've worked for a large corporation in New York for nine plus years. But like I said, once the doors opened and you start seeing the negative side of the fashion industry or any industry that you work in, it's really hard to look away.

So I feel my focus truly started to shift once sew Valley was up and running and more and more of these conversations were happening, you know, more articles and more efforts globally started happening collectively, especially after the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster where thousands of garment workers died when the building collapsed on them. That really catapulted a big push. Organizations such as Remake and Fashion revolution started as a result of that to push the ethical side of apparel manufacturing and treating garment workers with respect and dignity and advocating on their behalf. 

And so as, Sew Valley, a small apparel manufacturer, I don't know if we knew when we started, but we were doing just that, promoting an industry that is non-existent in our region and lifting up the people who work here and providing a place that is an alternative to the "sweat shop model" that we all are very familiar with.

If Sew Valley like reshaped the whole fashion industry. Like you just create this, like, you know, This Ripple Effect. Can you explain what that means? Like what is circular fashion? That's a huge question. It would be great. And, but I do think that what we are doing is replicable. I think that we're proving that it can be done if you have the right team behind you and people who believe in it. It can be done anywhere, not just in Cincinnati and maybe at a larger scale.

But I do personally believe that if we want this industry to change, we have to start it with people first. So the people who are making our garments need to be treated with respect. They need to be paid a living wage. You cannot create a sustainable product or brand if the person who's making that product is not afforded a sustainable life. So that's absolutely the most important thing, but also you have to train those people. 

So for us, it's hard to find people who are familiar with working in an apparel manufacturing facility because the industry has been offshore for so long. What we do is we consider all of our work and training on the job training. That's a huge portion to what we're trying to do and promote the industry. And I do believe that that model can be replicated in any region globally, honestly. 

I do think that it is a farfetched dream because the industry is so problematic on a global level, but if new legislative efforts happen in support of it, that might kickstart the industry or jumpstart it and make it change a little bit quicker 

Sew Valleycan also change the perception of the industry and the consumer as well. And that's a big ripple effect that, we really do aim for in our long-term vision just the general perception of the sewing trades industry. I would say most people when they hear sewing, they don't take it seriously. They have no idea where their clothing came from. Most people have no idea that every article of clothing that we wear is made by a human. It is made by a machine, but it must be manipulated by human hands. And I say, "Oh, I run Sew Valley, we're a Garment Factory." And most people either think we're a bunch of ladies making crafts or we're a sweatshop. I laugh, but it's, it's funny 'cause it's true because we're not doing either of those 

[00:11:24] Dominique: And it's very concerning because we all wear clothes. Like of all the industries that touch all of us every day, like we really should understand what it's doing. And I just wanna recap what you said before, So circular fashion to you is looking at the people in the equation and how this affects them, supports them and builds real community.

There's also like the repairability of the clothes that they can last a long time. There's this idea of maybe working within the policy and incentives of our capitalism so that these systems can exist and persist. And then maybe one piece that I'm curious about is just like the actual textiles. Do you have any just thoughts about like what it means to think about circular textiles, taking out the other elements of what is fashion?

[00:12:07] Shaila: Sure. Absolutely.it's a big conversation, but if you work with natural fibers, it's much easier to keep them circular and they're biodegradable, or you can create more wool from a hundred percent wool, et cetera. Now, as a manufacturer, we don't require specific materials. We don't cut off our clients based on what they use.

And I should also add that, Sew Valley just launched a new zero waste program. We received a grant from the Hamilton County resource in support of the acquisition of fabric shredding equipment and a sheet press machine to process all of our fabric scrap. So, what that means is when we are producing your garment line for you, there's always going to be scrap that's unusable afterwards. it's very similar to baking cookies. You cut out your cookies and then you take away the sheet with all the holes in it and throw it or hopefully make more cookies. 

But unfortunately with clothing you can't. If it's teeny pieces of scrap, it's hard to reuse all of it. So it's been a huge goal of ours to have a solution for all of that unusable waste. So, what we're just now launching is we're shredding all of this material down to a fabric fill, and it can also be known as shoddy to be used for things like upholstery fill or green alternatives to a poly fill that you might buy at a joint fabrics or whatever. As well as a sheet press machine that we're doing some R and D to figure out how to turn that shredded fabric use, environmentally friendly glue, and turn it into fiber boards for things like bulletin boards or soundproofing boards, et cetera. And hopefully if we get the recipe right, maybe decorative elements or furniture items, et cetera to promote circularityin the industry and promote creative reuse as well.

[00:13:55] Adam: And are your buyers of that material all local or how do you navigate that?

[00:13:59] Shaila: So it's just now getting started. So what we're doing is we're figuring out our standard processes here internally, just using our scrap that Sew Valley produces. But after a number of months, we'll offer it and open it up to the public. So if you're an individual home sewer and you wanna save your scrap, you could drop it off here for a small fee or you could purchase by the pound, the shredded fill and use it for your own projects like if you're making a dog bed or whatever you're looking to utilize it for. And just on our one block alone in the West End, we have two other commercial industrial sewing manufacturers. And we'd love to offer that service to our neighbors as well. And we're hoping to build more partnerships in support of finding solutions for textile waste.

[00:14:41] Dominique: you mentioned a little bit about how you're engaging with the community but what other activities are you doing to engage the community around sustainability?

[00:14:48] Shaila: So we do have a great educational workshop series. We love teaching, you know, high level classes. You don't have to have a career in the zone trades to wanna come in here and learn something. So we teach anything from introductory industrial sewing classes to a fun alterations class that we call DIY alterations, which is exactly what it sounds like. You have a pair of pants that you need altered, you come in and you learn how to alter them yourself, and then you leave with the product fitting appropriately and therefore it'll last longer in your closet. But also the skills to do it again. We also have two garden beds in the West End community garden about two blocks away from here, where we grow natural dye plants and then harvest the plants in the fall. And then teach natural dye classes using the plants that we grow. 

We started with Indigo, which is your traditional blue, like in your blue jeans. And last year we did, we grew marigolds, which yields of wonderful yellow or goldish color and Coreopsis and corn flour.

And this year we're just getting going, we will most certainly be doing marigold again because they just grow so quickly and you can get a lot of harvest out of it. And a few others probably more in the gold and yellowish hues this year. It's really fun, but it's also a great and an engaging way to get the community in here.

Natural dyeing really resonates with a lot of people because it's a few hours, but you really get instant gratification from whatever you throw in the dye pot, and it's very exciting to learn that dye was just grown down the corner, and you can do that with a lot of plants and sometimes a lot of weeds that grow in your backyard. If you figure out the mord treatment of your materials prior so that the dye stays on the material. Oh, you can dye with a lot of stuff. It's really fun.

[00:16:41] Adam: Are there any challenges with using natural dyes?

[00:16:43] Shaila: Yeah, I would say if you don't get the science right, sometimes the pigment washes out and every material is different. So a silk scarf will dye much different than a hundred percent cotton piece of muslin fabric. So it's easy to learn, but it's a lifetime to master. I would say dyeing is such a great way to spread the message that you can figure out alternatives and keep your clothing longer. If there's a stain on it, throw it in a dye pot. And your clothes will have a new life and you'll keep it for many more years after. So it's a great way to promote our natural resources, but also circulate circularity and longevity in your apparel products.

[00:17:27] Dominique: Yeah, you've mentioned a lot about some like local touch points of you are creating a hub for like scrap material to get a new home and then go back into the industry. You talked about like grants that are supporting you locally, how you're certified in your county as a zero waste or as a sustainable business which I think is really awesome. 

And I've personally read a lot about like the Cincinnati certification process because I think that it's like a really great example of what can be done in a lot of cities as a way to promote sustainable business and certify. And then you also mentioned like plantings and, and some of these like the growing practices, but we're really highlighting the Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit.

And I'm curious, like what do you think about how the Midwest is positioned to lead in the sustainable fashion space and like, how do you think about what it means for Sew Valley to be born in Cincinnati, Ohio?

[00:18:17] Shaila: That's amazing. I think the Midwest is such a great place for sustainable fashion and just manufacturing in general, and we are so honored and thrilled to be a part of the Midwest Sustainability Summit this coming summer, and for instance, a bunch of partnerships that Sew Valley has cultivated very organically is because of our location, so, such as our panel, we're on a panel with The Weaver's Guild here in Cincinnati. Amazing, amazing organization promoting the weaving arts here in our city. Also the Rust Belt fiber shed who really promotes the textile side and the soil to soil lifecycle for garments. So growing your fibers and weaving it into your textile, and then having to go back into the soil, as well as a global advocacy group with one of their managers who's based in Cincinnati. That group is Remake and they're doing amazing work in promoting ethical and sustainable apparel, manufacturing. There's such amazing work happening here in all, in these little pockets here in the Midwest.

So outside of just our panel, there's a new group in Hawking Hills called the Hawking Hills Garment Center, doing similar work to Sew Valley promoting ethical apparel manufacturing in Southeast Ohio. There's the Columbus Fashion Alliance in Columbus, who is exactly what they sound like they're allies to the industry and promoting fashion designers in Columbus. There's an amazing organization up in Detroit. So, I think that what we can do is, I think regional efforts and lifting each other up is where change can really happen. Sew Valley, we're a staff of 12 and we're doing quite a lot for a staff of 12, but you can only go so far. So in these regional efforts, and everybody's tackling sustainability in their own little ways, in just in the apparel sector, suddenly, that industry starts to shift. 

 I appreciate you sharing that.I think it's cool just transparently that we're getting to shine a light on the fashion industry in a place that I don't think gets credited with like being a hub of fashion. 

[00:20:23] Dominique: So it's just cool to hear the things that have been essential for you to succeed in this space, but also maybe what drives you and is exciting. And I'm sure you're also budding new things in the area. You're creating a whole new group of people that are educated and skilled in this industry.

[00:20:39] Shaila: Yeah, we like to think so. It's very exciting.

[00:20:43] Dominique: Well, another, another thing you do also is you work with a lot of creative entrepreneurs. I know you mentioned that a couple times of kind of like you're lowering the barrier to getting started in the fashion space. Maybe allowing someone to not have to go order a thousand or more units of a piece as they're learning how to make pieces. You let them make 10 to a hundred. Do you have any like one project or founder story that has stuck with you as a cool way to showcase to our listeners, like what it means to come to you as a budding entrepreneur and Sew Valley helps you launch?

[00:21:15] Shaila: It's hard to think about one in particular, but I would say in general, it the big light bulb moment that Sew Valley provides is " Oh my gosh. I can do this here and I can actually do it" because like we were saying, if you're gonna try and start an apparel brand, you're likely looking at manufacturing overseas. If you find a manufacturer in the US, the minimums are gonna be in the several hundreds to the thousands, and unless you have significant startup capital, it's really hard to start an apparel brand and roll the dice on all of those products that you hope your new customers are going to purchase.

So it's more exciting for our general client base is our location. So when you're designing a product, you can actually come in here and be a part of the sourcing the materials and touch and feel it or come in for a fitting and see how the product looks on the body in person.

So I think that the ease of creating a garment right here in your backyard is the most exciting part.

[00:22:20] Adam: Do you have any results of the impact that you've had so far? Either on the environment or local economy from being a local partner? 

[00:22:27] Shaila: Well, we've been around since 2017 and I could pull up the stats, but generally speaking, we've had a conservative economic impact is about 4.5 million just from the entrepreneurs that we've been lucky to work with and the individuals who rent studio spaces from us and the classes that we host.

And there really is, yeah, so we're really excited. And there's no shortage of demand, I should say, that our production calendar is booked. I think we could safely say we're booked through the end of the year. There's no shortage of small individual entrepreneurs looking to have their products built, and we've built an extremely talented team here.

So, we're really proud of what we're able to achieve.

[00:23:07] Dominique: Congratulations on truly building something awesome, and I'm, I'm so happy to hear that not only is your mission so fantastic and you're pairing it with a multifaceted approach to solving a big problem, but it's really amazing that the community is responding and that the demand is showing up for you. That is amazing, and I'm, I'm so excited for how much you're gonna grow. And the ripple effect that I asked about probably isn't that much of a long shot.

[00:23:32] Shaila: Yeah, hopefully not. Hopefully not. We do. We're we're hoping to grow and hoping to stick around for the long run. So,

[00:23:41] Adam: Awesome. Well, looking ahead, what's the change that you're most excited to see?

[00:23:45] Shaila: Well, don't tell anyone. I'm just kidding. Um, we are looking to expand and we need more square footage. So, we will be hoping to move into a new, larger space, but also, introduce a workforce development training program for industrial sewing machine operators to help promote the reshoring of the industry.

Because the hardest thing that we find as a manufacturer and our neighbors will tell you the same is finding trained help. So we hope to be a solution to that issue 

[00:24:14] Dominique: That's so exciting. 

 I wanted to also mention that an entrepreneur can come in and see their piece on a body or on a mannequin and start seeing it come to life, you're also reducing waste because they're gonna learn, and you know this, I just wanna, acknowledge it. you're reducing the fact that they would learn that after having a thousand of those. And I think that that is just so amazing that the things that you're doing that are creating positive impacts in this space are truly like exponential. So it's awesome. 

[00:24:42] Shaila: thanks for pointing that out. We love to call it preventative maintenance. You gotta put that, that shirt on, maybe wear it around, maybe even wash it. See how it wears over time. And all of those things do contribute towards the sustainability of the product, but also the impact that it comes with that too.

[00:25:00] Dominique: Thank you for chatting with us. how can listeners connect with you and support the work that you're doing?

[00:25:05] Shaila: Sure. Check us out at sewvalley.org and follow us on social media @sewvalley, on Facebook and Instagram. We always accept donations. We've got a donation button at the footer of our website, but also follow along and get involved. There's always fun activities that we're doing or come in and take a class or buy one of the products we've made online and support what we're doing so that we can continue to attempt to change the industry here on a local level.

[00:25:33] Adam: Thanks so much for taking the time to share with us today.

[00:25:35] Shaila: Yeah. Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here. Appreciate it.

[00:25:38] Adam: As always, our guests have found a unique way to champion sustainability. We're here to put real names and stories behind the idea that no matter your background, career, or interests, you really can contribute in the fight against climate change.

[00:25:49] Dominique: You can find our episodes, reach us at thegreenchampions.com. If you wanna stay in the loop, give us a review and follow us in your favorite podcast platform.

[00:25:58] Adam: Our music is by Zayn Dweik. A special thanks for this episode to the Green Umbrella, hosts of the annual Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit. And thanks for listening to Green Champions. We'll dig into anothersustainability success story in our next episode.