Tactical Gear Sewing

In the custom sewn business, it would be great if there was a standard checklist for every finished product. However, each product is different will have its own specific criteria.

Without giving away all of our secrets, here is a standard list of things we check to ensure a quality product.

Fit: Does the item the bag/pouch is designed to hold fit properly inside

Placement of Parts (web, veclro, snaps, etc): At mark or within tolerance allowed

Seam Allowances:  typically 3/16” on all products; seams are to be within +/- 1/16”.

Cuts - cuts in material flaws, crooked cuts, ragged cuts

Snaps/Rivets – set in wrong position, missed hole, machine not set correctly

Closing Stitches: in the same line as the binding stitches on the front and back of the product.

Bartacks: check location; placement is critical, can cause some items to be too small

Tension and Thread Clipping:  Stitches should be tight and the tension should be set so you cannot see the loop of the top and bottom threads. Threads clipped to within tolerance.

Stitch Length - typically 7-11 stitches/inch

Binding – not applied correctly, loose, smashed, uneven, not caught on both sides, overlapped binding not covered.

Programmable stitching – out of bobbin thread, missing bartack, tacked in wrong position, located part in wrong position, tack chewed up binding.

Remember, it’s always best to have a second sets of eyes inspect.

I’ve often pondered and more often asked by prospects and customers why we choose Chicago for our sewing facility. Well, the simple reason would be that the company founders chose it, all the way back in 1921. But many things have changed since then, and it’s worth discussing why it still makes sense today.

Co-location with your customers is ideal for almost any business. But for us, we have a widely-dispersed national customer base. In fact, many of them are on the coasts: California, Florida, Virginia, Washington, the list goes on…Meanwhile, we’re sitting right smack in the middle. As it turns out, the numbers of customers on the east and west coasts have remained relatively balanced. If we were to shift to one coast, we would be at a significant coast disadvantage trying to serve the other. So we’re making a cognizant compromise to appeal to both. Consequently, we try to make up for any difference by running a tight ship. Fixed costs are maintained low so we can ride the ebbs and flows of a made-to-order business.

But in reality, why would a California customer chose us over someone in their backyard? Well, several do and here’s why. Just like our founders played a big role in our location, the birth and formation of the US textile industry on the East Coast has a lot to do with it.

The portfolio of raw goods that we work with are not freight-friendly (unless you’re the freight company, I guess). It’s expensive to ship heavy, oversize rolls of nylon, canvas, webbing, and foam. Assuming a Berry compliant product, chances are a West Coast cut and sew shop is ordering their materials from a mill in North Carolina, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Georgia, etc. That’s a long way to ship bulky goods. Being here in Chicago, it’is a much shorter trip. We take those bulky goods, convert them into compactible soft goods and ship them the rest of the way in their new form. Essentially, it helps level the playing field with our West Coast competitors. At the same time, you can see it puts a West coast competitor at a significant disadvantage if the ship-to address for the finished goods are back East

Having said all of that, we’re not in a commodity business. By definition, a sewn product is a hand made product. The level of craftsmanship displayed in the sewing plays the biggest part. And that’s clearly an advantage of being in business for over 80 years. Yet, I’m always asked price first. That’s a discussion for another post sometime. Have a great day!

Some might be amazed how often I get this question. Of course, the answer is an emphatic YES!

At our company, Bearse USA, we feel very fortunate to be able to survive and thrive in the topsy turvy world of manufacturing. We took our share of lumps for awhile, but we believe strongly in what we’re doing today.

During the late 90’s and early 00’s, we endured several tough conversations with our customers. The typical one sounded something like this, “You know, you make great product and you deliver on time, but…we’re going to China because we can get it for 50 cents on the dollar. There’s a lot of pressure on us from our executives and we need to do what we have to do.”

That was then. We were a company unprepared for the globalization of our industry. It took some serious introspection.

My Dad worked here for over 40 years and retired in 1999. When he comes down here now, it’s barely recognizable to him. New products, new machines, new capabilities, and a lean and mean efficient office. We invested a lot of time, money, and emotion to make this happen. It required some hard decisions and a few leaps of faith, but it worked, and we’re not looking back.