We’ve heard Detroit’s becoming a hotbed for tech talent. But that’s not all.
With the arrival of former Donna Karen CEO Jeffrey Aronsson in the City, Detroit is set to compete with Paris, New York City and other classic hotspots for fashion. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan personally charged Aronsson with creating a new textile design and fashion production hub in The D.
This will be a big boost for Detroit, and its garment industry:
- Detroit-based companies like Shinola, Detroit vs. Everybody and Ash & Erie (which was recently featured on ABC’s Shark Tank and received a $150,000 grant from billionaire businessman Mark Cuban) will be able to manufacture locally, at better prices.
- Industry growth in the City is likely to encourage other fashion leaders to join Aronsson in relocating to the Midwest.
[pictured: Jeffrey Aronsson]
According to award-winning journalist Kimberly Hayes Tayler, in her model D article “Can Detroit become a textile manufacturing hub? Industry professionals think so:”
Aronsson imagines a campus where early, high-potential design and fashion entrepreneurs can get prototypes made and engineered for production, and manufactured without all the obstacles that drive their work to countries such as China…
Jennifer Guarino, Shinola’s vice president of manufacturing, has already teamed up with other Detroit clothing companies, including Ash & Erie, Detroit Denim and Maggie’s Organics, as well as the Lear Corporation, to create the City’s Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center, “an academy and factory in one.” Part of this effort will include a U.S. Department of Labor-approved apprenticeship certification program.
[pictured: Jennifer Guarino]
To learn more, read the full model D story.
