Eight months ago, while working as a menswear buyer at Macy’s, I had an epiphany. I must have been inspecting one of the 16 pockets on a pair cargo shorts, which we’d later sell for $38, when I thought: These shorts cost $5 to make. Does a customer realize the markup they’re paying, and how this short’s been made millions of times over?
Mass clothing production and department stores made sense before the internet. But now at the click of a mouse I can connect with international suppliers and a huge audience. Do we need middlemen? Do we need huge markups? Should we settle for generic sizes and mass manufacturing? I didn’t think so. That’s why I founded a custom shirt company called Woodies.
I started making shirts for family & friends and then for some bands I liked. That turned into a website. It’s been awesome and the momentum has turned into a kickstarter campaign.
Jacob Wood–Founder, Woodies Clo.
