Photo by Jeff Taylor & Shea Foley
By Luke Warner
There is a much to be said for attention to detail. It’s something we strive for in all aspects of our work, in our design and in our production. It’s a characteristic we look for in colleagues and appreciate in our partners. Since 2007, we have taken immense pride in each of our garments, luggage pieces & accessories – and we continue to include a red cross stitch on almost all of our products. At Apolis, the cross stitch has come to symbolize the “common thread” that we feel connects all global citizens committed to quality and change. It is something we try to keep in mind as we build our brand and it’s an ideal that we want to pass along to everyone who wears Apolis so that they can carry it with them as well.
To this end, all of our Standard Issue items and other locally made garments have each been embroidered with our cross stitch at the same shop, about twenty miles from our office in Los Angeles, since 2008. The embroidery station takes up about a tenth of the 70,000 sq. foot factory. Although the factory has been around for 30 years, the embroidery corner was only established in 2004 when our friend Ramon teamed up with the factory manager to bring that final step of the production process in-house.
Their factory has an open floor plan and, upon entering from the loading dock onto the bustling factory floor, you are greeted with whirring screenprinting presses, a maze of pallets stacked high with graphic t-shirts and the humming chatter of dozens of employees. In the far corner, tucked behind a particularly high stacked pallet, is the embroidery station, just as busy, spinning multiple threads on four machines with fifty heads. At any given time, depending on their workload, their department has between six and twelve employees who work specifically in this corner of the shop.
It continues to be a pleasure to work with our local embroiderers Ramon and Angel. Next time you see our red cross stitch, know that each one should be flawless thanks to their hardworking Los Angeles team’s tireless attention to detail.
Follow Apolis Journal: RSS Feed | Twitter | Facebook | Apolis Mobile App | Correspondence
