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Author Archives: mike@jasonmills.com

  1. A New Chapter

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    Heading into May and June the number of trade shows and conferences heat up. See us at Techtextil in Atlanta, GA, in booth 2717, May 3rd – 5th. Catch up with us at the USIFI Outlook Conference in May and we will be walking Outdoor Retailer in August, ISSA in October, and one week later we will be displaying at IFAI. Truly the busy season. Busy, busy, busy, but necessarily so.

    Necessary because this is the season in which Jason Mills opens a new chapter in its 40 year history. We have been, since the 90’s, the company that “Make’s Things Materialize” and for millions and millions of yards of fabrics produced we truly did make things materialize. But, now it’s time for a new future. A future of innovation, performance and top quality materials. This is the season of spreading the word that through research and development we will be delving into new and exciting materials and markets.

    Over the last year we have put into the market place a multi-layer material that not only wicks moisture, has anti-microbial properties, but is soft to the touch and has load bearing qualities that surpass 1,500 pounds. We’ve created a snag resistant mesh that is water, fire and UV resistant. The outdoor retailing industry has never seen anything like it. We developed a golf screen that is made exclusively for hi-def imagery and can absorb the impact of a golf ball traveling over 150 mph, thousands of times. Our aeronautical line of fire resistant material has increased as well.

    This is the season in which we open a new chapter. Over the coming months we will be travelling to shows. We will be updating our literature and media outlets such as our URL, Facebook and LinkedIn page. We look forward to meeting you, the customer, and showing you what we can do for you.

  2. March Madness

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    March: Madness

    It is March, so that means basketball and brackets. Even non fans take a moment to test the office pools and jump into the water.  We watch nail biters and route for teams we have no connection to whatsoever.  Why?  Because in the end it is fun and a distraction from the realities of life that invariably creep into everyone’s day.

    The March games have inevitability to them. Starting with sixty four teams in the first round, the bucket is immediately halved after a day or two.  A few days later we’re down to sixteen teams: The Sweet Sixteen.

    Elimination and inevitability; for those who came through the 1990’s in the textile industry, those words have a familiar ring; 159,000 in job losses or 22% of textile mill jobs in total – Inevitable Elimination – Madness. There was enough finger pointing to go around as to who, what, where, when and why. Blame it on the economy, NAFTA, imports, unions, whatever. The bottom line was that our industry took a punch in the gut, and almost broke.

    Almost, but not quite; some things are not inevitable. True, the tournament will go into April, and there will be only one team crowned champion. But in the textile industry there is a growth fueled by innovation and technology. We are creating new products to fill needs the consumer demands. (See textile wearable’s, nano fabrics, anti microbials and a host of others.)

    This is where the future lies:  innovation – performance – quality; it is not Madness. It is inevitable.

     

  3. “Ground Hog Day” in the Textile Industry

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    In the movie, “Groundhog Day”, Bill Murray is caught in a time warp of sorts where every day is the same thing. The same routine. The same greetings. The same weather. He is doomed to repeat, with certitude, the same conversations, motions, movements and happenings that occurred the previous day.

    This redundancy, in life, would make an average man or woman quickly insane. But when developing a process for production and quality, sameness is actually something to be embraced. This is the way it is in textile production.

    Please consider for a moment the average piece of fabric. Let’s say you are on a plane, and you pull a magazine from the mesh pouch that’s hooked to the seat in front of you. The pouch has the same color as the leather on the seat. How does that happen?

    A simple piece of mesh netting is comprised of the following:

    Filament

    Yarn

    Knitting

    Dyeing

    Finishing

    Any variation in the above can cause a deviation in your finished product. The process of production and quality must adhere to a routine: spec certification for your filament count and yarn; knitting quality assurance- sampling, counting stitches, hole size repeats; dyeing- have there been chemical changes, appearance changes? Is the shade correct? Finishing- does the fabric feel correct (too hard, too soft?). It’s going in a plane. Is it fire resistant? (Again, have there been chemical changes that could adversely affect this?). Do we have a confirmation that all of the above criteria have been met?

    So consider the simple piece of fabric, and the steps that a quality control manager takes to insure that all of these criteria are met. This is what we do every day at Jason Mills- for every fabric.

    And remember, all of our products are knit, dyed and finished in the U.S.A.

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