Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Angela Johnson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Angela, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

FABRIC Tempe is an Arizona 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Our mission is to provide apparel entrepreneurs with training, guidance, innovative industry resources, and access to no-minimum and on-demand manufacturing, so they can build sustainable fashion businesses domestically. And our vision
To establish Arizona as a modern fashion industry capital for the U.S. by creating a tech-based, sustainable, closed-loop fashion industry ecosystem that attracts and supports direct-to-consumer apparel brands. Our mission is very people-focused and our vision is very planet-focused.

We created FABRIC because both my Co-Founder Sherri and I were apparel entrepreneurs who experienced all of the obstacles involved in starting an apparel brand and manufacturing a sewn product. We wanted to remove some of those obstacles for others and provide the resources that could help them manufacture sewn products domestically in small batches. The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry on the planet mostly due to overproduction in unregulated overseas sweatshops in an attempt to get the cheapest prices. When an entrepreneur wants to try to fill a void in the marketplace with a unique sewn product, there aren’t a lot of alternative resources. In order to manufacture domestically in smaller batches, you need to be very hands on and become your brand’s Production Manager. This is a skill that isn’t really taught in fashion school, so even fashion design graduates don’t have the real skill that it takes to get a sewn product manufactured domestically in small batches. So, Sherri and I created FABRIC to provide the resources and guidance that apparel entrepreneurs need. Our bigger vision is to provide a proof of concept for the industry so that there is a more sustainable alternative to the current model.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an eco-friendly clothing designer, apparel entrepreneur consultant, and champion for Arizona fashion industry. I am best known as the Co-Founder of AZ’s fashion incubator FABRIC and for creating upcycled ball gowns from “thrifted” T-shirts under my eponymous fashion brand Angela Johnson Design.

I got my start in L.A. working in design and production for X-Large Manufacturing, the line owned by Mike Diamond of the Beastie Boys and X-Girl, the line owned by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. In the mid-1990’s I co-owned Monkeywench, a board sports-inspired collection with Days of Our Lives actress Christie Clark that was featured in Seventeen Magazine and worn by celebrities such as Tori Spelling on 90210, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christina Applegate, and more.

In 2001 I moved from LA back to my home state of Arizona. I had to close my clothing brand due to the lack of manufacturing resources and that’s when my journey began as a consultant. I has taught fashion classes at ASU, MCC, Collins College, AiPX, NSAA, and LabelHorde, and consulted hundreds of Arizona designers and students. After years of helping other apparel entrepreneurs, I decided to create the industry resources that were missing and that is what inspired me to create FABRIC. I partnered with another apparel entrepreneur named Sherri Barry who was also impacted by the lack of local resources and the two of us opened FABRIC in 2016.

Since then, FABRIC has been providing services such as manufacturing, design development, business consulting, branding, marketing, education, events, an industry directory, office space, and more to over 1500 apparel entrepreneurs and growing. Many of the resources are free or below market rates and we’ve documented over $12M in free and discounted programs and services to the community as well.

Today FABRIC is the only “phygital” fashion innovation center like it in the U.S. FABRIC utilizes the latest technology to democratize fashion and make it more sustainable. FABRIC is WEAR the industry comes to play! We’re embracing the latest technology to enable digitally native fashion brands of any size to meet the needs of today’s consumer-driven marketplace. Large and small e-commerce brands selling both wholesale and DTC can test the market and make and sell personalized, customized, unique garments in a batched on-demand model. Filling batched on-demand orders as they come in means no more excess inventory or guessing what will sell. Print and cut only what is needed when it’s needed.

FABRIC is a proof of concept that the industry can and should say goodbye to excess inventory and overseas sweatshop manufacturing and hello to a more sustainable, responsible, efficient, and affordable future!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

During the pandemic, we pivoted and turned our event space into a PPE factory. We manufactured 800K reusable medical gowns for the nation’s healthcare facilities They could each be washed 100 times which kept over 80M disposable gowns from the landfill. This was one of the most challenging eras for us and we are still feeling the repercussions from it, but we are proud that we were able to contribute to protecting our nation’s healthcare heroes. We even got a visit from President Biden and VP Harris to recognize our efforts. Unfortunately, when the world opened back up again, the market got saturated with offshore disposable gowns again and we were left with equipment, materials, staff, and an underutilized factory. We’ve had to pivot once again to survive and now and this has inspired us to lean into more technology and batched-on-demand print/cut/sew.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

We created FABRIC to help apparel entrepreneurs and the biggest obstacle they have besides understanding the technical side of Production Management, is meeting high MOQ’s (minimum quantity orders) at sewing factories. Factories don’t really make any money on small quantities. The only way they do make any money is to make hundreds of thousands of the same item. So, we knew that starting a sewing factory with no minimums that could sew almost any type of sewn product (so that we could help many different apparel entrepreneurs and brands) wasn’t going to be a profitable business model. So, we came up with the idea that we would need a space big enough where we could also offer event space. The idea was that if we could rent out an event space for fashion shows, trade shows, corporate events, fundraisers, weddings, music festivals and other events, that we could take the profit to balance out the loss of the small batch manufacturing. We also knew we could offer additional revenue generators such as pattern making tech packs, classes/consulting, and other industry services that apparel entrepreneurs would need. So, we basically developed an entire industry under one roof.

Additionally, we worked out a use agreement with the city of Tempe to utilize one of their old buildings for the incubator/event space. In exchange for rent, we give back free and discounted programs and services to the community and document it and report it to city council. To this day we’ve donated over $12M in free and discounted programs and services to earn our stay in the city’s building.

And lastly, my Co-Founder Sherri was our investor. She cashed in her 401K to purchase the equipment and cover the rennovations in the building and other start up costs.

These three things helped us avoid having to take out business loans or find investors to get started.

Then during the pandemic, after manufacturing 800K medical gowns, we ended up getting really efficient using lien manufacturing techniques. We originally only charged what it cost us to make the gowns, but over time, we unexpectedly ended up with a little profit that we reinvested back into the facility so that we could buy all of the technology we have that makes manufacturing and design more affordable, more unique, and more sustainable for the apparel entrepreneurs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fabricincubator.com
• Instagram: @FabricTempe
• Facebook: @FabricTempe
• Linkedin: @FabricIncubator
• Youtube: @fabric2271

Image Credits
Jenny Kaufman (Group Photos) Shane Baker (Runway)