We were lucky to catch up with John Pryor recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi John, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Madison Flitch, and our sister company Madison Stitch, are “farm-to-table” enterprises focusing on producing high-quality, sustainable, ethically-made sculptural art, furniture, and leather goods in downtown Kansas City. We source all of our wood, leather, and metal hardware from local producers just as a chef sources prime ingredients for their restaurant from local farmers. This approach allows us to work with producers to curate and customize materials so that we may shape them into high quality art, furniture, and leather fashion accessories. Our wood is harvested from local urban trees around Kansas City, while our leather is sourced from the legendary Hermann Oak leather tannery in Missouri, which has been making the best vegetable-tanned leather for over 150 years. Our team of designers all come from the local community and make everything in our downtown studio — nothing is out-sourced. They are fashion designers, seamstresses, product designers, engineers, refugees and immigrants. We pay a living wage, in contrast to most manufacturers of similar products in the world. We believe high-quality products result from the best materials and the best people, and so it is very important for us to invest the necessary resources into our people and our materials.
John, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
The company was started by John Pryor, who left his corporate tech job in Boston to move home to Kansas City and start an artisan-driven collective that celebrated the people and natural resources of the midwest. Woodworking served as a stress-relief for Pryor during his tech career, and he when he left the tech industry he decided he wanted to dedicate the rest of his career to reconnecting with the people and natural resources of the midwest. He graduated from Marc Adams School of Woodworking as a master craftsman, and used the skills he gained there to make furniture and sculptural art.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In winter 2019, Pryor opened his studio and gallery in the arts district of Kansas City, which focused at the time exclusively on furniture. A few months later, the pandemic started, and fearing the studio would get shut down, Pryor pivoted his operation to making fabric-style face masks. Over the several months, over 35,000 masks were made and sold to people throughout the world during the mask shortage. To meet demand, Pryor hired seamstresses and fashion designers from the refugee and immigrant community who were laid off from their factory jobs during the pandemic. Their talent and work ethic was so strong that Pryor launched a new brand, Madison Stitch, based around their stories and skills that makes hand-crafted leather bags. Fashion design, sewing, and leather craft was not within Pryor’s skillset, but Pryor taught himself the critical skills necessary to lead a fashion accessories company alongside his talented team of stitchers and designers.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
All products are designed and made in our downtown studio — nothing is outsourced. We learned how to make things either through our various educations, or by figuring out processes through trial and error. Pryor has a master craftsman certificate from the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, while many of the designers on the team come from local design colleges. The refugees and immigrants on the team were trained in seamstress schools in their home countries to work in fashion factories until their political situations forced them to immigrate to Kansas City. Our collective know-how and skills allow Madison Flitch and Madison Stitch to produce 100% of its products in-house.
Because it is expensive to ethically produce artisan goods in the USA, much of our design aesthetic focuses on classic, minimalist styles that we can make quickly and efficiently. We consider the production process during the design phase of our products — if a design proves too hard to make, we usually abandon it. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.madisonstitch.com
- Instagram: @madison.stitch
- Facebook: @madisonstitch
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pryorjohn/
- Twitter: @madisonflitch
- Other: Madison Flitch: www.madisonflitch.com IG: @madisonflitch FB: @madisonflitch Madison Stitch www.madisonstitch.com IG: @madison.stitch FB: @madisonstitch
Image Credits
Photos courtesy of Nicole Bissey and John Pryor