You all jumped into this company with different, but not entirely dissimilar backgrounds. Describe the roles you all play in Knickerbocker. AJ: I'm the first contact with clients and I deal with the brand and fabric sourcing. I work on the graphic design for the company as well, with help from designer Sonya Kazlova. She's amazing. Kyle Mosholder: Dan and I deal with production end of things. Daniel McRorie: I manage orders, our employees, stock components that we carry. I'm also working on the leather goods that we produce. AJ: Dan loves doing all of our monotonous stuff. He loves doing visors. He'll sit there doing visors all day, and will just have the biggest damn grin on his face. Daniel McRorie: Haha, yea, if I've got a minute I'll just jump right in there and sit down, stitch some visors. AJ: Both Kyle and Dan do so many components of the hats. They really understand the machines, the fabrics, and they know right away if something will work or not.
What has it been like going from small, independent companies to production manufacturing?
minimums and maybe they wouldn't even have been able to do it at all.
McRorie: To me, its really fascinating to approach something with the point of view of a manufacturer. Before, I made everything one piece at a time. Its a slow process, and its very expensive to work that way. You have to charge a lot for that type of work. And then to come here, and see how we can make a really nice product, as quickly and efficiently as possible without losing any of that quality. Its a whole different way of looking at it, and I'm loving it.
Mosholder: From my past experience in having caps made for d'emploi, it was really hard to be a small company and have things produced in a reasonable time frame. That is integral to our plan for Knickerbocker, keeping low minimums and quick turnarounds.
Mosholder: It's been a new learning experience for me, because with a bag, it doesn't necessarily have to fit your body, it just has to fit your lifestyle or your aesthetic. So that's been interesting, to go through all the old patterns, see how to work on the fit, the silhouette.
AJ: People will ask "Can we do this....?" and we'll answer "Yea! Of course we can do that." People aren't used to be able to have options. Things were so closed off in manufacturing before, and its becoming so much more open now. I think the key to success in our business is accessibility, and allowing people choice. Mosholder: It's a way to open up the possibilities for people. If they don't know whats possible, you show them. Or, if they do, its about revealing something else to push the work, raise the bar. All this new equipment has opened up so many options for us, and then in turn for other people.
McRorie: I've worked at factories before sewing. With shoes and other certain things, you're making a 3-D product from a flat material, so whether its a shoe or a hat, its kind of the same thing. So its been really fun to switch over to hats and apply all that past experience.
AJ: We're new. We're still discovering possibilities too. Its like, everyday, theres a light bulb - BING!
What sort of clients have you worked with so far?
McRorie: All the time!
AJ: Mostly East Coast clients; smaller independent brands, boutiques, and a few larger brands as well. People have a concept, they want to just try something out, and they can with us. This one guy did this military cap, it was really funky, and he got to test that product out here; no where else would've been able to do that for him. Some caps we've made have been more like art than a product. Already, we've had the opportunity to work with some really cool people, some really awesome projects.
So you’re not only manufacturing for other labels, but you have your own label as well. Tell me about this.
McRorie: Our minimums are low - just 25 hats. So, it allows people to do multiple styles, where as before there were higher
McRorie: We're creating small capsule collections that are theme based with limited numbers. These little collections are really cool, because they aren't season based, so we can really have fun and experiment. The next collection will be a completely different idea, a different concept.