Why We Built a Factory
How a single conversation shifted the Todd Shelton brand from a traditional outsourced fashion label to an independent, self-contained manufacturer.
After several years of operating the brand using the traditional apparel manufacturing framework of designing garments and working with outside factories to produce them, the business faced severe headwinds. By the end of 2011, increased sales momentum exposed problems in our supply chain. While relationships with third-party factories remained positive, managing production across separate facilities introduced unrelenting challenges with lead times and quality control. The brand lacked direct control over its own manufacturing, meaning the product was not consistently meeting exact design expectations. The business needed a better solution.
A change in strategy occurred after a conversation with domestic saddle maker based in Texas. His own business history tracked a similar path. The conversation established that outsourcing production to a separate factory, maintaining deep inventories, and waiting for retail clearance cycles was an unsustainable framework for long-term stability. The solution was to build our own factory. This required acquiring industrial machinery, learning garment construction internally, and adopting a lean manufacturing model. In February 2012, operations transitioned into an industrial warehouse in New Jersey to build a dedicated factory from the ground up, purchasing equipment and hiring production staff.
Transitioning from a pure design house to a physical manufacturer introduced immediate operational complexity. The demands of preparing physical factory space, acquiring machinery, and training entirely consumed our small team, causing standard marketing and outward-facing branding efforts to be temporarily shelved throughout 2012 and 2014. Despite a temporary slowing of market momentum, the internal focus remained locked on building the physical infrastructure. This period allowed the team to master garment construction from conception to completion, establishing an internal culture of independence that is impossible to replicate as non-manufacturers.
This also changed the fundamental nature of the product. Operating an internal factory floor creates an immediate, unbroken connection where a single group of people design, cut, sew, and ship products directly to the end user. The factory floor serves as a continuous environment for incremental improvement, where the production team meets daily to take direct ownership of product innovation, material efficiency, and quality control. This framework completely eliminates overproduction, shifting resources away from wasteful liquidation cycles and focusing them entirely on delivering long-term utility.
