Still Building America: Detroit ‘social streetwear’ clothing manufacturer York Project, Part II

York Project's grand opening in Detroit. Photos by Josh and Darla Welton

In Part I of our interview with Josh York, the founder of “social streetwear” clothing company York Project proved how creativity and gumption can take you places. He has made some leaps of faith and taken some calculated risks, but those things are paying off and paving a way of their own.

In Part II we talk job creation, industrial sewing, the satisfaction of working and creating things with our hands, taking things to the next level with helping the homeless, and vision for the future.

Darla Welton: How big is your team?

Josh York: We have a team of 10 right now. I do a lot of the design and B2B stuff and work with clients to get their stuff. We are trying to hire someone to really push the York Project brand forward. It’s gone a little stagnant the past six months because we’ve been focusing on this building, opening stores, and the B2B work. I’m more excited about growing the business right now, but there are so many talented designers who can come in and run with what we’ve built already and take it to another level, so I’m trying to hire two to three more people to fill that role and manage the York brand within our company as a whole.

DW: How many people are actually sewing each day?

JY: It varies. We are a superlean team, but we pull people in when we have the jobs. We have one new person starting today and another person starting next week.

DW: And those are industrial sewing positions, yes?

JY: Yeah. We have five dedicated production people and 11 sewing machines in the shop right now. My little cousin Stephen Fader and I can do everything, though. So, if we need to get the job done – we are sewing. That’s my favorite part about this. If I get fed up working on the computer, I can just go and make some stuff. I love that! That’s something I’m never gonna get at a corporate job. I’m sure you guys can relate. I get to screen-print 500 shirts next weekend and I’m excited for it! Something about making is so satisfying.

Josh Welton: That’s what we are hoping to do with our Still Building America project – to show middle school students more opportunities to explore jobs where they can work with their hands.

JY: I think more people are realizing that working with our hands is a cool career option.

Product display at York Project's grand opening in Detroit.

JW: What is the smallest project you’ll tackle?

JY: We’ll make you one shirt if you need one shirt. That doesn’t help us at all as a business, but my team’s mentality is that we try to bend over backwards for everybody because that kid with one shirt? His line might blow up and then we’re the ones making it. And we’ve seen that happen where a brand starts with 10 and then they do 50 and then 100. That’s all business, and I don’t ever want to get to a place where we’re too big to take on those things.

I still spend a lot of my time working on smaller projects like that, so we need someone who can do those things – it would be a great entry-level account management position. So, we try not to ever say no. Just yesterday we took on an order for 25 shirts with 24-hour turnaround. We are the busiest we’ve ever been, but we’ll make it happen.

DW: It must be exciting to watch your brand evolve.

JY: Honestly, I didn’t think I was gonna stick with it; it was just a fun little project. I was donating to charity and it got me a lot of scholarships to transfer to Michigan State University. I didn’t know that I was gonna continue it, but it was the one thing I kept coming back to.

DW: Tell us more about your mission to assist the homeless.Is that funded only through York Project brand sales?

JY: We do a lot of partnerships with other companies now where they contribute though us. We did a thing with MOD pizza three weeks ago. They sold a York Project pizza for a week, and $1 from each sale was donated. We are getting more attention for this part of who we are. And instead of having all of our sales go directly to donation supplies, we actually get supplies donated to distribute so then we can cut big checks at the end of the year.

The grander vision is to be able to hire people. Rebel Nell is a phenomenal example of how that works. We’re not there yet, but hey, I taught myself how to sew on YouTube. We can teach anybody how to make a T-shirt if they have patience and are willing to learn. If we continue to grow at the current pace, we will have a ton of opportunities in the future. Then we can really be a part of the community and hire people from the community no matter their background. That’s the grand vision.

DW: That’s awesome! Let’s check out the shop floor.

As we headed back out to the shop floor, we met Carly McKay. She’s a designer and sewer who shows us that no materials are wasted. She has created a cool line of reversible kid’s clothes.

York Project's grand opening in Detroit.

Carly McKay: I’m making a kids’ line out of all the scraps from adult T-shirts.

JW: What is your design process?

CM: I design on the computer in CAD using Illustrator, but all of the patterns are done by hand.

JY: We have all sorts of sewing projects going on. And we love helping others launch their businesses too. We are here because of the generosity of others. For example, Detroit Denim is a big reason that we are here and in business. They helped us get our patterns going; we bought a machine from them. They are incredible mentors.

DW: Is your plan to stick with York Project long-term?

JY: As much as I love it, I could see myself doing other things too. I’d like to open a restaurant someday as another way to employ people. I thought about opening a taco shop in a church building and calling it Holy Guacamole. There are other things that interest me. I’d love to get into real estate development at some point; I’m really interested in community development. But for the time being, I’m loving this.

One week later was the grand opening of the York Project and Rebel Nell’s brick and mortar storefront and factory on Holden Street in Detroit. The turnout was insane! Family, friends, artists, supporters, and politicians all came by.

Darla and I walked there from our loft, which was good because parking was scarce. There was a food truck, DJ, drinks, games, and a board set out with some cans of spray paint so the guests could tag one word that shared what they love about Detroit.

Josh York was trying to be everywhere at once, so I gave him a quick hug and said congrats on the turnout. We’re all about local makers, especially when they’re doing supercool stuff, so I bought one of his long-sleeve shirts sewn from scratch in Detroit, a canvas flag with “Motown” stitched into it, and a pair of Rebel Nell’s graffiti earrings for Darla.

I can’t wait to see where the York Project goes from here!

York Project's grand opening in Detroit.

Check more Still Building America stories and interviews from metal fabricators, welders, and small-business entrepreneurs.

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