textile-manufacturing
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Nimantha Baranasuriya keeps going back to the factory
A conversation with his civil-engineer father helped turn wireless research into Ackcio. Now, at ThermoTune, Nimantha Baranasuriya is back on the factory floor, asking how production can use less fuel.
Pendleton’s real inheritance is a working loom
A closed Oregon mill became a family business whose blankets travel between bedrooms, ceremonies and national parks. The interesting part is how much of the making Pendleton still controls.
Hobbs Bonded Fibers: The quiet business inside your quilt and car
A Texas manufacturer found an unusual advantage in the things people rarely see: the filling, the insulation, the middle. Its history offers a lesson in selling expertise across markets - and sometimes across competing labels.
Chitra Ebenezer’s Quiet Trick: Make an Old Fastener Feel New Again
She once planned to become a doctor. Instead, Chitra Ebenezer built a career diagnosing a different problem: how to help familiar brands earn a fresh look.
The 146-Year-Old Company Hiding in Your Patio, Boat and Workwear
You probably know Sunbrella. The more interesting business is the one behind it - a North Carolina mill that learned to sell durability, distribution and trust as one connected system.
Velcro Companies
Velcro Companies is the maker of the original VELCRO Brand hook-and-loop fastener, invented by Swiss engineer George de Mestral after studying burrs under a microscope in the 1940s. From its U.S. base in Manchester, New Hampshire, the privately held firm designs and manufactures thousands of fastening variants - from basic fabric closures to injection-molded plastics, high-temperature retention systems and medical-grade straps - serving customers across medical, aerospace, automotive, military, industrial, footwear, packaging and consumer markets in roughly seven countries.
unspun
unspun is a San Francisco-based fashion-technology company that built Vega, the world's first 3D weaving system for apparel. Vega weaves garments directly from yarn in minutes, skipping cut-and-sew steps to enable on-demand, near-zero-waste, locally produced clothing. A certified B Corp founded in 2015, unspun sells custom-fit jeans direct to consumers while licensing its hardware and software to brands and retailers aiming to decarbonize their supply chains. Its stated mission is to reduce global human carbon emissions by 1%.
Maria Intscher-Owrang
Maria Intscher-Owrang is the co-founder and CEO of Simplifyber, a Raleigh-area materials startup that molds cellulose-based liquid directly into finished textile and composite parts, eliminating spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing. After more than two decades designing for Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, Dirk Bikkembergs and Alexander McQueen, she left luxury fashion to rebuild manufacturing from the fiber up, landing partnerships with GANNI and Kia and a $12M Series A led by Suzano Ventures.