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Proximity Manufacturing Company

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gcdrygoodsco View Drop Down
whiskered
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Joined: 21 Mar 2017
Location: Greensboro, NC
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote gcdrygoodsco Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Mar 2022 at 4:01am
Edwin,

First, thanks for ordering and supporting two small businesses that have local, talented employees on staff.  We at Proximity Mfg. Co. are super appreciative of any and all who can support our startup, and are humbled to have folks like Mike putting their brands behind us to help us not only succeed, but to grow and have viability.  

Second, I know that the majority of American selvage has been, for the better part of several decades, all sanforized.  Us making cloth and furnishing it to businesses and brands without any finishing, straight from the cloth roll of the loom, can offer consumers uncertainty and reluctance to buy because of shrinkage.  We have, based on this very fact, made it our goal to put cloth and garments through wash testing, and to analyze fiber and yarn for contraction, so that we can not only continue to furnish cloth this way, a much more eco-friendly manner that saves countless gallons and thus prevents that very water from having to undergo treatment to clean for reuse, but in doing so we can help pass this knowledge onto the brand, to offer it to the consumer, to help reduce issue after purchase, and help understand how garments made with our cloth, or any unsanforized cloth, tend to fit when worn, soaked, washed, etc.  

That being said, do you mind keeping folks here apprised of fit over the lifespan of your jacket?  Did you buy it raw or rinsed and dried from Mike?  I know that because of the aforementioned, he offers it both ways to folks.  

Lastly, a small update.  We are now weaving on both looms, one is continuing 3x1 right hand twill, while I restacked the cams on the camshaft on the other loom to right 3x1 left hand twill, and we are now using a 9.00/1 ARS 14% shade indigo warp, and filling it with a natural jute two ply yarn.  I think this will make a nice 3-season weight, balanced cloth, and in preliminary wash tests I have discovered that the two ply, turns per inch similarity between a cotton and a jute yarn have not caused the "sponge" effect that Ralph Tharpe and I anticipated with the jute.  By using a bast fiber in the filling, this should bump up the durability of the cloth, while not adding any abrasiveness due to it being well cotttonized yarn, and the same weight, 20/2.  

Thanks for posting thesse photos!  Mike and his Runabout crew have done an amazing job to not only create a beautiful article of clothing that doubles as wearable art, but they have also made an amazing narrative that tells part of our story inside that single front pocket.

Sincerely,
Proximity Manufacturing Company
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (3) Thanks(3)   Quote shredwin_206 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Mar 2022 at 8:22pm

Who says the Brander Jacket isn’t workwear!?
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Mr. Q View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mr. Q Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Mar 2022 at 1:00pm
it's beautiful!
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whiskered
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anonymous

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote shredwin_206 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Apr 2022 at 4:23pm


Making good progress with the jacket. Nice and hairy denim
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gcdrygoodsco View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote gcdrygoodsco Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 May 2022 at 7:05am
Small Update:  

We have been weaving on both looms, producing Left Hand Twill 3/1 and Right Hand Twill 3/1 for a few customers, using alternative natural fiber in the filling yarn we insert into the indigo-dyed and slashed cotton warp.  

We worked with W.O.L.F. and held Denim 101 again this year, the first of two courses planned for in-industry folks this calendar year.  We are also beginning to host these courses with private businesses, with more specific material covered per request.  Denim 101 was sold-out again, and consisted of teams from brands large and small, as well as other in-industry folks.  We look forward to the next course in October, which has just a few open slots left.

During the second day of Denim 101, we hosted two groups in our weaving facility at White Oak Plant, where we demonstrated color effect on both looms, both with twill hand and filling insertion.  

We have been actively producing more colored filling variant denims for Opie Way, who will have new Weft Out products releasing soon.  

We are actively working with a few new brands, as well as those we have been working with since the inaugural run, and look forward to seeing some new products hitting the market soon.  Keep your eyes peeled for another cut being released by Tellason, an update to the Brander Jacket by Runabout Goods, and new colorways from Opie Way.  

Additionally, we are actively begining to work to put on a few events within the next year, with items of interest consisting of:  4th of July Picnic, Concert in The Grove with Food Trucks, and hosting Denim 101 and 101 Workshops at White Oak in 2023.  

Our website gets updated pretty frequently, so be sure to check it for the latest.

Sincerely,
Proximity Manufacturing Company




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whiskered
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anonymous

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote shredwin_206 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 May 2022 at 9:22am
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gcdrygoodsco View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote gcdrygoodsco Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jun 2022 at 2:37pm
Howdy folks, time for a quick update:

Thanks for all of your support and for following along our rekindling of a storied trade in our city.  If you aren't already following us on social media, check us out here:

@proximitymfg

This coming week, Opie Way will release two new colorways of their WEFT OUT sneakers, a classic high top sneaker made from our denim, but with the weft yarn as the face of the panels on the shoes.  This will mark the fourth iteration of the WEFT OUT series, including the two colors, purple and gold, which have been available for a few months.  The two new colors are orange and turquoise.  Follow their social media or check out their website for the release sometime next week, perhaps the first day of Summer (for those wanting to know exactly when).  

We are excited to announce that we have begun working with HARDENCO, who have been friends of ours for nearly 8 years now, to develop some basic 5-pocket jean offerings in a few styles.  We aim to launch these in Fall '22, and our initial release will include a Right Hand Twill pair, a Left Hand Twill pair, and a Mixed Twill pair.  

The idea is based on their 003 fit, which was a product made back in 2014/2015 for a Japanese store by Marshall and Luke of HARDENCO, using an unsanforized Japanese denim, so they elongated the front and back rise and added some room to the leg pipe in the thigh, knee, and opening.  

Our cloth is, as mentioned before, unsanforized, untentered, and unsinged, so patterns do require grading out to compensate for the 8-9% volume loss.  

We hope to offer these three styles of jeans through my store, Hudson's Hill, beginning in the Fall and with the hope this will be a continuous product we will carry.  With the final closure of White Oak in 2018, US-made selvage inventory has dwindled, causing many brands that we have sold through our store to switch and begin using foreign made cloth, so this will be a timely addition for our intention to sell products made with US-made materials.  

Additionally, we will be sourcing a few other warp shades, and have some new constructions in about a month to one month and a half.  More to report on this at a later date.  

We also have plans to run a full production of double indigo, using a near-match shade of filling to our warp.  We tested a sample package, and have several cases on order.  It is a nice looking cloth, resembling early indigo drill cloth, which, for those who care is a twill that is then vat dyed in synthetic indigo.  

We also are nearly sold out for the next Denim 101 program in October, but if you're interested in booking one of the last spots for this program, we recommend checking out our website:


Lastly, we have been actively engaged with numerous suppliers and specialty processors across the Southeastern US to be a first-mover in us-grown hemp blending into yarns, and will have several proprietary yarn fiber contents, blended into ringspun yarns to begin using as filling options later this year, with the potential of running this yarn as warp sometime in 2023.  

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,
Proximity Manufacturing Company

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gcdrygoodsco View Drop Down
whiskered
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Joined: 21 Mar 2017
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gcdrygoodsco Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jul 2022 at 4:14am
Howdy Folks, here's the latest updates from Proximity Mfg. in Greensboro, NC:

-003 Hardenco Right Hand Twill, Left Hand Twill, Mixed Twill, and Broken Twill sample production is now complete.  Boil-shrink testing has begun for volume loss assessments to aid in sizing, and e-Commerce photography will begin shortly to get this prepared for a Fall '22 launch of the four (4) 5-pocket bottoms.  
-Tellason will soon be releasing another product made from our cloth, this time in one of their best-selling fits.
-Opie Way has now successfully launched all four (4) sneakers in the Weft Out series.  The colors available are turquoise, purple, yellow gold, and orange.  We will continue to produce more varietal offerings for this project in the future.  There are still a few new products that will release before year's end, and we encourage you to follow along for their release announcements on social media.
-Runabout Goods' Brander Jacket is still being made to order as they are selling, and Edwin has put some serious wear and tear on his, as has Austin, for those who follow them both on forums and social media.  
-We are working with several new customers, using new warp shades, yarn weights, and filling yarn options, with more information to come on these projects as we progress into late Summer/early Fall.
-We should be receiving our first shipment of US-grown, cleaned and degummed textile fiber hemp, for blending and spinning into packaged yarns in the next business week, and will begin test weaving with this yarn in the next 2-3 months.  There is a lot of interest in hemp fiber, and we are pursuing several projects as a first-mover to use the correctly sourced, correctly processed fibers in combination with others to build sturdy, performing yarns to use in the cloths we produce.  More to come on this!
-Currently, we are weaving broken twill and left hand twill, both filled with dark tan, to complete several ongoing projects.
-There are still two spots left for the October Denim 101 class, for those interested in attending.

Thank you for reading, and for your support.

Sincerely,
Proximity Manufacturing Company

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gcdrygoodsco View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gcdrygoodsco Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Nov 2022 at 5:14pm
Here are just a few more updates, as it's been since late July since my last post here.  Yes, we're still running our operation, and have produced over two dozen different constructions of denim since our launch in March 2021.  Here's what's new:

-HARDENCO 003 production is underway, their fabric arrived this week via freight.  These should be available for purchase through HARDENCO website and Hudson's Hill website sometime in early December.  Three fabric options:  Right Hand Twill Grey Filled, Left Hand Twill Double Indigo, Broken Twill Tan Jute Filled.  The 003 is a vintage fit with a higher rise than their 006, slightly relaxed to compensate for shrinkage of the unsanforized cloth.  More details to come.
-Production just completed for another USA-made brand in a broken twill with a Royal Blue package dyed filling.  They will be releasing a jacket sometime later this year or early next using this cloth.
-R&D projects have completed using some of the first correctly processed US-grown hemp, built into several proprietary yarns with custom TM and TPI, plying, staple length and denier all developed internally in tandem with a sample laboratory and two other companies.  We will begin working toward commercializing some of these yarns for full-scale production levels by 2023.  We are grateful for the opportunity to experiment with first-movers in the hemp industry, and look to apply this technology to a classic product, creating opportunity for anti-odor, anti-bacterial, and anti-microbial fabric properties in a way that doesn't detract from the aesthetic of denim.
-We recently finished an R&D project using the first bio-based indigo dye applied to yarn.  It produced a beautiiful cloth shade similar to Salty Dog, a product of Canton Mills in the middle of the 20th century.
-We will begin test weaving with pineapple husk fiber content yarn in the near future, and will report back.  This is an alternative fiber content yarn developed and produced in Spain.  This is our first non-domestic experiment.
-We look forward to expanding some of our production capabilities into plain weave, and anticipate producing some canvas options early next year.
-We recently conducted two more Denim 101 programs, with sold out attendance.  Last week we hosted in-industry students with attendees from Levi Strauss, Wrangler, Lee, and Interloop, and had speakers from Cotton, Inc., Cone Denim, Cotton of The Carolinas, Goodwill of The Triad, and Blue Jeans Go Green.  This week's program was sponsored by North Carolina Public Schools, and consisted of teachers from across the state that teach fashion and apparel studies at their respective schools.  Next year's courses are set for March and September, with the March class already sold out.  The September class dates are being finalized, but we expect it will book in full within a few days of opening up seats.

Thank you for reading and following our journey, as well as those of you supporting the small brands that give us business to keep us in operation.  

Sincerely,
Proximity Manufacturing Company
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gcdrygoodsco View Drop Down
whiskered
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Joined: 21 Mar 2017
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gcdrygoodsco Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Feb 2023 at 11:07am
A few more updates to share:

--Hardenco 003 jeans have launched in two of three fabric options to start:  
                                                -Right Hand Twill 3/1 (Dark Grey Ringspun Fill)
                                                -Left Hand Twill 3/1 (Indigo Fill)
--Stocktank Supply Co. will soon be releasing products in their proprietary broken twill, constructed with indigo warp and a package dyed royal blue fill.
--We have sewn garment samples of blended fiber r&d fabrics completing this week.  Based on weaving observations, we will re-trial fiber blend yarn development beginning end of this month, likely with the yarn development and spinning set to complete end of March/early April.  We will redo test weaving and observe the production quality.  Our aim is to develop several new technology yarns, using combinations of PET with Full Spectrum Hemp Extract (FSHE), US-grown degummed Hemp, and US-grown long staple cotton.  
     -On 10/20/22 and 10/24/22 we wove the first power loomed fabric  in North America using US-grown, degummed hemp.  
--We will be engaging in anaerobic dyestuff application projects, fiber dyeing, khadyonics, and fiber blending projects in 2023.  
--Our Denim 101 program for March 2023 is sold out, but there are places available for October 2023.  See www.wolfdenim.org/denim-101 to sign up or learn more.
--Our participation in a Discovery Channel show should having an airing date to announce in the near future.  
--We are currently weaving double indigo broken twill with a redline selvage, and a 3/1 right hand twill with redline selvage.  

Thank you for keeping up with our journey, and supporting the small brands that are buying our fabric and helping sustain our start-up enterprise.

Sincerely,
Proximity Manufacturing Company
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