From the workshop, Sunday afternoon #3

The origin, meaning and fortnightly Sunday cadence of these short letters have organically arisen out of circumstance and intensity - they are not strategic marketing emails, but rather a quiet moment to share the inner workings of a small, unusually complex and unexpectedly dynamic workshop, located near the bottom of the earth. 

March was one of our worst months ever, from a sales perspective. And then came April, which turned out to be one of, if not the busiest months ever. As a tiny workshop, Kohutt, like most any consumer or retail based business, feels the shock of the world in one way or another. Each month I can see a direct correlation with major events: An RBA rate rise, the threat of war, the increase in diesel costs. Even at our micro scale, macro events are felt at the foot of the sewing machine. Unlike larger businesses though, our ability to absorb these shocks are limited. We operate like a Land Rover running on bare springs; every bump hits… 

A note for those who ordered over Easter, some parcels are still on their way. Most are assembled and shipping today and tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.

I’ve previously spoken about our oilskin canvas supply, the core material at Kohutt. In New Zealand, oilskin was made an icon through the Japara drovers jacket; in Australia it was the Driza-Bone. Born at sea, this humble, oil drenched cotton became entrenched in the southern hemispheric psyche. Every couple of months, I look down at the dwindling supply under the cutting table. What happens when it’s gone? Time will tell. The original waxing machinery has since been sent offshore to continue operation by the founding owner of Australia’s last oilskin manufacturer. The story of why they closed at all is a disappointing failure of the Government. Foreseeing future global unrest, the Australian Defence Force requested the scaling up of textile production, leading to significant machinery capex investment, only to then back out and re-tender. This then led to the collapse of the manufacturer after 30+ years in operation.

Manufacturing in Australia, for the most part, makes virtually zero economic sense. Except when it does. It can be done cheaper and faster elsewhere. Sometimes even better. For whatever reason, manufacturing, particularly textile manufacturing, is seen as an expendable and undesirable trade. The pride, the quality, the feel, the joy of making something, for the sake of making it well, has become lost. It’s an incredibly difficult category to work within, not to mention scale. But I keep coming back to this: intuition is hard to quantify. Feeling is hard to justify. Yet these are not peripheral things - they are the reason any of this exists at all. Thank you for understanding that, and for choosing to engage with a small workshop that does.

Till another Sunday,

Nick.